Can Running Down Your Opponent's Time be a Part of Your Game?

I have an odd question, just because I am curious. As a tournament player, is it really possible to make giving time pressure to your opponent a useful idea to implement in your games? In other words, is there some way to play good chess that also takes time off your opponent's clock? A worth-while way?

In thirty-minute time control, you can't handle thinking for very long or before you know it, you'll have five minutes left in the middle of a heated point in the middlegame.

So could you learn some out-there opening that completely locks up the board, settles in for a long and complicated game, and gives your opponent something to really think about from move 1?

What I mean is playing good chess that still runs down an opponent's time. For example, this opening would have to be something that you'd know how to properly play yourself.

There is, mattguy. If you're opponent's severely down on the clock - let's say he has 5 minutes to your 27, for example, do the following:

1) take your time on every move where this is necessary. Think and consider well variations and general stuff. You will stress him because he will not know WHEN your move is coming and has to be ALWAYS prepared. In addition, he knows that you will have seen things deeper than he has - and he will have to answer swiftly.

What you are doing, you are forcing DEPTH into the game. You are telling him silently - 'this game is deep. There are really MANY things going on'. Keep a serious expression. Study the position well and deeply. This should embarrass him.

Generally he will instinctively try to match your play in this case, and actually take some time on his moves when you do that, rather than play impulsively. This would of course make his time trouble even more severe after a couple, three moves; 

2) Where this is feasible, let's say that you are leading (but not winning), or that the position is close to equal, choose lines that present problems to him, in a way that offers a choice - such as, making a quiet, positional move where you put a knight (for example) in a place where it can be exchanged for his bishop, where it isn't clear if he needs to exchange it or not, because of various and complex factors... give him a lot of choice. Give him something to think about - he will be frustrated, because he DOESN'T HAVE the time to think WITH. 

That's about it. 

Above everything else, be sportive. Don't try to manipulate, intimidate or disturb him in any way. Give him the utmost respect. It's still a sport, and just because he's down to 5 minutes doesn't mean he's going to lose, or even should lose. 

I suppose that these two points maximize your chances to make the best out of the situation. 

Good luck!

Thank you for your suggestions, sir! Would you suppose there is some decent way to steer a game into a 27-5 type position with an equal position? Or, as I suspect, is it simply something that happens when it happens?

i would suggest just playing normally, and if he has lets say 20 min to your 30, then u can just play normally, and he will eventually have to move quicker, which leads to more blunders. i would also highly suggest that when ur opponent goes away from the board, then u move so they lose as much time as possible lol...ive done this is otb sometimes, kind of works tho

Yeah, if that happened to me, and my opponent left the table, I would wait until right after they left so they'd not come back to make moves! : )

In reality you cannot "force" your opponent to run down his clock. I guess you could get into a complicated position that you are somehow comfortable with so you can make moves relatively quickly, but that is highly unlikely. 

<Mattguy> I suppose there isn't. Your opponent is responsible for his own time management, and if he's disciplined in this respect, there is nothing you can do about it. 

However, if he's consuming too much time early on and then enters a time trouble situation - you may be dealing with what is known as a "time trouble addict". 

There are diverse approaches to handle that kind of an opponent - and what I gave you is my favorite, although by no means the only one. 

Some players like to intimidate a time trouble player - by playing fast, making aggressive gestures, maybe banging pieces on the board here and there... or alternatively, playing fast and trying to get into the most complicated tactics... 

I may also be using one of these other options on occasion (but I don't like to be unsportive)... but what I wrote above is the way I prefer to deal with it. 

I will never forget a game in a G25 tourney, against a rather old guy, where I was left with 2 bishops against his single knight, with many pawns on the board. 

He thought deeply, and suddenly managed to create complications! He penetrated with his knight into my back lines and started munching pawns. 

As my pawns were blockading his, and as his pawns were more advanced than mine, and as knights are excellent at hopping about and skipping, you could see that I got into some complicated situation. 

However, what he failed to take into account was the condition of the clocks.

I have quick reflexes - but I was down to 37 seconds, to his 29 seconds - huge time trouble for both of us. 

Of course, most games of that round were over by then, so that my table attracted to itself quite a crowd...

My opponent didn't seem troubled by all this, and seemed to be taking his time, thinking deeply about every move. 

He realized, vaguely, that he didn't have all the time in the world... but still - every move took like five, six good seconds. 

Seeing this, I didn't want to "break the spell". I saw that I was going to win quickly on time, way before he does anything really dangerous with his knight and pawns - so I just imitated his play. I also took 4-5 seconds per move, moved with slow, careful motions, and pretended to consider every move very carefully...

I was basically agreeing with his faulty attitude, lulling him into false confidence that actually the BOARD is important at that point (only the clock was, of course) - actually putting the guy to sleep, in both senses (not waking up his defenses on the one hand, and effectively concluding the battle in my favor on the other).

