Is "Rapid" the New "Classical?

I was watching ChessCenter with IM Danny Rensch and he was interviewing FM Mike Klein.  And FM Klein said that Rapid is the New Classical.  And that we all better get used to it.  It's like, Rapid is the tidal wave, and everybody better get ready to join in, cuz it's coming.

Question 1.  What is the Slowest Rapid that can become the New Classical?

For example, in my case, I suck at 5/0 Blitz.  So I play 10/0 Blitz so that my blunder rate isn't so high.  I'm still lame (near 1400 with a peak of 1500), but 10/0 is still considered Blitz.

But what is the Slowest Rapid that FM Mike Klein is referring to, so that I can get adjusted to it.

Question 2.  Assuming there's a New Classical, how can I improve my Calculation Speed so that I won't get into terrible time trouble?  More specifically, how can an old guy improve his Calculation Speed?

My CPU was birthed in the 1960's.  Growing up, I remember Zilog Z80 and the 8080 chip.  Booting off a 5 and 1/4 Floppy Disk.  I'm a Smithsonian Dinosaur.  Now it's Quad-Core Multi-Processor Infinity Cubed and cloud-based computing.  (Which I never understood because I thought we were trying to get away from mainframe-and-dumb-terminal computing.)

Anyways, how do I juice up the old chipset so I can calculate faster for the oncoming New Classical??!  Suggestions, please!

Thanks Philidor_Legacy.  Perhaps I should rephrase another way.  What is the fastest "Classical" time control that USCF uses now for its Classical OTB ratings?  Follow-up question, how much faster do you think they will take it, and yet still call it "Classical" OTB?

I want to get ready.  And how have you managed to increase your calculation speed, assuming that you have?  And how do you measure calculation speed?  It's not exactly like a typing speed test, where you have to subtract 5 words per minute for every mistake you make.  

The fastest time control USCF allows for Classical OTB:  G.25 with a 5 second delay.  Note that a delay differs from an increment.  You don't get to accumulate unused delay time.  In this case, the game would be "dual-rated;" affecting your regular (classical) rating as well as your quick rating.

I play in a G/30, d5 tournament once a month.  6 games in a day.  It's too quick to play a "clean" game, and the endings tend to get sorely neglected.  Not to mention, often, the players are no longer keeping score by the time the ending arrives (both players can stop recording moves if either player is under 5 mins), so it makes it difficult to go over your endgame play in post-mortem.

But, it's a good way to get in some games, especially for those that just don't like to play on a machine.

Whoa....  So roughly, just to get my head around this, it's basically 30 minutes per player to play all their moves.   A Regular/Classical OTB rated game will take at most an hour or so, if the tournament director wants to run his/her tournament that way.   And if I'm not mistaken, many scholastic tournaments are probably run at this time control, for various solid reasons.

I gotta speed up, man.  Thanks for the answers Uncle Bent and Philidor.  So how do you gentlemen increase your calculation speed?  Or should I start to rely on positional "intuition" to save time on the clock?

I'm freaking out already and I haven't even played a USCF game in 25+ years!  Aaaargh!

Lol I remeber 5 and a quarter floppies. You make me feel old. 

No, it isn't.

There are solid reasons that half-hour time controls are used in scholastic tournaments, but often they end up disproportionately hurting the players from 1400 on up, who get in extreme time trouble which they cannot get out of because of the delay and often lose on time. Really, I wish these games would be played with a 10-second increment. That delay has cost me a lot of points.

<Jengaias> 

+1 mucho

In my case, the monthly tournaments are by invitation only.  About 8 of us, all grey beards, and all within the same 200 point rating range.  No prizes, and no Entry fee.  So losing/winning rating points is not much of a concern, since, over time, it all evens out.  My calculation skills have really sped up, and my openings have gotten very good, since I play the same things and the rest of the group often prepares for me,  

After almost 50 years as a tournament player, rated games are the only games I take seriously and where the adrenalin starts flowing.  It's silly, really, that I can't get psyched up for un-rated games or for games on the internet, but for me to really concentrate, I have to have a player sitting across from me, and my USCF rating has to be on the line.

After over 2 1/2 years and nearly 150 G/30 games, I'm a better player in longer controls, because it has cured me of my life-long history of time trouble.  The only short-coming is that the endgame is played in a blur.

No.

 Danny Rensch and Mike Klein or as professional players call them:

"Who? I've never heard of him."

I haven't ran a Quick rated event for a while but my last one was G/29 so it would be Quick only. I don't want fast games impacting my regular rating either.

it is not

So in USA they count Rapid time controls as Classical time control and will give you NM title without norms just for playing rapid. Interesting...

Yeah, in United States you can get NM title for playing G/30. It's pretty ridiculous.

I've never played in a tournament that fast. I know others feel the same way, we avoid them.

I was told that the mindset for G/30 is you should play like G/10 but then slow down for important points. If you try to play like a normal tournament game but faster you'll be too low on time.

The same problem exists in G/25+5d. The five-second delay isn't really enough to prevent losses on time, and everyone above a certain rating level gets in time trouble constantly.

I don't think I would ever drag my lazy azz to a tournament, too easy to get a game in my living room. I'm sure game in 30 in that setting feels like you don't have time to calculate plans, but online 15 min seems like an eternity. I think for slower games I prefer 10 min with a small increment. 

I play almost exclusively 90/30 online with the occasional blitz session tossed in. Trust me, G/15 online is like maybe G/15+5 OTB, but it certainly isn't an eternity.

Almost 50 years ago, when I began to play in chess tournaments as a kid, the standard USCF time control was 50 moves in 2 hours, with subsequent time controls at 30/1.  And tournaments were 5 rounds over 2 days -- on the first day, you started your round 3 game at 8:00 pm.  (usually a bit later.)  The few scholastic tournaments had 45/90 as the first time control. There is no way that schedule would be tolerated today.

In 1973, the USCF allowed 40 moves in 1 hour to be rated, and the 4 round in one day became popular.  But still you had to allow 3+ hours per round, so round 4 started at 7 pm, at the earliest.

Today, 4 round, one day tournamets are played at the rate of G/60, d5, with the tournament completed by 7 pm.

While the speed up of each game makes time trouble more likely, as a player over 60 years of age, it becomes less taxing physically then the old days, when tournaments were a marathon.  And while G/30 used to sound impossible to me most experience tournament players know opening book far deeper than ever.  It is very common for me to play my first 10 moves before the first 30 seconds have ticked off the clock.

15+10 online feels like wasting your time. It is really. Why? Few reasons:

First of all is not enough time to properly calculate as you would OTB.

Second it gives you too much comfort and same time distraction like you can do other things not only on your opponent move but on your own too. 

It feels like longer blitz game but you gain nothing from it to use in OTB.

To  be close to what OTB conditions are you have to play at very least 30 min game with real board next to you. But then why wasting time that way if you have chess club near by and still wont be the same, because of the comfort of your room. Is just not the same. No seriousness, no atmopshere, no fee to pay to really feel like serious tournament, no opponent to look and no proof you are playing human.

Then playing online chess have only meaning of 5 min blitz games and nothing else. 1 min fun games too ofcourse.