pgn vs fide time increment

When adding the TimeControl-Tag in a chapter of a lichess study with the value "5400+30" for 90 min + 30 s increment per move, a small clock with 1:30:00 is shown on both sides of the board. According to the PGN-standard this is correct since

"The fifth TimeControl field kind is used for an "incremental" control period. It should only be used for the last descriptor in a TimeControl tag value and is usually the only descriptor in the value. The format consists of two positive integers separated by a plus sign ("+") character. The first integer gives the minimum number of seconds allocated for the period and the second integer gives the number of extra seconds added *after* each move is made." -- (http://www.saremba.de/chessgml/standards/pgn/pgn-complete.htm#c9.5.1)

However, citing from the FIDE Handbook (handbook.fide.com/chapter/E012023) increment is defined as

"An amount of time (from 2 to 60 seconds) added from the start *before* each move for the player. This can be in either delay or cumulative mode.".

Obviously, you can change the value of the tag to "5430+30" to avoid/fix that, yet that appears to be a dirty patch.

IMHO this is because the online games on lichess handle the first move in a different way than OTB games. In an OTB 90+30 game, you get 1:30:30 and the clock is started before your first move. In lichess online games, an independent 30s countdown runs for your first move (those 30s are independent of the increment, IIRC) and the standard clock is only started for your second move. When you import a PGN, lichess probably cannot recognize if it was an OTB game or lichess one. But if your PGN contains timestamps, timestamps after the moves should be already correct so the problem is probably just cosmetic. (And if there are no per move timestamps, it does not really matter much what is shown at the beginning.)

Really interesting topic. I never thought about how the clocks on lichess do not grant the first bonus. But then, I am always puzzled OTB why the clocks start at 1:30:30 or 0:03:02. :-)

And we usually say "you get x seconds after each move", which seems to be technically wrong. I am not sure if the early clocks handled things the same.

The TimeControl tag seems a bit of a hack anyway, with room to improve, which is unlikely to happen I guess. It seems to be largely unused, although it would be nice to have the TC recorded in game collections.

Personally, I think using 5400+30 conveys the meaning, and I strongly prefer that in what is some meta information anyway. And if some client shows the clock wrongly at the start, so be it. We can always adjust with additional %clk values afterwards (granted, only after the first move).

Note that the hack wouldn't end there if you have different increments for different segments. Let's say you would have 90 minutes + 30 secs increment for 40 moves, and then 15 minutes added and only 10 seconds increment for the remaining moves, that would be something like "39/5430+30:900+10".

And did anyone mention Bronstein delay (for our US friends) instead of Fischer bonus?

What a mess!