Questions tagged [time-control]
For questions about various time controls. See also the tag time-management.
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How do I handle drawn positions in zero time increment games?
I recently found myself in a drawn position (king and rook for each side) in a zero increment online game. I had about 10 seconds on my clock, my opponent had about 20 seconds. He ignored draw offers, ...
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Why are such complicated time controls popular?
In professional chess, I often see oddly arcane time controls. For instance, in the 2021 WCC
each game was 120 minutes per side for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 ...
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Players who play fast in longer time control games
I see it all the time on the net. Some players play, for example, a 15-minute game with a 10-second increment, and they finish the game with more time than what they started with! I've heard players ...
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Should I calculate on my opponent's time or on my time?
I play regularly 45+45 games with a duration between 2-4h. During my opponent's time I normally try to guess their moves or try to understand the position better. Regularly I have the problem that I ...
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Are there statistics on the results of armageddon games at the GM level?
I've tried finding statistics on the results of competitive armageddon games played at a high level (say, GM level), but to no avail. Evidently, these statistics must exist, as for example FIDE ...
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How much time did Capablanca have / use on the clock to refute Frank Marshall's Marshall Attack over the board?
Capablanca's over the board refutation of Frank Marshall's deep home preparation, in what was later called the Marshall Attack, is widely regarded as one of the great defensive masterpieces of all ...
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Why is flagging considered a win?
Let's say I totally dominate my opponent, but simply run out of time, then I lose the game right?
But doesn't it make more sense to be given 51% of the rating adjustment (not 50/50 as for a draw).
The ...
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How is time measured when a player is late?
When watching The Queen's Gambit I noticed that some players were late to their game. How is time measured in this case?
It is simple when the player playing black is late, because the one playing ...
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Time control notation explained?
Can someone explain this time control notation to me?
6SS, 40/120 sd30 d5
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Why is it allowed to request an increment in time trouble?
From the FIDE Handbook:
III.2.2 These Guidelines shall apply only to standard chess and rapid chess games without increment and not to blitz games.
III.4 If the player having the move has less than ...
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Why have more than one time control per game?
Why is it so common to have time controls like 2 hours for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, as opposed to something simpler like 2.5 hours for the game? Is this just to "force" ...
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What is the point of time increments?
I am having difficulty understanding the purpose of increments in time control. What is the point? If it just adds more time to the game, why not simply make the game that much longer? I am aware that ...
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Is there an engine evaluation technique that factors in 'time'?
An interesting game played out between Wesley So and Levon Aronion1:
[title "Wesley So vs Levon Aronian"]
[fen "rn4k1/p2bP1b1/2q5/1pp2p1Q/2p5/8/PP3PPP/3R1RK1 w - - 0 1"]
So was in ...
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Where do I play online games with a long time control?
I don't have a lot of opportunity to play serious OTB games, so I'd like to play chess online. On chess.com, though, the longest standard time control is 30 min per person, presumably there are not ...
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Play online live game against a friend with time odds
Is there an online chess site or app that would allow me and a friend to play live games against each other with time odds?
I am somewhere around a low class D player. My friend is somewhere around a ...
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What do these game durations mean?
There are different game duration on chess.com. What do options 1|1, 2|1 etc. mean?
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Is it poor form to win a drawn position on time?
I was playing a 3-minute game, my opponent had around 15 seconds to my ~50 seconds when he managed to cancel out the last pawns to make it so we each had a king and a rook. I let his time run out and ...
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What's the best time control to play online in order to improve?
I am an amateur, 33 years old, never took chess lessons, never played in a tournament. Last year I rediscovered chess and I am trying to improve as much as possible by reading books, watching videos ...
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Which side has the advantage in an Armageddon tiebreak game?
It is generally considered that white has better chances of winning in chess. This is due to white's initiative, since white gets to move first. The difference in chances seems to get more significant,...
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If you exploit Article 12.9 in FIDE's Laws of Chess, is it possible to benefit yourself by purposely receiving a penalty?
After I received this answer on my previous question, I found the list of penalties which a player can receive, according to FIDE guidelines.
As FIDE states in Article 12.9:
Options available to the ...
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What different time control rules are there in chess tournaments?
I am trying to find all possible time control rules that are used in various tournaments (not only regular chess, but also speed chess).
For example on one of the website I am using the following ...
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Do FIDE and USCF require Writing Notation in Tournaments with Short Time Controls? When Writing Notation is Optional?
Do FIDE and USCF require Writing Notation in Tournaments with Short Time Controls? When is Writing Notation Not Required?
We are planning to organize a monthly 30+30 tournament (30 minutes for the ...
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Historic time controls for World Championships
According to the answer to this question we know that currently it is 100 minutes for 40 moves followed by an additional 50 minutes for 20 moves then an extra 15 minutes to finish the game with a 30 ...
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Does an out of turn draw offer constitute an actionable distraction / time penalty?
I was playing in a sudden death time control last night with less than 5 seconds left and while thinking about my moves with literally 2 or 3 seconds remaining, my opponent blurted out a draw offer. ...
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Why is increment more popular than delay?
Increment is FIDE's default for their tournaments, although their rules permit delay as well. Most internet chess servers also use increment exclusively.
As I understand it, delay is used by the USCF ...
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Why no notation for "Resigns" or "Lost on time"?
Suppose a chess game was decisive but didn't go to checkmate. Why does its notation not say whether the loser resigned or lost on time?
