Quote Originally Posted by Pierre Dénommée View Post
I agree. The fee is mainly there to discourage frivolous appeal. The last time that I have been on a local Appeal Committee, we did hear an Appeal from a player who claimed that he has made 40 moves in 2 hours but that he just didn't have time to press his clock, so he cannot loose on time because he has made 40 moves in 2 hours as required by the rules of the event. Off course, the rules of the event clearly stated that the player must complete 40 moves in 2 hours, not make 40 moves in 2 hours. The Frivolous Appeal was quickly dismissed. This is the kind of case that we do not want to go to the NAC.
Excellent example. I have dealt with unhappy players making claims equally inane. (Most of these claims are withdrawn after the player realizes what he said and often laughs at himself for having said it) I even had one involving a player claiming he needed extra clock time because he was about to promote an extra queen even though I (as TD) had seen that promotion was potentially likely in the position and a couple of minutes earlier had placed a queen of each color close by the player's clock in plain view. As in within 6" of the clock.

Told him I thought he would have had a case had the queens not been immediately available but since the queens were in easy reach of the board.....

On another occasion I had a player whose flag fell when he punched the clock on move 40 and on inspection the clock proved to be in perfect order. (This ruling was easy as I assume everyone knows an analog clock's flag must remain up to be considered to have made the time control) I also assume you all know that a mate or stalemate immediately ends the game irrespective of the clock.

I particularly agree with Pierre's last sentence as that's the sort of claim that would bring the rules into disrepute if accepted.