Strange Fide rule. Did you know??

@LM OhNoMyPants #10

fully agree, an inc of 5 seconds could be default in OTB chess.

OTB Premoves? wtf.

I agree to all of you, but still there are so many classical tournaments without increment, at least in my country.
I would like to compare this older G5 rule (you claim a draw) to this new G4 (request for increment). I think you can succesfully claim a draw only in a "dead" position, while this increment rule allows a much larger range of positions, all sorts of very drawish positions. At least this is my understanding. What do you think?

Let's have a small example. White pawns f2,g3,h2, King g2, black position symetrical, both sides 1 rook somewhere. We would call this a draw under normal circumstances, but what if one player has only 5 sec. for the rest of the game? I don't think you can claim a draw here, the position is far from dead. But I do think this might be a good position for the request of increment.

Does this apply to USCF or just FIDE tournaments?

FIDE is trying to make all games with increment. But some tournament originators still want the standard 2 hours or 90 min time control with no increment. But it will be slowly forced in all FIDE rated tournaments.

By the way, the old rule was not in dead drawn positions. The new rule claims are for the exactly same reasons, just now you get increment instead of just claiming a draw. Imagine your in a position when you are planing for a win, than your opponent waits till his time is under 2 minutes and claims a draw. The draw is granted and you go home and see the win you were calculating is a win and by the way this happened to me in a tournament. Even if you dispute this, you cannot go play the game again. It is to hard to judge to give this claim or not. That is why the increment rule was introduced.

I am not sure if USCF is still going with the old rule or if it was updated. September last year you could still claim the draw in under 2 min time control in USCF tournaments, but it's been a year.

@LCPChess
You think both rules are for the same positions. Maybe that's right, I'm just not so sure. I understand it differently. In G5 they mention some conditions, for example "He may claim on the basis that his opponent cannot win by normal means". That sounds like a dead draw and I know that many arbiters handle it like this. But in G4 there are absolutely no such conditions!

Serious OTB chess should give the players always some small increment per move. I like this FIDE agenda, it is good for the image of FIDE chess:

Consider two Players randomly moving pieces as fast as possible and hitting the clock like a berserk (that can be the case when there is no increment). It makes players look like idiots. Also it is more difficult for observers to grasp what is going on if moves are made that fast. And it may result in moves relayed wrong and other technical problems. Also players may lose their contenance and that is not desirable. For example it scares away sponsors. All in all time trouble can introduce an undesirable form of random agression into the game.

Now consider two players who move fast but concentrated and relatively calm (that is the case with a small inc). This is an image of an exciting sport. There is still action going on if a player has to move withing five seconds but some amount of quality is kept. And this may give a deep impression to observers ("wow, this Player calculated THIS within five seconds").

Online chess is another thing, it is more about having fun and if people want to play 0.5 min chess in order to experience some adrenaline, let them do.

@SelfmateMan
I fully agree, even in online chess I play always with increment. But unfortunately there still are so many tournaments without increment, for example almost all opens in my country, not to mention the 15 min. rapid tournaments. So it could well pay off to know the rules.