There are plenty of NAG symbols; even some ($136-$139) relating ...
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Can Grandmasters beat computers when given time-odds?
For eg., if a grandmaster is given 10:1 time odds, will he be able to beat a computer? For eg, if the GM is given 120 minutes for the entire game and the computer is given 12 minutes? If not 10:1 ...
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If a tournament advertises G/30, can either player demand G/25 d5?
A minor controversy regarding advertised and allowed time controls has broken out on a chess mailing list I subscribe to. A one-day tournament scheduled for tomorrow advertises specifically as five ...
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Which format should i choose to improve my chess skills (Blitz chess or Standard time control chess)?
I always play both blitz and standard time control chess games. But in blitz I make a lot of mistakes and I'm not able to find a lot of good and tactical moves whereas in standard time chess format I ...
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How to convert better positions and not to get swindled OTB?
For context I am new to OTB chess with 30 games under my belt and a rating of around 1930 fide. I have a very definite problem. Last tournament I dropped 3 pieces in 3 consecutive games in either ...
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what is the shortest allowable time control for a FIDE rated standard tournament game?
My chess club wants to host a FIDE tournament in a couple of months with 3 FIDE rated games in one day.
What is the shortest allowed time control for FIDE rated standard tournament games so we can ...
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Bronstein timing in DGT clocks and the related PGN
I have noticed a gap in the PGN spec and the Laws of Chess in section 6.2.2
The time saved by a player during one period is added to his time available for the next period, except in the ‘time delay’ ...
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Why does this game not end as a draw by insufficient material?
I played an online game at chess.com and here is the endgame:
[fen "8/8/1p2p2k/pP2P1p1/P1K3P1/8/8/8 b - - 0 1"]
After white's last move a4, I thought the game ends immediately as a draw by ...
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Is 10 minute time control too fast for me as a beginner?
Every day I usually play one or two 10+5 games for fun and to try to train my decision making. 10 minutes seems to be the recommended time control for a beginner. However, for a long time I've felt ...
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FIDE Online Arena: what specifically determines bullet, blitz, rapid, and unmonitored time controls?
I've been trying out the FIDE Online Arena; while I've found a lot of marketing, I find very little useful documentation (possibly because the software is new).
FIDE Online Arena has four different ...
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Hourglass chess timer
Consider the following time control idea (which obviously would
not be implemented with a sand clock, but a modern
electronic clock): The hourglass starts in neutral, each
move reverses it. Thus any ...
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Is there a site where I can play 30 seconds games?
I only know, from the fastest time controls, which chess sites to play 1+0 and 0+1 on. But is there a possibility to play 30 second games?
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Are there any websites that allow standard correspondence chess time controls?
I noticed that most websites that allow correspondence chess have time controls that are per move. I believe that historically correspondence chess was played with x days per y moves, which allows one ...
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What would happen if a game lasted for more than 24 hours?
Technically it is possible for a game to last more than 24 hours, since after 40 or 60 moves each player generally gets a 30-second increment.
In an endgame, the player with the advantage will just ...
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Automatically claiming draw when low on time
Suppose X and Y are in an endgame:
X has a rook and 400 seconds.
Y has a rook and 40 seconds.
Y obviously cannot claim draw because X can theoretically win, even
though a minimally careful play ...
user24703
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how much time is a pawn worth
In bullet, blitz, and rapid chess having more time than your opponent is an advantage. I'm wondering if there have been any efforts to determine how much of a time advantage a pawn is worth. Or say a ...
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What is the TimeControl format for FIDE tournament?
The TimeControl formats I've found on the web split the TimeControl in time periods separated by a special character, for instance:
G/90 (one period with 90min to end the game)
G/90+30 (one period ...
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If classical is 120 minutes+ and rapid is 10-59 minutes, then what's 60-119 minutes? 'Slow rapid'?
Wikipedia says that FIDE says for tournaments with 2200+ rated players,
Classical is 120 minutes+
Rapid is 10-59 minutes
So what's 60-119 minutes for tournaments with 2200+ rated players? 'Slow ...
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Do longer games better your chances of honing chess skills?
What do you say about it?
I find that if you're in a sequence that you're realizing is a trap, and the pressure on you is building. Or you've blundered, or worse, you deservedly are about to get ...
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Can a tournament be FIDE rated if it has multiple time controls based on player ratings
If we ran a weekly club tournament that has different time controls for different games based on both players' ratings as set forth in the FIDE regulations, would the tournament qualify as a Standard ...
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Would move sealing make sense in chessboxing? Or do the chessboxing people explain why they don't have?
In chessboxing, I think that every switch from a chess round to a boxing round is kind of an adjournment. Yet, I notice chessboxing doesn't have move sealing. Some ways a switch is not quite an ...
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Running out of time mid promotion to checkmate. Who wins?
In a casual blitz game I had with my friend, my last move was to promote a pawn, to ladder mate my opponent (there was already a rook on the 7th). I moved the pawn, but while I was reaching for the ...
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Multi-Period Time Controls Online [closed]
All online services for playing chess that I am aware of allow the user to specify a time control with a single base time and an increment. I would like to find one that supports a multi-period ...
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Strategies for focusing on longer time controls
What are some ways of improving focus during longer timer controls? I mostly play blitz (3+0) and I have been moving towards rapid. I find that I see tactics more easily in my blitz games than in my ...
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What is the time control for FIDE chess tournaments?
According to the FIDE Handbook (Time Control), the time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move.
I heard ...
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