time management issue?

[Folkert van Heusden]

Hi,

While debugging a timing issue (my engine connected to ics loses because of time, this is with timeseal) I noticed that xboard (4.6.2-1) let the opponent go negative for its time.
Is this an issue with ics or with xboard?

regards

[H.G.Muller]

This is not an issue, but by design. XBoard in local mode will not forfeit you when time goes negative, unless the option autoFlag is on. And an ICS will not forfeit you unless your opponent 'flags' you by entering a flag command. With autoFlag on, XBoard will issue that flag command automatically when its clock hits 0, but when it is off it only sends it when you click the clock. You should further realize that in ICS play the XBoard clocks are not really authorative; The ICS decides about timing issues, and its idea of your opponent's clock might be quite different from what XBoard says (as it measures that time at the ICS or on the opponent's computer through timeseal, so network delays add to it).