As you can suppose, five or six moves later, his flag fell first (I was ready at any moment to start speeding and blitzing in case he did - and at all times I took excellent care to remain several seconds up relative to him...). 

The spectators were impressed with how we both seemed to disregard time and play as though we had all of the time in the world, and with apparently no stress - but of course, on my part it was simply understanding of his mental state, and duplication of it, to my advantage. 

Kasparov said, that to beat Karpov, he had to learn to play like Karpov :-) you can say that I was applying a similar approach. 

By the way, time trouble doesn't always equal blunders! Some people adjust really well to stress, and would surprise you with the quality of their moves in trouble. Just recently I had a chess player play (OTB, 2H/40 + 1H for the rest) the ONLY drawing move with his VERY LAST second on move 40. 

Call this resistance to stress, call it a high sense of survival - in short, don't build too much expectations on people dropping the game just because they're down to their last minute. Keep taking the game seriously - be sure that they do!

The greatest danger is that you become hypnotized by their clock - and then they can get you. This happens so many times, it needs to be mentioned. 

If there is an opening you have studied, memorized the variations 20-30 moves deep and have played it a lot, so that you know almost all of the possible most common replies, you could choose to use that to your time advantage.

Study some masters games where you really get a feel for all the ideas behind what the plans are.

This will allow you to blitz off moves without spending too much time while he has to really sit and think about the best reply.

Because you have already studied the most common possibilities and know a few traps in response, you should enjoy at least a slight time advantage.

When I say traps, I don't necessarily mean a cheapo, per se, but something where unless your opponent has studied as deeply as you have, you are able to create weaknesses for him and an advantage for yourself.

If you want to try this, implement a very sharp opening...it almost certainly will take his time when he isn't prepared, or he might blunder.

This normally is a technique used in blitz, which might even work for rapid/standard games.

For choosing the opening, choose one which is not played that much, for instance any less known variation in the sicilian(with the exception of the  variations of the Kan), will lead to opposite side castling with very sharp play. If you've prepared a not so popular line, which will lead to an equal or slightly worse position, it may make your opponent take up his time early in the game.

Hope it helped.

solskytz, I have one question for you, since you seem to know about the subject: Wouldn't taking more time to move allow more time for your opponent to think? Thanks :)

Well, of course time pressure is an important part of the game. I would say 10% of my wins in relatively long games are dead equal endgames which my opponent had only 5min for it (out of a starting 30 or 60).

But of course too, sacrificing position for clock - ie playing some move you did not check carefully, or some dubious but hard-to-calculate move, in order to pass the move faster - is usually a bad idea.

The only situation where you can force clock pressure is when you have a slight position advantage with no real risk of losing, then choosing the continuation that makes the guy think longer is the best. But that just means playing good moves of course.

Oh, and yes, thinking during your opponent's time is something to do, but you probably already know it. More exactly, you should calculate the most complex continuation during that time : if he goes for it, keep on calculating, if he doesn't, well it will be simpler - just some risk management.

A curious thing I have noticed in otb play is that when I get up and wander off, especially if I leave the room altogether, my opponent is most unlikely to make his or her move. When I come back that very often triggers my opponent to make their move.

I got a bit into the habbit, usually during the early part of the middle game (with, say, an hour on each player's clock), of using this technique to get a 20 min or 30 min advantage on the clock.

As you might appreciate from this I lack the discipline fully to use my opponent's time to deepen my analysis so wandering off does not cost me too much.

Nowadays I guess it might also be a bit dodgy to leave the playing area too often so perhaps this is a tactic to approach with caution.

I sort of like it though - more because it makes me feel like Svengali than because it confers a time advantage. :)

"The fact that a player is very short of time is to my mind, as little to be considered as an excuse as, for instance, the statement of the law-breaker that he was drunk at the time he committed the crime" Alexander Alekhine

it is useful to have a slight time advantage in time trouble (for example 1,5 min - 1 min). You can achieve this by good opening preparation, so that you can play your opening very quickly.  In OTB play, there is often an increment, you can't flag your opponent but he's more likely to make a mistake

<Aetheldred>

True - he can think on your time. However, he's at a disadvantage as he can't analyze variations very well - he doesn't know yet what your next move is. There are too many options - while you are just analyzing the moves that you are actually seeing and considering as best from your viewpoint. 

It's quite tiresome to try to calculate variations when it's your opponent's turn. 

The thing is, not to allow yourself to get distracted by his time trouble, and not to be dragged into playing fast and imprecisely yourself. Then if you drop a half-point (or a whole point) you really feel stupid - imagine losing a game because of YOUR OPPONENT'S time trouble. 

Thank you very much, it was really helpful and I absolutely see your point.

Great question and answers!  This interesting issue is important to all time controls, and to both OTB and online games.  Thanks!

My pleasure :-)