Todayon the USCF site, the player that I am most often mistaken for is asked about insufficient losing chances claims. http://main.uschess.org/content/view/8181/341/ This type of rules question is perhaps the most difficult situation to answer for a TD. I would equate it to making a charging vs. blocking call in basketball, as the decision must be made quickly, one side will be unhappy with the answer, and it is a difficult call.
It is interesting that the best comment on this question (10 comments at the time I write this) was made by a suspended TD. Let's look at how this happened and the claim that was made. First the player in time pressure makes an insufficient losing chances claim. Remember that this is the claim that must be made as a player cannot just ask for a time delay clock. I am assuming from what was posed in the question that Igor declined the draw offer (which this claim automatically is) and elected to play on.
As stated by others the TD can 1. Rule the game a draw (obviously incorrect in this case), 2. Defer the decision (which Joel claims would be correct), 3. Deny the claim, with or without a time penalty, or 4. elect to add a time delay clock to the game.
This is the type of decision that must be made quickly. Otherwise, if a TD tries to analyze the position for a few minutes to determine that there are no losing chances that time can be used by the player to work out his next several moves giving him free time to think. For even a fairly strong player who is directing (which I probably qualify as), it is rather difficult to make a decision on a position in 30 seconds in which the players have played perhaps for hours. Deferring the decision is a dangerous call because it assumes that the TD will not be called to rule on a different game, be distracted by other duties, or will be able to react before a flag fall occurs.
The safest call is to let the players decide the game by adding the clock. If the claimant has no losing chances, with the delay he should easily be able to prove it. If the other player thinks they are actually losing, he or she should accept the draw. The game gets decided over the board by the players rather than by a director, which is how it should be.
If you were the TD would you have ruled differently, and why?
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1 comment:
You are wise.
As far as I am concerned, "insufficient losing chances" is too difficult to tightly define.
If there were no delay or increment clocks, I can see why the notion of "insufficient losing chances" might add value. But if there is available a delay or increment clock, "insufficient losing chances" should not be used.
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