Time Stamping Please

Over at another site, they use time stamping, which means that when I review one of my games, I can see what time on the clock that I played a move, and more importantly, how much time I am using per move, and how well I am using my time, which helps me with improving my time management.

Can you please add time stamping to chess.com Live Chess games? It's extremely educational.

I don't see ICC as having any advantages. It's pretty much just a pay to play chess site. It's not a full service stop, like chess.com.

Two cool things about ICC:

1.There are some famous chess authors/players that do video instruction at ICC, like Dan Heisman, Larry Christiansen, Boris Alterman, John Watson, Joel Benjamin, and others.

2. You get to see a lot of IM's and GM's play in real time, and sometimes I see really famous GM's play, like Nigel Short.

Regardless, this topic is about getting time stamping added to Live Chess.

Who would like to see this feature added? The more interest, the more likely chess.com will add it. It can really help when working on improving one's time management.

possible to have time stamp on the turn based games ?

I don't play a lot of Live but would like to see time stamps too.

On online/correspondence? I think that wouldn't be as useful. I would love to see the end date also included though, in addition to the start date.

Odd. Using the clock wisely, time management, affects playing strength more than anything else. Is there anyone else who would like to see time stamping in Live Chess?

I posted this topic under Live Chess. Perhaps I should have placed it under support?

 if you go to your home page, then click online chess you'll see at the bottom right of the page your average time per move.

oops! I was thinking more about seeing your time management with online games

Probably would have been better under Site Feedback & Suggestions.

Yep. The simple reason is because they are all serious chess players, since they PAY TO PLAY. Why would anyone pay to play internet chess anyway, since there are plenty of decent sites to play for absolutely free?

If you are rated 1600 here on Live Chess, then seek players 200 points lower at ICC to have the same playing experience.

My playing strength is around 1000 here on Live Chess. Playing at ICC, I can't beat a  1000 rated player, most of the time.  Also over there, the players are more booked up, even U1200! I don't know why, but they are. You don't see near as many premature attacks at my level. Both sides actually take time to develop more than two pieces before launching an attack! 

The big plus for me at chess.com is that it's a FREE TO PLAY site, which means the pools are much larger, and I have a much better chance to find someone of the same beginning strength as me to play with, at ANY time control.

The pool for beginners is really small over at ICC. It's frustrating to find anyone at my skill level that wants to play MY time control of 15 10. They all want to play either really fast, like 2 8 (!) or PURE, which are times without increments. I play on the slow side, so I need the increment, so when I am winning, I won't lose on time. That sucks.

Why did I join ICC? For the video instruction, nothing more. I just recently got into playing chess there, because Dan Heisman said in one of his videos to play internet chess with time stamping. It is quite eye opening, to see how much time I took on an opening move, and a critical move. It expalins a lot on why my play is slower than my opponents. Is my play too slow? Not always. My opponents are playing way too fast in the opening, especially in games when it goes out of book pretty soon because I don't know that many book moves. They will average 2 seconds on opening moves, which in a pure 15 0 game, is too fast.

ICC players know basic tabiyas, opening lines, maybe in part because Dan Heisman makes a big deal of learning them in one of his video series. At chess.com, most posters will say NOT to memorize opening lines as a beginner. I don't know anymore how to respond to that idea, since it would help me to have a few lines memorized, since it would at least save me some time on the clock. 

When I am in the mood to study openings, I do it to practice my board visualization and calculation, especially being more accurate with capture sequences, where I often lose a pawn or piece do to a simple counting error.  Learning the opening lines, and the ideas behind each move, is a secondary benefit for me.

I don't see book moves at chess.com when playing against other 1000 rated players. Sure, I will see the very beginnings of the Scandinavian, which is the most popular opening for Black in my rating group, but it only goes for two moves, then it goes right out of book. I never see after 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3,  ...Qa5. Never, and 3...Qa5 is the main line, the tabiya for the Scandinavian. Mostly, I see 3...Qe6+ ?!, which is not the point of thnat opening. It greatly slows down Black's development.

It's all from memory after 3...Qe6+ (?!), because I see it so often: 4.Be2 (Develops a piece) ...Qg6 (?!) (Black wastes another tempo with this weak threat on g2) 5.Nf3! (A really good move. White ignores the threat of Qxg2, and now has three pieces developed, while Black is still moving his queen around) ...Qxg2 (Black wins a pawn, but look at all of the tempos wasted for that one pawn. White has more than enough compensation for that pawn) 6.Rg1! (Black's pawn grap gives White the open g-file, with tempo! I've had a few players get confused, thinking that the queen was trapped, or forgets about White's knight defending the rook, and plays ...QxRg1+ (??). White follows with 7.NxQg1!).

