Tournament Director Shortened The Time On My Clock

I was playing a G45/D5 tournament. My game lasted over 1 hour and the next round would begin in 20 minutes. The TD came up to my board and put 5 minutes on both mine and my opponent's clocks. I had an advantage in that position, but I was pressured about time so I played quickly. I blundered and lost the game. I ended up getting 4/5 in that tournament. Was the TD allowed to shorten the time on our clocks, considering neither of us made illegal moves or violated a rule? I understand our game was going overtime, but I don't see a rule in the rulebook that allows this. USCF rules were followed in the tournament.

Rule 5Fa is an option that allows the TD to shorten the basic time control in minutes by the delay in seconds for games using a digital clock with delay. 

What is the exact rule on that? Thanks.

Also, the TD did not give us a delay at all. The time control reduced to was G5/D0.

Based on my understanding, the TD should not be able to just take away your time, even if another round is about to begin.

One time a game lasted for like 4 hours in a G90 +30 time control and the TD just declared it a draw even though both sides had a queen and like 5 pawns

Was this in the Elite Chess Open btw or no?

I see no reason for this. Did the round start on time. Why was your game lasting longer. Did you have you clocks set correctly. Only reason I can think of is the tournament director assumed you had set up the clocks wrong if the time left on your clocks was different than the time on other clocks.

no idea about this issue but unfortunate

Did you start your clocks exactly on time with the correct time set? Was your clock set appropriately to delay instead of increment? Were you supposed to take off some time to account for the delay and that wasn't done? Was there anything out of the ordinary that had made your clocks have too much time prior to when they were adjusted?

Without doing a specific rule check in the rulebook the first thing that comes to mind is this should only have the possibility of occurring if the TD was trying to correct a situation that had led to your clocks having too much time on them.

lol no way the TD can do that

you could claim in violation or something idk

Some tournament directors are absolute looney tunes. Sounds to me like the round times were too close together?! The key is there is no hindsight in chess. You must speak up for yourself then and there or your issue is toast. It's like complaining about someone taking the last three eggs after they've eaten them. You should have asked the tournament director to explain things to your satisfaction. If you did not get it explained to your satisfaction that is your fault! The only time they can come give both players the same remaining time is if there was no clock on the table and 1 has become available. Even then the td is not allowed to interfere in your game in any shape form or fashion without an explanation. I don't care how much of a delay, inconvenience, or whatever people want to characterize it as, if a tournament director interferes in your game, don't touch another piece until you understand why!!! You can not be penalized for that!!

A G45/d5 game is expected to take up to an hour and 40 minutes, even more if the game goes to 80 or 100 moves. If the round began late or the TD did not plan the round schedule appropriately, then that is not the fault of the players.

The only way the TD may adjust the clocks during a game in progress would be if there is proof that the clock was set incorrectly and neither player noticed it. Even in this extreme case, there should still be a 5 second delay.

Yes, 90+30 is a difficult time control to schedule rounds. It is not unusual for such a game to last 4 hours; any game that passes move 60 can! Even 5 hour games are possible in some endgames (Q+P vs Q). That is the nature of the 30 second increment.

No.

When the round started, there was absolutely no delay.

I did ask him after the game. He said the game took too long and the next round needed to start soon. The same TD did this to many other rounds in the tournament.

The clocks were set perfectly. The clock used was the DGT North American, ,so I doubt there was a clock malfunction.

I don't know if US Chess would accept an appeal on that.

If both players arrived for the round late, then it could happen.