The two Minute Rule

[donaldheron]

Re: Patrick (again) I did not mean to criticise the arbiter when I said he knows nothing. I just meant that he could not possibly have known what my plan was - especially if I start moving my pieces back to the 8th rank. I also think that it shows the rule is wrong if an arbiter has to know what a player's plans are. How can an arbiter ever know if a player is trying to win or not? Thinking, and recollecting more, I am sure that I was in a state of shock that you had so little time and that is why I said you were moving slowly. If you try and recall, I think you will remember that I had just come back to the board to find you and the arbiter together with the clock stopped and myself wondering what on earth was going on - try to remember - try to visualise it. I do not recall at any time that you stopped recording your moves (you are entitled to do this in the last 5 minutes and it makes a big difference to how fast a person can play). As far as I remember you even recorded his moves after the draw claim when the arbiter was watching. This added to the impression of playing slowly. I do not see why you were not informed that you did not need to keep score since I was keeping score and an arbiter was present. In other words from the draw claim onwards I was left with the impression that if I played normally I could not possibly demonstrate forward progress in the time: therefore I had to play superficial, bad moves which at least looked active. I now know, from Alex, that this was wrong: I should have continued normally. Please note that I am not saying that you deliberately played slowly: I just had the impression of unusual slow play which could be a wrong impression.