alanback: The Fischer clock works quite well at eliminating the use of the clock to a player's advantage. The time parameters chosen make a difference. You can start with some amount of time which doesn't matter too much. The bonus time selected will in a many move game be near the average time per move. The maximum when reached will be the most time one player can take between moves during a game. If you don't move for awhile your time will drop as it does with the other timing methods. To get more time for your clock you have to move. That's what the bonus does. None of this wait until the last minute and then get 7 days to move again. You'll only get the bonus time if you try that. Of course if the bonus is set high at 7 days that's what it'll be. You have to experiment and find the times you like for your favorite pace.

If you see 5/1.6/15 it means a starting time of 5 days, a bonus time of 1 day 6 hours, and a maximum time on your clock of 15 days. I use these parameters or similar ones a lot. It comes out to about 8 moves per 10 days not counting your initial 5 day start. The maximum 15 days can be reached with 8 or 9 moves in two days from the start. This gives either player the abilty to leave for two weeks without timing out if he can just make a few moves in his game. Obviously both players could be online and finish a game in less than an hour. If one person plays slower than 1 move every 30 hours, he'll lose time and then have to start moving faster for fear of timing out. There's plenty of other time parameters you can use too. Depends on how you like the game to progress. I would certainly recommend using a Fischer clock for any tournament as it keeps the slow and fast players more or less together, especially when compared to the use of the standard vacation timing method. For playing one on one, it's up to how you and your opponent get along or want the game to go. Fof friends or people you've played many games with, you'll know what you like. Newer opponents will depend on yourself and what time limits you like until you've played a few times.

I didn't see playBunny say he wouldn't play him, just that he was complaining about how this person happened to acheive some of his victories from how it appears. The player did defend himself here, so maybe there's more to it. You know the trouble caused by making assumptions based on incomplete data. None of the others listed have spoken up, so perhaps there's a good reason for Fencer's actions concerning them. Fencer can see every game and draw his own conclusions about the appropriateness of how someone is conducting their games.

As I've said in the past, I will not play games where a major part of the startegy is the use of the clock to win. You said so for yourself, but there are plenty of people that like having the clock as part of the game. It is certainly within the rules to use the clock in this manner, even if I disapprove of it.