How do you manage your time?

In tournaments I use almost all my time in every game and this has been a problem for me.  This is regardless of my opponent's rating, if my position is winning or losing most of the game, and how fast/slow my opponent plays.  Botvinnik recommended becoming a competent blitz player, and whether I'm competent or not, compared to my long game my blitz game is at least as good.  I enjoy 1, 2, and 5 minute games online, and at the club I most often play 10/10 and sometimes 15/10 games.

But in tournaments I think there is something wrong with my thought process, I try to find the best move I can find every move which sounds nice but it seems I don't know when to cut my analysis off and say, ok, this is good enough, and just play the move.

I've seen players keep time notes on their score sheet, are they pacing themselves?  Say for a G/120 you try to stay within 30 minutes for every 10 move block and just be aware when you go over?  It seems like GMs even at the recent Corus and Linares tournaments regularly get into time trouble, so maybe my initial mind set is ok?  "If I get a winning position I only need a minute" was something I once said, but after some losses in time pressure I'm not so sure it's worth it.

So any suggestions are welcome, do you have a system or generally ignore the clock until you have only a few minutes left?

I think Dan Heismann has things to say about this, although maybe overestating the issue a little. It looks reasonable to use most of the available time unless the game is quite easy.

 Of course I've heard Dan Heismann writes excellent columns, I just never took the time to look some up, thanks for mentioning it.  I got a lot of good tips from here, and he does recommend checking your pace by recording your time on the score sheet, or at least where you'd ideally be by move 20 (eg G/90 have at least 45 minutes).

It turns out I don't do everything wrong  :

"4. Take (almost) all your time every game!  Go to any Open tournament and you will see that the best players are the ones who use almost all their time, every game."

This made me feel really good, because in every game, unless it only lasted 20-30 moves, I really do use all my time, It's not uncommon that I'm about the last board to finish.  One of my main problems is I don't pace myself in equal positions when an endgame is sure to come, if it's really tactical he says to go ahead and eat up bunches of time but if you can tell it's going to be a 60 move game go ahead and speed up some.  Great stuff, that's probably my main time management weakness.

poorly

It is of matter which level of a player you are and what grade of "seriousity" you are playing. If it is merely for fun, these things hardly matter, move fast and have fun... If you are determined to win in any game, and seek the best move always, time is essential too. And it often runs out on you, trying to find the "perfect move". You often see Super GM's at a certain stage of a game thinking forever on a move. That is (probably) because they find the next move crucial, and see deep deep down the road. Don't copy that! Us normal players usually have no benefit of such a thinking. Since our "radar" is limited, we don't manage to see everything anyway. And the 30 minutes spent on a move, is wasted since our opponent chose another line than we expected, and we have to start thinking all over again...

If you are serious enough though,I would recommend to make time one of the basic elements of the game. Like openings, tactics, endgame technique, freshness (sleep, food and water) and other things..

In normal thinking time you must find the path in managing time that suits you the best. Most people play rather fast in openings, but not all. And some people manage the art of changing gears when neccesary, but not all of us. Some like to spend about the same amount of time on every move, but from a winning point of view that hardly recommendable. Every player has to find his way of managing time.

Personally I would say, You have to be able to change gears when you start run out of time, and you have to be able to "sit on your hands" sometimes too. The obvious isn't always the right path, and sometimes the easy path is better than the complex. When you are home in your study chamber chess is more or less a theoretical mindgame, when in the hot chair faced at an ambitious opponent, it is pretty much a practical fight, where time management is a vital part of the consept. Find your own way of managing time, by adjusting what you think is good through practical experience. Managing time will help you in the long run!

Hmm, I answered this in Shivsky's thread :)

@ estragon
Pacing myself is a new concept and I'm definitely going to start practicing it in my next tournament, I like the idea of the 10 move block too.  I also like the idea of using all my time, and almost feel like it's a waste if I have time left over after a game -- so saving time for future critical positions (or long endgames) is something I'm going to have to get used to, even if it means having time left over in the end.

@airbus
Well, I think I'm serious about it, I'm pretty competitive and try to win every game with the best moves I can find.  I'm only now recognizing time management as an aspect of my game, and agree this is a good way to think of it.  I can change gears actually...but the problem is I seem to have only two gears, a long game and a two minute game gear.  As I start to find ways of managing my time I think I'll be adding some more though, what I think I need is more of that practical experience you mention :)

@ marvellosity
Sorry, somehow I missed that post.  Sometimes I wonder if some posts don't show up at first because sometimes I'll re-visit a thread and find new ones. 

