From: DANERUD MARTIN TELIA COM> Date: 7 sep 2000 Subject: Increment time Dear Larry and other shogi friends, Maybe you are right that 15 min + 1 min increment is too slow. However, in your comparison between 30 min + 30 s increment and 60 min + 30 s byo-yomi you estimate the number of moves during the first hour to 60, but I do not think that many players succeed to play 60 moves in one hour in normal shogi games. Maybe 35 or 40 moves is more realistic for one hour. I think that the best way of getting facts about increment time for shogi is to play a tournament using increment time, and both trying to evaluate the typical total time per game as well as the maximum time per game, since the later is deciding for the round schedule of tournaments. The quality of the games also has to be evaluated, I think. My guess is that 30 min + 30 s increment is a little too fast, and that the quality of the games will not be improved very much compared to 60 min + 30 s byo-yomi. Anyway, this system of equations does not have an analytical solution (since different players in different positions use up different amounts of the byo-yomi time), so experiments will be needed. Next year, we will play a test tournament using increment time in Sweden, and our discussion will be a basis for our choice of time. Once more, however, I repeat my question to the FESA rating experts: May the games of such a tournament be rated, and then what would be the restrictions of time limits for rating games? Sincerely yours, Dr. Martin Danerud President of the Swedish Shogi Federation, Vice president of FESA