Playing Chess with a Clock
An exploration of time controls
Flag! No, I’m not referring to a rectangular piece of cloth representing a group of people united for a cause or under a form of governmental rule. To flag your opponent in timed chess is to play your moves quickly in an attempt to cause your opponent to run out of time. This term seems odd in the face of digital clocks nowadays, however some of the first chess clocks had a flag introduced, usually red, which would fall down to alert players their time had run out. I’ve both flagged and have been flagged (see title photo above). It’s a particularly ugly way to lose, especially if you could have checkmated your opponent within a few moves. I think HipHopChess put it best in their article, “The Symbolism of the Chess Clock”:
“On the chessboard, eventually even if you have the best idea on the planet — once time is up it does not matter!!“
— Hip-Hop Chess Federation
I was inspired to write this article because I remember how overwhelmed I was when encountering all the different time lengths, or time controls, that are available for chess matches. “How can I remember them all, or choose the best one for me?”, I thought. To help you out, I explore the different time controls out there starting from slowest to fastest:
- Correspondence
- Classical
- Rapid
- Blitz
- Bullet
Author's notes: I assume you are playing most, if not all, your matches online during this pandemic. Consequently, the time controls discussed here do not cover any over the board (OTB) time controls used in tournament play, which sometimes even impose a move limit. Another reason I avoided a discussion of OTB time controls is I have no personal experience with them (see my previous article). Time controls where matches last less then a day are usually written in one of two formats: x+y or x|y. In both cases, the 'x' stands for the amount of minutes given to each player for the match. Meanwhile, the 'y' stands for the amount of seconds a player gains after completing a move, termed an increment. So, 30+20, or 30|20, both mean each player has 30 minutes to make all of their moves, and 20 seconds is the increment they gain after one of their moves.
Correspondence
In correspondence chess, each player has a day, or multiple days, to make a move. Typically, people would use phone or email (before apps), though I was intrigued to find out that people actually used homing pigeons to communicate their moves. The most memorable example of correspondence chess I saw was in a TV show. In Season 2, Episode 21 of the Mentalist, the main character, Patrick Jane, plays correspondence chess against one of the suspects. Sometimes, these geniuses didn’t even look at the board!
I first played a correspondence match my senior year of high school in 2013. I used an app called Chess Time, and I had to choose between 1–7 days allotted for each move. Most of my matches were actually completed within a day, but some lasted 1–4 weeks. As a result, I’d start 20 different matches and divert more brain power to those where my opponents responded the fastest. At times though, I’d forget about a match and lose when time ran out (The International Correspondence Chess Federation recommends no more than 15 games at a time).
Classical
After playing correspondence chess for a few years, I yearned for faster gameplay. I could usually checkmate people in OTB matches within an hour or less, so I wanted a chess app that would allow me to play just as fast. I discovered the Chess TimeLive app, and just recently, the Lichess app, with the latter being the one I use the most. Now, I don’t have to wait a whole day to see if my opponent plays a move! Lichess considers anything between 25–180 minutes a classical time control, and I feel most comfortable with time controls between 25–60 minutes. Finding the exact time control that you feel comfortable with takes trial and error, but my advice would be to choose the one that allows you to finish a match, whether by stalemate or checkmate. If you find yourself getting flagged, you most likely need to play at longer time controls.
Rapid
The common formats in Lichess are 10+0, 10+5, and 15+10. Now that I’ve shaken the rust off my chess skills, I find myself playing Rapid games a bit more. As of writing this article, I’ve played 243 Rapid games, with my ELO rating having stabilized at 1399 (part of my New Year’s Resolution is to reach 1500 by February!).
Interestingly, chess.com considers 10–60 minutes a rapid time control. I don’t know for sure why chess.com categorizes its time controls differently, but I know the website has been the place of choice for professional chess players. Perhaps the website tries to categorize the time controls similar to what’s seen in professional tournaments. Co-developer Erik Allebest provided interesting data in 2017, breaking down the popularity of each time control on chess.com. He found that 10|0 was the one most played, with 28.5% of matches using this format.
Blitz
In blitz, chess players get between 3–9 minutes. I actually haven’t played many blitz matches. I feel that if I want to play with less than 10 minutes, I might as well just play bullet.
That being said, blitz chess is quite popular. A lot of chess masters play blitz on Twitch. This is especially true if they play against their subs, and with good reason. The most popular professional chess players who stream on Twitch have blitz ELO ratings of >2000, and most people would find it difficult to beat them even in a rapid or classical match. Blitz time controls provide a compromise between completing more games for streaming entertainment, and allowing less experienced players a fairer chance. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend watching at least a couple of these matches, just to get an idea of the level of play that’s possible. In small doses I find it entertaining and inspiring (especially in the rare occasion a sub actually wins). Just try not to overdo it like I have lately. After a while, you might divert attention away from improving your own skills and/or get discouraged for not being at a higher level (Remember, these are paid professionals. Focus on personal, daily improvement).
In closing the topic of Blitz chess, I provide a direct quote I came across on chess.com, applicable to bullet as well:
“I play way too much blitz chess. It rots the brain just as surely as alcohol.” — GM Nigel Short
Bullet
Any time control less than 3 minutes is considered bullet chess. Bullet chess is addicting because you can play so many games in so little time. It’s especially amusing when your opponent blunders a queen in an attempt to play a quick opening to have more time in the endgame. Bullet chess offers players and spectators alike a rush of adrenaline, with each successive move becoming extra critical as the clock approaches 0.
But be aware of your skill level. You should consider playing bullet only after you’ve played some matches in one of the slower formats. I won’t pretend to know exactly when you should play a Bullet match, but my guess would be after at least a few months of practicing the basic chess skills in a Classical or Rapid time control. It’s easy for a beginner to fall for a Scholar’s Mate or Fool’s Mate here (I guiltily confess to having fallen for these myself). After playing 416 bullet matches on lichess, I’ve also come to realize that flagging is almost a given at the lower levels.
Most chess masters I watch play bullet in a 1+0 or 1+2 format, although some play Hyberbullet (AKA Superbullet), where each player has a mere 30 seconds to play all their moves. The ones I’ve watched the most are WFM Alexandra Botez, IM Anna Rudolf, and GM Hikaru Nikamura. As of writing this article, Nikamura has an astoundingly high ELO rating of 3470 in Bullet. For context, GM Magnus Carlsen, the current Chess World Champion, can boast an ELO rating of only 3260 in Bullet. Nikamura has also premoved whole matches against Carlsen and won!
Takeaways
- There are multiple time controls ranging from 30 seconds to 14 days.
- Play with a time control where you are comfortable, and don’t progress to a faster one until you feel ready.
Hopefully, you now understand the different time controls and can explain them to a fellow chess enthusiast. If you’d like more information on time controls, without my personal interjection, check out “Time Controls” on chess.com (it incorrectly states that 10 minutes is considered blitz on the website, but everything else is correct). It’s best to learn new information from multiple sources, and chess.com provides a good overview of all the time controls explored in this article.
Also, if you’d like more information on chess clock history, you can get started with “The Chess Clock — A History”, written by Bill Wall on chessmaniac.com, as well as “Chess clock” on Wikipedia (and references therein).
