Round 4
The games are longer and closer now, and clocks are running low. Teach clock management, which is a real skill and nobody has taught it yet.
Round four is where the flag starts falling. Games are more evenly matched, players think longer, and someone will lose a completely winning position because their clock hit zero. Expect tears the first time it happens. The rule is absolute and you must hold it, but you can hold it kindly.
You have two things in a chess game: your pieces and your time. Most of you have been playing as if the time is free. It is not. If your flag falls, you lose, even if you were about to checkmate. That is not cruel, it is just the rule, and it is the same rule for your opponent. So let us talk about how to spend time.
- Do not think hard in the opening. You know the principles. Take the center, develop a piece, move quickly. Save your time.
- Think hard when the position changes. After a capture, after a check, when a piece is suddenly attacked. Those are the moments worth a minute.
- Glance at your clock every few moves. Not every move, which is its own distraction, but often enough that you are never surprised.
- When you are low on time, stop calculating and start checking. One question only: is anything of mine hanging? Then move.
When a flag falls, be immediate and matter-of-fact, then be warm. "Your flag fell, so that game goes to your opponent. That is hard, and it is the rule, and it happens to every tournament player eventually. Shake hands." Do not soften the ruling, and do not lecture. Then find that student five minutes later and talk about something else entirely.
Play round four. Watch clocks as much as boards.
- If a player is under two minutes with a lot of board left, do not warn them. Watching the clock is their job. Warning them is interference.
- Do make sure both players know how to see the time. A student who cannot read the clock is not being tested on chess.
- If a flag falls and neither player notices, the game continues. A flag only counts when a player claims it. Teach that once, today, before it comes up.
Talk about time as a skill, not a punishment: "Nobody is born knowing how to spend a clock. You are learning something today that most adults who play chess have never learned."