101 Reasons I Hate Chess #99 - 101: Clocks and Time Controls
This is all about love and hate. And where they intersect in my chess. And sometimes bisect.
We won't talk about everything chess. But we will give brief shoutouts to the following: Players, Bloggers & Streamers; Game Ending Conclusions; How to Improve at Chess; The Pieces; Openings and Endings; Variants; and finish with Clocks and Time Controls.
99-101. Chess Clocks and Time Controls
99. The invention of the clock
I'm up in the air on this one. Without clocks, there is no bullet chess. A big plus for someone as slow as me. But without clocks any game could stretch out forever. Even daily games have a time limit. On the other foot, I must admit that even seven days per move can be painful if your opponent does that. I know I am doomed to endless tortures when they take the full seven days on each of the first two moves of the game. Just kill me. Time for either suicide chess or a quick resignation.
Now for a brief spot of trivia that quickly spins into another zone! Chess clocks were invented by Thomas Wilson of Manchester Chess Club. My understanding is that some tournament players used to attempt to outsit their opponent before the introduction of clocks. Ah, there's a sport for Kings! Sitting on the throne, reading the Sunday paper, smoking a good cigar, ignoring the children and spouse screaming outside the door. Considering whether beer is the perfect pairing for breakfast cornflakes. (The truth of the matter is that there are inventive souls who have used cornflakes as part of their home brew when no flaked corn was available.) Yes, a man's throne is his castle. Wait. Wrong topic.
Anyway, clocks were first used during competition at the London 1883 tournament. Now they are everywhere, including any other competition I can think of. Even tennis players and golfers are on a clock. Though enforcement may be uneven.
100. Bullet
Bottom line up front. I AM TOO SLOW! Still, I enjoy watching Hikaru and Naroditsky. And for your enjoyment, here's a case where Hikaru got caught pre-moving in the opening, lost a Rook to Andrew Tang by move four, and still won!!
Once upon a time, there was a young man who could play blitz against NM John Watson and received no more than pawn odds. That was before John became an IM and world-class author. Now? Sigh. I find it quite easy to lose to people on chess.com rated under 1500. Usually on time but sometimes due to a horrendous howler that leads me to declare a full TILT for the day and move on to more exciting stuff...like doing my taxes. On the other side of that coin, I still manage to take down the occasional player rated over 2500 (please refer to Sandbaggers 101 near the top of this series). So, this one is another mixed bag. But it is on the list because I was rated over 2000 blitz in 2023 and managed to tilt for several months and drift down to 1623 by March 2024. While losing too many games where I was winning everywhere except on the clock. SIGH. 😭
