The Advantages of Digital Over Analogue Clocks Are

DIGITAL CLOCKS

The advantages of digital over analogue clocks are:

(a)Greater accuracy

(b)They permit the introduction of Fischer (incremental) time limits. These remove the dilemma for a player with a won game, but very short of time – play on and risk losing or bail out and take a draw. Now this player plays on, and provided they can play at 10 seconds (or whatever the increment is) per move he should win.The game is decided over the board, not the clock.

Digital clocks are Best Practice. They are used in the British Championships and 4NCL. MCCU added the following to the CountyChampionship rules last summer “If captains wish to agree different time controls, to include the use of digital clocks, with incremental time controls as an option, they may do so.” The League rules have long permitted the use of digital clocks, with the option for the away player to substitute an analogue clock being removed last year Four clubs are known to have complete match sets of digital clocks.

The various resolutions below could set the Association on the path to going digital. This is clearly not going to happen overnight, and depends on clubs as well as the Association, having a long-term policy to that end. Clocks are expensive, digital clocks more so, and clubs will naturally want to get full value from existing analogue clocks. Indeed it could take 20 years if league prizes were the only source of new clocks. It is tempting to draw a possible parallel with the replacement of Adjudication with Blitz finishes – there were several steps, each widely spaced, as opinion gradually shifted towards Blitz.

Proposal 1 – “NCA should in future purchase Digital Clocks for the CountySet”

This establishes the general principle. The current County set has about 22 fully functioning clocks, and in the normal course of events a further 5 would be purchased, to give enough for the CountyChampionship under most circumstances.

Proposal 2 – “NCA should purchase 16 Digital Clocks”

This goes beyond the normal replacement authorised by Proposal 1, and purchases a complete County Match Set. This obviously reduces the association reserves, and therefore the number of year(s) that it will be possible to give free entry to the CountyChampionship before the minimum level of reserves is reached

Proposal 3 – “Digital Clocks shall be awarded as prizes in the League, commencing the season just completed”

A possible amendment would be to give clubs the choice of Analogue or Digital clocks (with NCA meeting the extra cost of digital)

Addition to Rule B.9(a)

“Where a complete set of digital clocks is available Fischer (Incremental) Time Limitsof [either (a) or (b) below, as decided by the meeting] may be used in a match by the mutual agreement of the team captains.”

(a)65 minutes plus 10 seconds per move in the bottom division, or 80 minutes plus 10 seconds per move in all other divisions, for the entire game

(b)30 moves in 60 minutes and then 10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move in the bottom division, or 35 moves in 75 minutes, and then 10 minutes plus 10 seconds per move in all other divisions

The minimum number of moves played by the end of the current playing sessions - 3 hours in Divisions 1-4, and 2 ½ hours in Division 5 - are as follows:

Amendment to Rule B9(b)

Replace “Electronic” with “Digital” so that the revised rule is “Where digitalclocks are used, the required time periods must be set at the beginning of the match, so that no further adjustment of the clocks is necessary”

Rule tidy, so that the terminology is consistent with B9(a), if the proposed changes are approved.

Robert Richmond