Newbie chess tournament time controls

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r1eid88

I'm organising a chess tournament for people in my department at work as a social event but I don't know a lot about time control (I normally just play 30 minute games on chess dot com) does anyone have any suggestions on possible time controls? Not looking to make this too big of a time commitment from the people participating

justbefair

If you are just teaching most of those people how to play, I would forget the time controls.

Most people will move fairly quickly, since they don't know what to do.

If they can actually complete some games, you have done well.

r1eid88
r1eid88 wrote:

I'm organising a chess tournament for people in my department at work as a social event but I don't know a lot about time control (I normally just play 30 minute games on chess dot com) does anyone have any suggestions on possible time controls? Not looking to make this too big of a time commitment from the people participating 

I got this,..

Derek-C-Goodwin

Well done on this project. I like to hear of this kind of thing. Would be nice to see a little write up of how it went?

tygxc

@1

"does anyone have any suggestions on possible time controls?"
++ You need some time control, otherwise some games last 1 minute and some drag on beyond 10 hours. Especially those in a lost position may think for hours.
If you have digital clocks, then 15|10 is the best time control.
15|10 is the official rapid standard like for the rapid World Championship etc.
It also removes the stress of flagging.
Thanks to the increment you can always win a won position or draw a drawn position.

"Not looking to make this too big of a time commitment from the people participating"
++ Most games are over before 60 moves, so 15|10 takes 50 minutes at most.

Jenium

It depends how many hours or days you have. If you have one afternoon or so, 5 or 7 rounds of rapid chess (15 0, 15 10, or 10 2) will do.

tygxc

@6
Yes indeed: how much time is available and how many participants?