My time control rankings

My time control rankings

Avatar of ProfiMath
| 6

S:

Daily-

Daily games are games where you have a minimum of one day per move and normally its 3 days. This makes these games chill and easy to do without costing to much time per day. They  are also great for increasing in rating as they give you more time to think about your next move and you can win on time frequently. One disadvantage of daily games for me is that you can forget your plans in a game since there can be days between your last and next move but this can be prevented by writing your plans in private notes or by using conditional moves right after making your move.

A:

Rapid(10-20 min)-

This is the best time format for playing live as it gives you the most time to calculate your next move which is harder during blitz and bullet games. The reason this time format is not best for me is that one game can take up to 40 minutes which is too large of a portion of my time. 

B:

Blitz(3-10 min)-

These games are nice and quick which I really like without being too much of a rush but I notice that the time is just a bit too short for me when it's 3 min. This problem is not present with blitz games of 5 minutes or longer as these have more time so I don't get stressed and don't end the game on terrible premoves.

C:

Rapid(20+ min)-

These games are fine and I often win them (even against higher rated opponents) but when I come across challenges for them they are always unrated. These games would be great if a day was four times as long but sadly days only have 24 hours in which I need to sleep, eat, go to school, do my other hobbies and play chess so I don't often find time for them. I like that you can relax and think about your moves in this time format but when playing these games I end up just hoping the game ends within 30 mins of starting.

D:

Bullet(>1 min)-

These games aren't my favourite but I've only recently started to play them because of my friend @OmarVahidov. These games force me to premove near the end and I'm just too slow for them. I also don't get enough time to calculate here and end up blundering. 

F:

Bullet(<1 min)

I used to play these games for the trophies so I could get out of the lowest league (I'm now in silver league happy). These games are not very good for calculation and can be very stressful. I can only win a handful of the bullet games I play with less than 1 minute and the win is just a difference of less than 5 seconds most times.