Trusting my instincts is a new idea, I usually calculate and try to find even better moves for my opponent until a feeling of security naturally happens, so for the most part I've been cutting instincts out.  In quiet equal positions especially though, a move I found good after 1 minute is often the same move I end up playing after 5 or 10 minutes so building a memory of positions where instincts work well for me will be useful as I start to trust it more.  I wonder if getting a feel for critical positions isn't something every player struggles with a little though.  Of course sometimes it's obvious, and other times pretty sneaky, but I'm sure this also gets better with experience.

So now I have something of the topography of a game from the perspective of the clock and the different tools people use to set and change the pace.  Thanks for all the advice.  If anyone has anything else feel free to add it.

orange: in this case it's the other way round - I replied to your comment in that thread and only then saw your thread here... so this one is down to me, not you :)

In quiet, equalish positions calculating all the possibilities is a futile exercise because of the non-forcing nature of the position.

The move just needs to a) correspond to your aims of the position and b) not have a clear tactical drawback. Trying to calculate the position out is a pure waste of time. A couple of minutes per move should be sufficient for this.

Definitely head to chesscafe.com, click the "archives" link, and look up Heisman's old columns. He's got a couple that specifically focus on time management.

One thing I always do is write down the time after every move. This helps me whene reviewing the game afterward to realize where I'm spending the most time, and determine if I'm spending too much/little time on certain moves.

During the game, it sometimes helps me "snap out of it", if my mind wanders trying to explore too many variations. If I look at my scoresheet and the clock and realize I've spent too much time on a particular move, I'll be like, "Ok, stop thinking about all those variations, and just pick the move that seems best, blunder check it, and play it".

Another thing I've heard is Botvinnik's Rule. Apparently, he said you should only use 15% of your clock time on the first 15 moves of the game. For amateurs who are less likely to know their book opening lines 10+ moves deep, that can probably be as high as 25-30%. But you'd be amazed how many times I've seen players use half (or more!) of their time on the first 15 moves. I've done it myself, though now that I'm aware of the rule, and have gotten to know my openings better, I'm better about that. I still rarely obey Botvinnik's Rule, but I usually use less than 25% of my time to get to move 15, if things don't get tactical early.

 when I play chess games I usually use A VERY LONG TIME! To think about 1 move and when I play that move well I look at the clock and wow! Time passes quickly!

I think it basically depends on experience. I think time management goes hand in hand with your strategy on the board. When one thinks of it that way, it's a bit hard to comment on how long a player should be taking on each move.

Personally, at my level, I like to take the same approach some computer programs take, just trying to evaluate if a variation is worth the time or should I move on to the other move I had in mind.

However though, in blitz (I only play 3|0), I don't really spend more than a second on a move. I 'scouter' mode on the board, wide eyed, scanning for everything I can find, and when the clock says it's my turn, I make the first best move I can find.

Sometimes there's no moves to work with, so to say. This usually happens when I wasn't following the game with a flexible strategy, and bam, it's a stifling position with no immediate moves to work with. At this time I'm forced to throw all the time I must into a new strategy, or at least play some solid waiting move if there is one (that too being a strategy).

Ultimately, I guess it's as I said before. Time management is like working on your position. It takes experience and practice to get better. Before that, you'll have to work through the inaccuracies and blunders.

On the other hand, there's using your opponent's own style of time management. Taking about the same time they do, and consequently playing the same quality of move as they. Probability wise, this gets you at least a draw'ish game at first, while you focus the rest of your energy and any extra time into building a better and more powerful strategy.

Of course this 'mimicry' business is quite tough to keep up with. Balance is usually the keyword with this strategy. Keeping in balance with your opponent until it's to your advantage to change things.

We all have different aspects of the game in which we're better. Openings, mid game, end game, positional, attack, tactics etc. If a certain point is reached in the game and it leans towards a certain aspect, and your opponent so happens to be better than you in that aspect, and you've also been mimicking your opponent's time management, then you're going to be in trouble.

Of course, theoretically, you might be able to turn things around if you're able to make the game lean towards an aspect in which you're better in, then it can be said that you've balanced things out again.

I need to practice management too. Just lost on time, just needed draw and was winning! 

It was a tournament