Instruction / Clock Use INTRODUCTION


Several youth approached me across the board after church services years ago. “How did you get to be so good?”


“At chess? Thousands of players are better,” I replied, flanked by two well-earned trophies and a Chess Life.


“You beat all of us! You beat our deacon, how many times in one afternoon?” they inquired.


“80, without loss or tie,” as I reset the clock, ready for the next comer.


“What's your secret?” they persisted. “Isaiah 28:10,” I said.


They looked at me blankly, betraying their forgetfulness.


“‘For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,’ ” I quoted.


“What do you mean?” they wondered.


“When you first met me, did you think I became a tournament player overnight? Many years of study and practice preceded what you saw.” Pointing to the clock, I noted, “Excellence, which is incremental, always begins by asking, ‘How much time remains?’ ”


Then they wanted to know how I became a tournament player. I learned the game as a grade schooler in mostly gray-building- syndromed, pre-Watergate America. The British Invasion was peaking on scratchy analog top-forty AM radio, color was new on vacuum-tubed and transistor televisions, and linotype governed print. The media blared Vietnam War news and bewailed public violence. And rated chess tournaments, largely unknown to the masses and almost invariably played in large smoke-filled rooms,


featured weekending directors barking each and every pairing before starting the next round and long strings of intimidating big-board scoresheets pro gres sively displaying handwritten results in black magic marker, culminating in post-last-round tie-breaking dickering eventually crystallizing into finalized prize announcements.


Long-term planning for book reports and science projects had introduced me to some time management. Later I titled my first term paper “Time.” I had already won the first of several unrated summer grade school city championships and twelve YMCA winter championships. I played at the university chess club. But my first rated tournament showed me very clearly how woefully unprepared I was for greatly accelerated versions of time management. The ticking clock (believe it or not, clocks didn’t beep) detached me from my sur roundings. I lost every game, even two I was winning, although time control was generously 21


⁄2 hours


for 40 moves. At first I pled that performance on not even being teenaged. Nearly everyone in pre-Fischer boom era tournaments was years older. That excuse wore thin.


To conquer this previously undiscovered shortcoming, I played more speed chess. Seasoned players warned me the danger ous siren sound of such fun ruins serious play. But the gamble paid off. Soon I embraced the chess clock as friend, not foe. My performance improved. I never ex pe rienced time problems. Eventually I scored one first, two seconds, three thirds, first state junior champion, third state junior champion, and several class prize earnings, one at a U.S. Open.


Retired from tournaments long ago, and from solving more recently, occasionally I replay certain games and show youth how much fun tournaments, variants, and prob lems are.


TOWARD TOURNAMENT TIME MANAGEMENT


(1) Brief History of Early Chess Clocks From The Oxford Companion to Chess, the Kolisch-Anderssen match of August 1861 had two hours for 24 moves, meas ured by sandglasses. But www.oocities.org/siliconvalley/Lab/ 7378/steinitz.htm claims William Steinitz’ 18 July through 10 August 1866 defeat of Adolf Anderssen in London 8-6 was the first match using mechanical clocks (sand glasses), with 2 hours for 20 moves.


The first international tournament using chess clocks, with one hour for 20 moves, was in Baden-Baden, Germany, 16 (or 18) July to 4 August 1870, but the players could use hourglasses instead. [www.chess.com/chessopedia/view/baden-baden- 1870] [www.chess-poster.com/english/chesmayne/brief_notes_ on_the_history_of_chess_1800_2.htm] Steinitz took second, behind Johannes Zukertort, with 19 wins, seven losses, in London 1883, the first tournament using double chess clocks. [www.oocities. org/siliconvalley/Lab/7378/steinitz.htm]


Thereafter chess clocks became stand ard tournament appurte- nances.


(2) Management as a Continual Process Whereas distance is the interval between two points, time is the interval between two events. Distance is fairly concrete, but time is more abstract.


The secret to strategic clock use is to improve your own sense of time. Practice doesn't make perfect, but perfect practice does.


For the following sample exercises, each in an environment free from external distractions, compare each estimate against the


actual time, recording the difference. For example, ten seconds too soon becomes -0:10. The lower the abso lute value of the mean and the lower the standard deviation, the better.


(a) Cover a chess clock’s faces. Start one side, stopping it after an estimated one minute.


(b) Repeat (a), but stop the clock after an arbitrarily long time period. Estimate time elapsed.


(c) From listening to a radio broadcast, without time announcements, periodically estimate the time.


(d) While conversing with friends, state your desire to improve your sense of time, then estimate the time.


(3) Management Outside of the Tournament Room Resolve other demands first. Don’t pro crastinate. If a student, do your homework and chores first. If you work, set affairs in order beforehand if the site is remote or reschedule activities if local.


Follow your doctor’s advice. Exercise regularly, eat well-balanced meals, avoid stimulants and depressants, etc.


Scour maps of both the site and the surrounding area beforehand. On early arrival, locate necessary services. Reduce tension by standing, stretching, and walk ing periodically. Avoid distractions. An a lyze games right afterward, if you must, quickly, but reflect more deeply on them after the tournament, for greater objectivity.


(4) Managing While Your Opponent’s Clock Runs ... After delivering thought-provoking remarks, seasoned speakers may prepare follow-up remarks while the audience reacts.


www.uschess.org 41


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