Shortest slow time control for improvement

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Musikamole

I have a lot of free time right now. Dan Heisman says that I will improve faster by playing slow games, not blitz.

Chess.com has 30/30, 45/45, and custom. Right now I like to play 15 10 for my "slow games". Those extra 10 seconds per move makes a big difference in how I think, as opposed to blitz.

leiph18

What's the shortest? No idea. Doesn't seem answerable.

You get better at what you practice. Compared to blitz, 15|10 feels like an eternity. But in a difficult position if I want to calculate two different candidate moves, and compare which is better (basically this is analysis) then 15|10 is very fast. I'd say you don't really have time to do this even once for any difficult position.

jposthuma

I think 15 10 is great for improvement; that's what my coach recommended for me when I was around your level. 

Nekhemevich

HueyWilliams wrote:

Honestly, I find this question a bit on the schizophrenic side.  You want to play slow, but you want it to be the fastest slow possible? lol  I think you ought to play really slow games...like OTB tourney time controls.  And I agree with Heisman that that's probably the best--and surest--way to improve.

for your information the definition of schizophrenia is not necessarily the term used to define it. While the word schizo refers to split, the condition itself does not present split anything. It is actually a condition of the brain chemistry where the brain receptor gets too much of one thing. The name was created well before medical science had evolved. Hopefully this clears up the confusion.

Desty_Nova
Nekhemevich wrote:
HueyWilliams wrote:

Honestly, I find this question a bit on the schizophrenic side.  You want to play slow, but you want it to be the fastest slow possible? lol  I think you ought to play really slow games...like OTB tourney time controls.  And I agree with Heisman that that's probably the best--and surest--way to improve.

for your information the definition of schizophrenia is not necessarily the term used to define it. While the word schizo refers to split, the condition itself does not present split anything. It is actually a condition of the brain chemistry where the brain receptor gets too much of one thing. The name was created well before medical science had evolved. Hopefully this clears up the confusion.

paradox is the word which would have fit.

@OP: games with rapid time controls will not help to improve your thinking and calculation process, but it helps with tactics, openings and getting a feeling for positions. So play long games and shorter (15/10 is perfect) games.

Nekhemevich

actually I was thinking ambivalent was better

kleelof

Your title is a non-sequitor.

I like to play 3 day / move games to work on analysis, planning and other things that require you to 'train your thinking'.

VLaurenT

Till intermediate level (~1700 OTB), I think anything under 30' is just too fast to apply a consistent thought process.

The right time-control is when you have time to properly calculate when needed. I often find myself in time-trouble in 15' games, so I doubt this would be slow enough for you.

Ziryab

I like Dan Heisman.

Howver, I've long been reluctant to play these time controls online. When an opponent abandons the game, you can easily find yourself stuck in front of the screen for a long time.

Correspondence chess helps me improve. Live chess fuels my addiction to blitz.

SilentKnighte5
Ziryab wrote:

I like Dan Heisman.

Howver, I've long been reluctant to play these time controls online. When an opponent abandons the game, you can easily find yourself stuck in front of the screen for a long time.

Correspondence chess helps me improve. Live chess fuels my addiction to blitz.

If he abandons it, you don't have to sit in front of the screen.  Go watch TV until he times out. :)

Also, NEVER had an issue with game abandonment at ICC in 45/45 or G60 tourneys.

Ziryab
SilentKnighte5 wrote:
Ziryab wrote:

I like Dan Heisman.

Howver, I've long been reluctant to play these time controls online. When an opponent abandons the game, you can easily find yourself stuck in front of the screen for a long time.

Correspondence chess helps me improve. Live chess fuels my addiction to blitz.

If he abandons it, you don't have to sit in front of the screen.  Go watch TV until he times out. :)

Also, NEVER had an issue with game abandonment at ICC in 45/45 or G60 tourneys.

I don't watch TV. Moreover, I've had opponents seem to abandon the game and then return for the last minute. If I start watching reruns of Gunsmoke on the telly, I lose on time.

I might try reading a book while sitting in front of the computer. I often do that during 15 0 games anyway.

Musikamole

hicetnunc wrote:

Till intermediate level (~1700 OTB), I think anything under 30' is just too fast to apply a consistent thought process.

The right time-control is when you have time to properly calculate when needed. I often find myself in time-trouble in 15' games, so I doubt this would be slow enough for you.

------

Thank you. 15 10 is so much better than the 5 0 I played when I first joined. 5 0 is still a disaster. I lose on time a lot, and is especially frustrating when I have an easy win but no increment to finish the game. In 15 10, if I play 40 moves, I get 400 seconds added, about 6 1/2 minutes, and using most to all of my time, it translates to 20 1/2 minutes. My opponents, for the most part, are not using much time. It makes me wonder why they don't just play 10 0.

kleelof

Maybe they want the extra time in case they need it.

Nekhemevich

HueyWilliams wrote:

Nekhemevich wrote:
Hopefully this clears up the confusion.

I still like "schizophrenic."  And the only confusion here seems to be your own. Wink

Predictably enough, by the way, the OP has ignored my point.  I've been on this site for several years now (under various guises), and I've noticed that he is the sort all too likely to give any commentary short schrift unless it consists of the fatuously upbeat blather regretably so much in fashion nowadays.

Yes but your bad use of the phrase schizophrenic is discriminatory. There is no connection from your bad comparison to the actual symptoms of a debilitating illness that effects millions of sufferers. How dare you sir! I think it's very wrong and immoral to base assumptions on people who suffer daily. You cannot know the pain people endure.

dude0812
hicetnunc wrote:

Till intermediate level (~1700 OTB), I think anything under 30' is just too fast to apply a consistent thought process.

The right time-control is when you have time to properly calculate when needed. I often find myself in time-trouble in 15' games, so I doubt this would be slow enough for you.

I can apply consistently the thought process for 15+10 games, but I don't have the time to calculate as much as I want, for that I need 60+0 or something like that. However, I have improved by playing 3+2, 5+0 and 10+0 games, so you can improve, especially if you are a beginner, by playing blitz games. But I agree, for consistent thought process and enough time to calculate a little bit more thoroughly when needed, you need at least 30+0 games, if not even more than that. I like playing both blitz and 60+0 games except that 60+0 games are exhausting for me, I can't play more than one 60+0 game in a row, nor can I play more than one 30+0 game in a row (one may think this is a contradiction as 30+0 is half the time and thus, you might think, I should be able to play 2 in a row, but when I play a 60+0 game it is one game, I keep playing the game which I have been analysing before, while if you play two 30+0 games, all the thought that you put into the first game is irrelevant for the second game).

tygxc

15|10 is best online. It is the official FIDE rapid time control.
Thanks to the increment you can always win a won position or draw a drawn position.

Robatam

How can I play a real Slow game maybe like one with out a timer

Against a friend or so ??

 

dude0812
Robatam wrote:

How can I play a real Slow game maybe like one with out a timer

Against a friend or so ??

 

When you start a game, go to custom settings and choose a time control with a lot of hours and big increment so that you can play as if there was no clock. Then click on get a link, or get an invite link or something like that. Send that link to your friend.