Good Grief! I typed too may words, again. I hope a few of them were of interest.

Thank you! I believe that time stamping for the purpose of getting better at time management is not just important, but something that I would think every internet chess site would have, for more reasons than I can think of right now.

Heck, even the free site www.chesscube.com has time stamping. I'm going to remember to play internet chess over there more often, not just for the time stamping, but because the pool for my skill level is pretty big.

Also, Chess Cube also has a cool live chess interface, where after a few moves, an ECO and opening name pops up on my playing screen, so when I review the game, I can know what opening was played. It works like game explorer, but in real time. Check it out. Anything to make chess.com better is good for us.

Last, at Chess Cube, they have a slick Facebook feature, where I can post my games on my Facebook wall, and a visitor can hit play and watch my games. I have no idea how it works, but it does. Magic stuff.

I've played very little live chess here, but the few games I did play I remember thinking time stamps would be nice.  The server is keeping exact track of the time anyway.  Even just reporting how much time was left available when the game ended would be helpful.

Mostly unrelated, but on the correspondence games, which I do play a lot, I'd find it handy to have a time/date (or move number) stamp in the chat window.  I've had a lot of games where a comment is made about a move, but it's not specific enough that I can later figure out which move it applies to!  Same thing with recording on which moves draw offers are made.

Excellent ideas on correspondence games. Keep them coming, as time management is such an important part of chess, from really slow, to really fast. If I could play correspondence chess faster than in the past, I would take it up in a heartbeat.

My big problem is taking more than 20 minutes on critical positions in correspondence. Dan Heisman quotes various authors in his articles on time management, and basically, anything over 20 minutes yields diminishing returns, at least in real time, slow chess, i.e., G60 and slower.  I'm not sure if spending more than 20 minutes in correspondence chess per critical move would produce the same effect? Does anyone have an answer for that?

We are using computers, which can keep track of anything and everything. So, I would think it easy for chess.com to make visible what is already present in the software, that being, the time taken per move. A minor update to the playing interface?

I don't have a specific answer-- although the time spent isn't exactly the same.  In CC games where I spent 20+ minutes on a move it's usually where I'm working out multiple detailed lines that I wouldn't be able to do to that extent just in my head during a live game (and I also keep notes, which adds time compared to just thinking).  Moreover, for a crucial move or one where I'm in a bad position and don't see anything good, I'll spend time on the move and then close out the game and wait a few hours or until the next day to look at it again (sometimes more than once) and see if a fresh view helps, so my total thinking time might be spread over several stints.  Again, there's no comparable situation for a live game.

Doesn't that diamond next to your handle indicate you are a paying member here?

On one post you say ICC just a "pay to play" not a full service stop and then in another you joined for video instruction?

Contradictory.

At any rate, I'd be happy to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the ICC and chess.com, which I have in another thread. However I've been advised that discussing other chess sites in the forums is against the TOS.

Yes, definitely. I would love to see timestamping. I think they have it over at FICS too.

Being a Diamond member does help a little with paying the bills here at chess.com. So, in that respect, I am happy to be part of keeping some of my favorite staff members, like Daniel Rensch and David Pruess, well fed, so that they can continue to produce awesome chess instruction videos. 

Those two guys are about as good as it gets in the video instruction world, and I am including the ICC and Chessbase top video authors when I say that. I own a lot of Chessbase videos, and still return to Danny and David for the kind of instruction that I need most. I need those guys to stay in business, so the last thing I want to do is to help chess.com go out of business! 

1. I didn't contradict myself.  "It's (ICC) pretty much just a pay to play chess site". I didn't say that ICC is a site where one can only play chess. 

2.  I have never been advised to not talk about other chess sites in the forums here, so far.

I've heard staff members talk about ICC, even talk about their playing experiences over at ICC, so it's hard for me to see a problem with talking about ICC as a member, and I have mentioned other chess sites on other occasions, with no problems.

Members have talked about many different chess sites, from books they found on other sites, videos they watched somewhere else, sites they recently visited and found interesting, etc. People will make suggestions like, check out this chess site if you are a beginner: www.chesscafe.com for Dan Heisman's Novice Nook articles. 

Here's one example of how I discussed another chess site in a positive way, a way that helps chess.com:  www.chesstempo.com has a way of practicing tactics by isolating different tactical motifs, like forks. Can chess.com add that feature to Tactics Trainer? It's all in the spirit of improving chess.com. Making chess.com the best chess site on the internet.

We've been storing timestamps in the database for a while now. We'll be able to show them in archived games soon. Thanks!

This was 8 months ago.  Apparently timestamps are in the database.  When will they be visible?

I would be happy if we could just get timestamps in the PGN. 

Indeed - the %clk and %emt tags would not be that hard to implement.