From: David J Bush <twixt <at> CSTONE <dot> NET>
Date: 13 nov 2002
Subject: byoyomi,  Bronstein, "Fischer"

|      The "solution" in my opinion is quite simple; replace byoyomi with
| "time delay" (a.k.a. "Bronstein mode") which is available on most digital
| chess clocks.  This is actually much closer to what is used in professional
| shogi.  They don't do byoyomi as such; they simply don't count the first 59"
| (or any other fractional minutes) of each move.

I must plead ignorance here. Please, what is the difference between shogi
byoyomi and not counting the fractional part of each minute? My only
reference on this subject is the instruction manual to my Chronos clock,
which describes shogi byoyomi (as opposed to byoyomi for go) as just that,
rounding time up to the nearest minute (or whatever the byoyomi period is)
after each move, throughout the game.

But for rated amateur shogi games, the time control typically does not round
up your time until you reach the final byoyomi period, correct? So the
Chronos "shogi" time controls would probably not be used, right? Chronos
offers quite a few byoyomi related time controls other than "shogi."

I also have a question about Bronstein timing. Suppose you have used up
all but ten seconds of your main time. With an initial delay of 1 minute,
when your turn comes the clock will show one minute counting down,
correct? Then if you run the clock down to zero, the time will shift
back to your final ten seconds? I think my Chronos has a mode that can
do that, but it seems potentially confusing from a user's point of view.

An increment time control, on the other hand, will show all the time
you have remaining under all circumstances, which seems much simpler
to deal with.

| ... But playing pure increment shogi does not work well in
| tournaments due to the unpredictable length of the game.  With delay
| the initial time becomes important, and this method is probably more
| suitable for actual tournaments as the game length is more predictable.

With pure increment, the amount of time allotted would depend on
the number of moves in the game, right? Perhaps a tournament director
could make a "reasonable estimate" on the maximum number of moves the
players are likely to make in each game, and schedule the rounds
accordingly? Has this been tried? With any of these modes, a game
could theoretically last an indefinite period, although I certainly
agree that a pure increment time would result in the greatest variation
on a practical level.

By the way, Larry, thanks for discovering incremental time control!

David