Neither UCI nor xboard really handles this too well. With UCI, conceivably an agreed-upon GUI/engine parameter like "Multiple Time Controls" with a string argument describing them could work.An engine only gets information about the current TC, and has no idea whatsoever about what is coming next. Every change of pace is completely unexpected.
I don't think it is quite this bad (my guess is that most engines will have the preferred time-to-move at the start of 20m+10s be ~45-60s), but I agree that it is a rather abrupt drop. The suggested alternative of 60m+20s at move 40 would reduce from 3.5 min/move to around 2.5 min/move, with a gradual speeding-up to ~30s/move by move 100.From the engine's point of view, the abrupt change of pace from 2 min/move to 20 sec/move at move 61 is completely unexpected.
Here is a silly table that shows how much "banked" time an engine would have under the proposal, and the expected time for a move, given that it uses a formula like "time/25 + increment" to decide how much time to use. It lists the move number, the "banked" time in minutes, and the expected time in seconds.
Code: Select all
# BANK TIME
41 60:00 164.0s
42 57:36 158.2s
43 55:18 152.7s
44 53:05 147.4s
45 50:58 142.3s
46 48:55 137.4s
47 46:58 132.7s
48 45:05 128.2s
49 43:17 123.9s
50 41:33 119.7s
51 39:53 115.7s
52 38:18 111.9s
53 36:46 108.2s
54 35:18 104.7s
55 33:53 101.3s
56 32:32 98.1s
57 31:13 94.9s
58 29:59 91.9s
59 28:47 89.1s
60 27:38 86.3s
61 26:31 83.6s
62 25:28 81.1s
63 24:26 78.7s
64 23:28 76.3s
65 22:31 74.1s
66 21:37 71.9s
67 20:46 69.8s
68 19:56 67.8s
69 19:08 65.9s
70 18:22 64.1s
71 17:38 62.3s
72 16:56 60.6s
73 16:15 59.0s
74 15:36 57.4s
75 14:59 55.9s
76 14:23 54.5s
77 13:48 53.1s
78 13:15 51.8s
79 12:43 50.5s
80 12:13 49.3s
81 11:43 48.1s
82 11:15 47.0s
83 10:48 45.9s
84 10:22 44.9s
85 9:57 43.9s
86 9:33 42.9s
87 9:11 42.0s
88 8:49 41.1s
89 8:27 40.3s
90 8:07 39.5s
91 7:48 38.7s
92 7:29 38.0s
93 7:11 37.2s
94 6:54 36.5s
95 6:37 35.9s
96 6:21 35.3s
97 6:06 34.6s
98 5:51 34.1s
99 5:37 33.5s
00 5:24 33.0s