Per-move time controls

The format W|X means you have W minutes total but gain X seconds for each move (called an increment).

You can do custom increments on chess.com by clicking "more time controls" and scrolling to the bottom.

However, it seems the maximum increment in chess.com is 60 seconds. But maybe you could try doing a 1|60 game and see how it feels? You would need someone else to pick your challenge up, though; so it'll take longer to find an opponent than one of the "standard" time controls.

Yeah I know about time increments, but it doesn't provide exactly the same experience I'm talking about. Even if I could set a 2|120 game for example, that could easily spiral into a ton of extra time accumulated. If it was a set 2 minutes per turn for example no turn could last more than that amount. I think that would remove a lot of the time pressure while still making for a decently fast paced game.

And there's also the issue you mention where it takes a lot longer to find opponents with custom time controls, so it would be cool if it was added to the standard choices.

I've put some thought into this. I wouldn't mind a system persé in my games cos people do take their time making moves sometimes. I generally play 1 hour games cos I enjoy the relaxed nature of them matches, but it can come with the setback that one would be waiting a long time for players to make moves. When push come to shove though, I consider that part of the territory.

When playing matches I'm confident in, I normally make a move within 10 seconds. Semi confident, usually between 30 and about 1 minute. When I really have to stop and think, I can take up to three minutes. When I really, really, have to stop and think, I've taken up to 15 before today - though they're usually single moves and quite rare 😲

I feel the 1 hour time limit gives a nice balance to the speed of the game - they're not going on forever. It gives "slower people" (such as elderly) the chance to legitimately play without rushing, and there's no unwarranted time pressures. Having a "per-move" clock would remove all of that.

I don't think you really need a "per move clock" for your more typical blitz and bullet matches; them games are often over before you can blink anyway so the setup they have for those is fine.

@Fran5259

In a real chess club, we played 90 minutes for 40 moves + 60 minutes, on wind-up clocks.

No time pressure there.

I am also a fan of playing based on time per move. For example, 5 or 10 minutes per move. More or less like in a tournament. Of course, this time should not be mandatory. Moves that take much less time should also be able to be played faster. If I play a game in 30 minutes, I can't really play chess. After all, chess is a thinking sport, so you need enough time to think through your tactics properly. Because such games can easily last 2 to 3 hours (and longer...), there should be an option to take breaks to attend to other urgent matters. The large difference in local time also makes this necessary. And last but not least: not every chess player is a master or grandmaster...

My son and I play 3 games of chess every day in person. We play blitz because for us we much prefer to make it about thinking fast and keeping it fun. We do occasionally play untimed games but these are much more serious affairs! We use the phone app "Chess Clock" by chess.com to time the games. The three games we play are:

5 | 1 Blitz (no add on time) - 2 games
0 | 0 with 15 sec per move

The first two games we have a 1 second delay on the clock for each move, but it doesn't add time to the game clock so your available time never increases - you just get a second before the clock starts counting down. For the last game, each player gets 15 seconds to make their next move, or they lose. If they make a move their clock resets to 15 seconds opponent's timer starts counting down immediately. This creates a rapid fire game where we really need to think on our feet.

I travel a lot for work, and when I do we revert to chess.com rather than a real board. But I can't find an online version for both of these timers, but especially that third game in which is a real shame - that sort of timer requires a "per move" clock at the second level and from what I can see this just doesn't exist on the website or app. If I'm wrong I'd love to know how to do it!

So after our remote games just now (because I'm currently travelling) possibly another solution that my son and I discussed would be the ability for the chess clock app timer to offer a remote connection mode where by we can connect our phones such that I can tap on mine and he can tap on his, and we take the timer out of the chess.com space (just play with no timer). That might be an easier thing to implement without changing the behaviour of chess.com but still giving players the flexibility to use more complex timers.