Tournament games - Time question

Thanks for your answers, I am giving 2 situations. Actually I encountered both these situations in the past few weeks in my tournaments. I am sure everyone of you will face this problem when playing tournament games.

Situation A:

I am playing a game with equal rated opponent (~ USCF 1500). I am almost equal or even up a pawn. I have more time compared to my opponent (Me = 15 minutes left, opponent = 3 mins left). We are left with a rook each, one minor piece each and have 3 pawns each. No queens.

If I play slowly using my time, my opponent will also find time to think = he may use my time. If I play fast, then I may make a blunder.

What is the correct approach?

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Situation B:

I am playing a game with equal rated opponent (~ USCF 1500). I am down in piece value. I have more time compared to my opponent (Me = 15 minutes left, opponent = 3 mins left). My opponent has a rook, I have a bishop. We have 3 pawns each. No queens.

If I play slowly using my time, my opponent will also find time to think = he may use my time. If I play fast, then I may make a blunder.

What is the correct approach?

In both situations you're playing someone who is your equal and you have much more time, relatively, than they do.

In Situation A you're equal in material.
In Situation B you're down in material.

If you want to incrase your chances of winning the game, then play slowly.

In both situations, your opponent will probably run out of time before you do, provided you don't blunder.  (I assume you're not playing with an increment or a delay.)  And if you might blunder by playing quickly, then the answer is simple - don't play quickly.  Play slowly, don't blunder, don't initiate any lines that look risky, and play knowing he has to beat you over-the-board, or you will win the game on time.

In the first example, beating you over the board is going to be hard to do, if you're even in material.  He's already used up a lot more time than you have, only to get an equal position.

In the second example, that should also be difficult, assuming the position is relatively even an you can get some play with your bishop. 

So you play slowly and he is able to think on your time.  So what?  If you blunder, often one doesn't have to think at all... the position plays itself!

Too many players, myself included sometimes, play far too quickly, thinking they can win on time.  And you're correct... what invariably happens is that the player playing quickly blunders and they end up losing anyway.

Even just three minutes left is an ETERNITY to a good blitz player, with a winning position over the board.  Don't give him/her that winning position.  Play slowly and make the best moves you can and prevent those blunders.  You've got the time to do so.

I couldn't disagree more with the highlighted text. In both cases you should do the exact opposite of this. Play the most complicated, imaginative and unexpected moves possible. Constantly make threats, provide your opponent with as many ways to go wrong as you can. In both cases you are playing for the win.

R+3P vs R+3P is a hard ending to mess up so despite the time advantage you will probably have to settle for the draw but do what you can. Simply present ways for your opponent to blunder under pressure and hope to get lucky.

R+3P vs B+3P shouldn't be a winning advantage, so make the most of the inbalances in the position. In this situation you are probably more likely to win than in the other. On the flip side, you're also much more likely to lose. The only difficult decision in this scenario comes if your opponent offers to sacrifice the exchange for a draw.

In answer to your primary questions though, I agree with Ed. Play slowly.

Sounds good, thanks for both of your suggestions. Any suggestions from others are welcome too. :)

One correction to both situation A and B, is that there is a 5 second time delay per move.

I was in Situation A twice in one tournament in 2 seperate games. I thought "if I play slowly, my opponent will get additional time and win". I played fast, my opponents won with less than 30 seconds to spare. I had 10 minutes, but what is the use?

The difference between winning and losing those 2 games was 150 USCF points. :( I am not worried much, but just saying small pyschological mistakes like that cost a lot.

I was watching a game between 2 players, someone else was in Situation B. 

You had R+3P vs R+3P twice in the same tournament? In both games you had a time advantage and in both games you adopted the same strategy and in both games you lost?? Damn.

Maybe I misunderstood you though, because your attitude of "if I play slowly, my opponent will get additional time and win" makes no sense in a clearly drawn endgame.

Use your time to figure out exactly what you will play to any response, for example, for 3-5 moves ahead. Then you can "rapid fire" them at your opponent and hope that they get confused and blunder. However, you must be very sure about yourself or you should not do this.

Play slowly to use all of your time for the game.

I am asking for help/ support here because I am a relatively new tournament player. After 25 games, I am rated 1400. I played chess all my life but recently started playing tournaments, so tournament tactics are new to me.

In one game, it was R+3P, the other game it was 2R+3P. But, there was no edge either way. I lost the games trying to do a rats race.

I just want to clarify a few things. First of all, did you just go on the defensive following no provocation? Secondly, why did you say that you were 1500 in the OP but now claim to be 1400? Thirdly, do you simply not understand that your thought process ("if I play slowly, my opponent will get additional time and win") was wrong in a clearly drawn endgame against an equal opponent or am I missing something? Lastly, how is you using twice the time of your opponent (5 vs 2 1/2 minutes) you losing the game because of making fast moves - especially when you had clearly been moving faster than your opponents for the rest of the game.

What you are saying makes barely any sense @OP. Don't focus on your opponent's clock unless their flag has fallen.

This makes sense. Correct, what I was thinking during the game didn't make sense, that is why I lost both.

If I went defensive, I think I would have been winning. I wasn't defensive. I was trying to move fast and hence lost pieces and the game.

Before the tournament, I was close to 1500. Now, I am close to 1400. 

I understand (after the tournament) that I was wrong in my thought process.

I was making fast moves (before) but not making bullet moves. I used 15 minutes vs my opponent using 27 minutes at these positions. So, I had 15 mins left, my opponent had 3 minutes left. 

G/30 is very quick anyway.

Also, another tip, forget about ratings until you get to 2000. That makes it much easier to not worry as much moving forward. Your rating will follow your strength.

I meant that you were being defensive in your posts. Also, your last point does shine more light upon mine. Your standard move time is half that of your opponents (something that you make little mention of), a time that allows you to reach drawn endgames. You then proceed to complete the games by spending twice the time of your opponents (a quarter the relative speed of before) and say that you lost the games because you were moving too quickly in this period. Are you serious? Do you not see how stupid that sounds?

Time control is also one of the means to win a game. If one takes too long in the beginning, opponents can take advantage of that. This thread is on how to balance taking advantage of opponent's tardiness without losing edge.

I am not being defensive in my posts. I am being polite and ernest.

Don't worry about your opponent's clock. Just play the same chess all the time. They will just play at a lower level, but if you play faster then you are taking away that advantage from yourself.

Worry about your time and not his. Don't mess up by thinking about the clock unless you are running out of time.

Thanks, Zigwurst and JustADude80. I think this is where more Tournament experience helps...Good luck to all!

If you want to play fast in the beginning you really need to know your openings. But, in general I would ignore my opponents clock.

Real world example:

In the rapid chess club tournament of my local chess club we play with time handicaps based on what rating range you are in. Same rating range and you play with 30 minutes each, one rating range difference and you get 35/25 etc. All the way down to 55/5 when a master plays someone below 1000. Weird, but in a club with a wide range it allows for an interesting tournament.  

What happened in the last tournament was that a lot of unrated and lower rated players used your "strategy" of not allowing your oppoent time to think and were just crushed. Absolutely destroyed.

Imagine if you had an hour and your opponent only had 10 minutes, why would you give yourself a handicap and play at blitz speed? The only time I would advocate that type of strategy is if you are in a clearly lost position and your opponent is down to a few seconds with no clear mate. Even then it's kind of sketchy...