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Re: Conditionals

Hi Ken,

The congress did vote not to use conditionals. When they saw the damage that had done to the orderly play and completion of the games they tried to compensate by making the times for each move shorter. They switched from 10/60 to 10/50.

Now another problem which has been made worse by the horrible decision of the congress to abolish conditionals. The DMD. Yes, the full effect of what is called the DMD can be blamed on the ICCF delegates decision to ban conditionals.

In the past, in a forced won position a player could simply leave 4 or 5 conditionals and forget about the game while his opponent scratched whatever it is he scratches while he stalls a game. Now the players have to watch the game and they get upset while they wait for a move from the opponent. The opponent takes 35 days to make a move so why should you rush to send him a reply. If you have a lot days remaining make him wait a couple of weeks for your obvious reply. This further slows down the game and the event.

In email you put the conditionals and your opponent either accepts them when he moves or he has to make worse moves. Your can take your full time for each conditional move in email and you were also allowed to do that with the server so that argument fails as a justification for not allowing conditionals.

Conditionals were originally allowed to speed up a game. In the postal days it saved time and money for the stamps. I think if a player can't handle a conditional move which is the product of the analysis of his opponent and natural continuation of the game from the move he has played then there is a problem. A strong player should be able to predict the replies and conditional moves of his opponent and be prepared.

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