Is playing without a clock, with the arbiter adding the clock when the game goes too long, within FIDE rules?

Question

There was a time I joined a tournament where we didn't play with a clock initially. But, if the games went longer than 30 minutes, the arbiter added a 10-minutes clock to both sides.

Is this allowed by FIDE rules?

Answer 1

is this allowed by FIDE rules?

The FIDE Laws of Chess are divided into two sections:

BASIC RULES OF PLAY

which has 5 articles:

Article 1: The nature and objectives of the game of chess
Article 2: The initial position of the pieces on the chessboard
Article 3: The moves of the pieces
Article 4: The act of moving the pieces
Article 5: The completion of the game

No mention of chess clocks so you can play a perfectly legal (according to FIDE) game of chess without chess clocks.

The second section

COMPETITION RULES

covers the rules for competions and has 7 sections:

Article 6: The chessclock
Article 7: Irregularities
Article 8: The recording of the moves
Article 9: The drawn game
Article 10: Points
Article 11: The conduct of the players
Article 12: The role of the Arbiter (see Preface)

So, only if chess is played in a formal competition do chess clocks play a part and so far in the rules there is no mention of time controls. The first mention of time controls is in Appendix A and then Appendix B

Appendix A. Rapid chess

A.1 A ‘Rapid chess’ game is one where either all the moves must be completed in a fixed time of more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes for each player; or the time allotted plus 60 times any increment is of more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes for each player.

Appendix B. Blitz

B.1 A ‘blitz’ game is one where all the moves must be completed in a fixed time of 10 minutes or less for each player; or the allotted time plus 60 times any increment is 10 minutes or less.

What you have described conflicts with these appendices which means that this competition could not be FIDE rated for either rapid or blitz. Most federations have similar rules for nationally rated competitions so such a competition, in those circumstances, could not be nationally rated.

The FIDE Rating Regulations effective from 1 January 2022 cover the regulations for FIDE rating standard time control chess and say this:

1.   Rate of Play
   

1.1 For a game to be rated each player must at the start of the tournament have the following minimum periods in which to complete all the moves, assuming the game lasts 60 moves.

Where at least one of the players in the game has a rating of 2400 or higher, each player must have a minimum of 120 minutes.

Where at least one of the players in the game has a rating 1800 or higher, each player must have a minimum of 90 minutes.

Where both of the players in the game are rated below 1800, each player must have a minimum of 60 minutes.

1.2 Where a certain number of moves is specified in the first time control, it shall be at least 30 moves.

So, what you describe is allowed within FIDE rules for chess but the games may not be FIDE rated.