My Toughest Opponent: Time

Unlike many who play mainly Blitz or Bullet, I stick to Rapid 30 minute...and I still run out of time all too often.  I think more slowly than 98% of my opponents, I'm a perfectionist looking for the "!!" move, and I enjoy attacking, which requires a lot of time to calculate possible responses.

But none of that matters if I'm frequently losing on time or running so low on time that I blunder or simply can't complete a won position.

I could just abandon R30 and go to Daily but I'm going to try an experiment:  I'm going to attempt to get faster by concentrating mostly on my time management and not optimal moves or even winning. Even if I lose 20 games in a row, if I can at least end with, say, 5 minutes left, that will be an improvement over now.

This will probably be a humbling experience but that's how one learns.

[Look at the 5th comment from the bottom about a well-known chess player with similar time management issues.]

Date          Time remaining [m/s]   # moves   outcome
2024/04/03    0:18                   44        fail

2024/04/03    6:15                   34        success [blundered a piece on move 3]

2024/04/03    21:18                  24        success [blundered a piece on move 10]

This is turning out worse than I thought it would:  I'm finishing with plenty of time because I blunder the game away quickly.

2024/04/04    00:21                  26        fail

2024/04/04     2:17                  50        success [R+P endgame ---> K+P endgame with opposition]

2024/04/05     0:17                  70        fail [ironically, my opponent ran out of time]

2024/04/06    14:07                  28        success [my opp blundered a piece then I blundered it right back and then some]

2024/04/06     2:26                  42        success

2024/04/07    15:00                  20        success [lost horribly]

2024/04/07     8:38                  36        success [blundered a piece then made it worse by losing a Rook instead]

2024/04/07     9:44                  58        success [blundered a pawn on move 2 [mouse slip] and it went downhill from there.  Opponent appeared to throw the game with 2 game-changing blunders in succession]

2024/04/08     4:59                  53        success [no blunders]

2024/04/09     2:30                  36        fail [I reverted to my old style]

2024/04/10     2:30                  39        fail [reverted; missed a win and settled for a draw]

2024/04/12    20:21                  18        success [not only did I not blunder, I found a tactic and won a piece]

2024/04/13     4:57                  34        meh [blundered a piece early, got a great attack, but missed the winning idea, then got checkmated]