The playing arbiter

I do my best to avoid playing and arbiting the same tournament. The main reason is that being an arbiter distracts me from being a player, and my chess results suffer. The other problem is that if you have an issue on your own game, making a ruling can be difficult.
Such was the case in a game I played yesterday. I am running events at the Canberra Chess Club while their usual arbiter is taking a holiday. As there was an odd number of players I stepped in as the 'house player' After sorting everyone else out I sat down to my game. My opponent asked me to check the clock as he wasn't sure it had been set correctly, but it *looked* fine to me (The clocks at the club are usually left with the setting from the previous round). The game proceeded normally until we reached move 31. At this point I noticed my opponent had forgotten to press his clock and with 5 seconds left, I did not wish to win this way. So I pointed this out, and when he did not react, I pressed his side and played my final move. I then realised he had not received his extra 30s and deduced that this clock had been set incorrectly (ie 90m but no increment). So I stopped the clock, and explained to him what had happened. As it was my responsibility (as arbiter) to ensure the clock had the correct setting, I felt that one option was to offer him a draw. As the other choices included adding on the missing time, but leaving him in a lost position, he chose to take the half point.


Press,Shaun - Jones,Mitchell [B22]
Memorial Cup, 21.08.2019

1. e4 c5 2. c3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. cxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Bd3 Bxc3+ 7. bxc3 d6 8. Nf3 Nc6 9. O-O h6 10. Qe2 e5 11. Bb5 Bd7 12. Ba3 a6 13. Bxc6 Bxc6 14. dxe5 dxe5 15. Nxe5 Qc7 16. Nc4 Bb5 17. Nd6+ Qxd6 18. Qxb5+ axb5 19. Bxd6 Ra6 20. e5 Ne4 21. Bb4 h5 22. Rfe1 Ng5 23. f4 Ne6 24. f5 Nf4 25. Red1 h4 26. Rd2 Rhh6 27. Rad1 Ra8 28. Rd7 h3 29. g3 Ne2+ 30. Kf2 Nxc3 31. Bxc3 Rxa2+ 32. R7d2 1/2-1/2