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I was present (as a spectator) for part of the first round. 149 players, with the round starting less than ten minutes late. The room was well air-conditioned - it was cooler than the 18 or 19 degrees outside. Not very spectator-friendly - unless you want to be on your feet all the time - but lots of space between the rows of tables (although the top boards were placed rather close together). Very few extra chairs for spectators and parents. The site - being adjacent to a fire station - had the occasional disturbance of sirens, but not loud or long enough to bother anyone.
I was anxious to see how the "delay" feature was working, and the players' reactions to it. A few minutes after the start, I noticed at least two games being played with clocks using increments (the times showed 1:31 on at least one side, so it was clear that time being added - I alerted the TD and he took some action). Other players I spoke with didn't like the fact that the 30-second countdown doesn't show on the clocks (for the US 5-second or even 10-second delay - the countdown display isn't really a factor - it's relatively quick). I'm afraid that later on when one (or both) players had minimal time left - they would have to concentrate on both the board as well as making sure they didn't use more than the 30 seconds delay time (without being alerted as to how much was left). This is the big defect in using delay with a "long" length such as 30 seconds - not knowing how much delay remains. One player who always gets into time trouble (who lost - mostly due to the "no display of delay" factor) told me later that he would never play with such a time control again
Congratulations to Lizandro Lopez Linares who beat GM Bator Sambuev on board 1. I (or someone) hope to get some games posted sometime today.
Ongoing results at http://chess-results.com/tnr363649.a...et=YES&flag=30
I was anxious to see how the "delay" feature was working, and the players' reactions to it. A few minutes after the start, I noticed at least two games being played with clocks using increments (the times showed 1:31 on at least one side, so it was clear that time being added - I alerted the TD and he took some action). Other players I spoke with didn't like the fact that the 30-second countdown doesn't show on the clocks (for the US 5-second or even 10-second delay - the countdown display isn't really a factor - it's relatively quick). I'm afraid that later on when one (or both) players had minimal time left - they would have to concentrate on both the board as well as making sure they didn't use more than the 30 seconds delay time (without being alerted as to how much was left). This is the big defect in using delay with a "long" length such as 30 seconds - not knowing how much delay remains. One player who always gets into time trouble (who lost - mostly due to the "no display of delay" factor) told me later that he would never play with such a time control again
Congratulations to Lizandro Lopez Linares who beat GM Bator Sambuev on board 1. I (or someone) hope to get some games posted sometime today.
Ongoing results at http://chess-results.com/tnr363649.a...et=YES&flag=30
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