OTB time control rule?

Hi Everyone,

Quick Q. I am arranging a casual beginners blitz tournament in my office with a chess clock. So I had a quick q on the rules.

Obviously I know from playing on here that if your timer reaches zero, you lose, unless your opponent has insufficient material to win - in which case it is a draw.

Consider the following scenario:

King vs King + Pawn.

You are playing on the side with just a king against your opponent who has a king and one pawn. You are able to move your king into a forced draw position on the back rank, with your opponents pawn on the 7th rank and their king is on the 6th rank, not directly behind the pawn, but one file off to either side (so a stalemate has not yet occurred). I hope i've described that properly, but the position I am trying to describe is the typical pawn ending where the defending king has a draw line against K + pawn and the pawn will never be able to promote.

If you reach this position or you are 1 move away from this position (but the draw is still effectively guaranteed) and your timer hits zero before the opponent causes an outright stalemate, do you still lose the game or is this drawn because the position is drawn? Technically your opponent has sufficient material to win, but only if you decide to walk your king away to a random square, otherwise the draw is forced. So I suspect it's still a loss, but any clarity would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Under FIDE rules, if the side with time can win by any series of legal moves then they will win the game. So, in your scenerio it would be a win for the player with the pawn and time.

Yes it's a loss. There is a rule 10.2. where you can claim a draw, but I don't think it applies to blitz.

10.2 doesn't exist anymore because of increment

If it is a "casual beginner's ... tournament," then you can use whatever rule set you deem easiest to implement - including ruling that all instances of running out of time are a loss.  You can point out that formal rules would allow for a draw in some instances, but that you're not knowledgeable enough and/or skilled enough to be able to correctly make those rulings - there are some tricky situations that give different results with different official rules, so a simpler rule would be much easier on you and cause less stress with the players.  As long as everyone knows the rules you're using before starting, it should be fine.

If you were doing a formally-rated tournament, then of course you should use the rules for the organization that is managing the ratings, but then you would also need a trained TD/arbiter to run it, and they would know the rules and how to make those rulings, anyway.

Thanks everyone!