What is Slow Chess all about?

Well, of course it's about playing chess games at effective speeds of G/30 or slower. That's true. But especially it means playing chess at a speed that allows a player to play what Dan Heisman calls "real chess". Or conversely, it means to play slow enough that you can avoid playing "hope chess". Real chess is when you carefully consider each move, account for each possible reply by your opponent, and make a plan in each of those cases. Hope chess is playing a move that might really look good, but without really considering all of your opponent's possible replies, and thereby "hoping" that you'll be able to meet any reply that is played.

A simple rule of thumb is this: the longer you think about your moves, the better your moves will be (excepting sometimes forced moves or such). Your goal in a slow game is not just to play a good move, but to play the best move you can in a reasonable amount of time (considering the time situation). In fact, moving too fast in a slow chess game specifically trains you not to play real chess. That's not good. Just like you must memorize the squares and train to be able to visualize, you must also practice playing real chess. If you don't, then you'll never improve that skill. Another rule paraphrased from Dan: don't play a chess game / time control in which you don't have the intention of using most of your time.

Grandmasters never blitz out their moves in a classical chess game. Why is that? Even book opening moves are usually played carefully by a GM in a slow game. Why is that? Do you really think it's just because he forgot move 5 in a main-line Caro-Kann? You'll also find that most bona fide chess instructors/coaches will agree that practice at slow time controls can increase your skills, even at quicker play. But it doesn't usually work the other way around. In fact, playing only fast chess trains yourself to play "hope chess" and will handicap you at slower speeds.

Playing blitz is OK. It's fun for some and can even be a good way to practice openings and sharpen your tactical play. Playing blitz all the time is OK if that's the game you want to play and you stick with short time controls. But playing blitz only or all the time if you expect to become good at real chess is a real problem. And blitzing your moves when the time control allows better is simply a careless error of time management, an important skill to learn. Being a good time manager doesn't mean playing as fast as you can. A good time manager makes good use of the time allowed, playing faster when necessary and slower when allowed. So usually, if you finish a game of 60 moves with most of the original time still on your clock, then you've shown notably poor time management skills.

So here's the thing: players usually come to this league because they've pretty much figured all of this out and they want to play chess or practice at slower time controls. And to be able to do that, as a practical matter, usually entails quite a bit of rules, work, and planning as in our league. But players don't want to go to all the trouble of committing to a game or tournament time, putting off time with the family, giving up tickets to a favorite event, and missing a movie on TV just to not have an opponent show up or to start the game and quickly realize that their opponent has no intention of giving them the fun and educational game of chess that they had expected.

So if you join the Slow Chess League, then play slow chess. And if you have no intention of playing slow chess - if you just don't quite see how you need to think a bit to play your best move - if you "just don't need that much time" - then don't join the Slow Chess League. Play your chess at fast time controls with a club that offers it or in live tournaments with those controls. You won't find those kind of games in the Slow Chess League.

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