Time management

Hello. I play only 10 minutes games and my big problem is a time trouble. I like taking time even if it's obvious how to play. Usually i find correct move quickly but i try to find a better one and to do a double check. At the end of game i often loose despite my position is better.

Is it possible to overcome this problem or i'm hopeless?

Play with at least a little increment. However, in shorter time control games, you really can't take too much time on very many of your moves. If your average game is 30 moves long, then if you take 20 seconds per move, you will be in time trouble at the end of the game, if you haven't checkmated your opponent by then. One or two moves with longer think times will decrease the amount of time you can spend on other moves.

Of course, you do get some thinking time during your opponent's move but you can't really rely on that for much as you can't control how quickly they move.

Increment at least gives you a little more room and even when you get close to being in time trouble, you can make your moves a little more quickly and spend a little less than the increment in thinking time.

Try not to use too much time in anything but critical/complex positions. When you have an obvious move, you can quickly double check for blunders but spending time on trying to find a better one is just going to hurt you later.

Yeah. I'd like to improve my 10 minutes game. It's default time control and i like it. Not too long and not too short. Most people spend very short time like 5 minutes on 30 or 40 moves. I think if i spend 5 minutes on 20 moves then it's cool but it happens very rarely. The problem is that i'm not sure when i need to spend more time and when not. I can miss crucial move if i play fast.

1 In the opening you should play fast 2. After the opening you should take some time and come up with a plan 3. After you came up with a plan you should start to play faster. Well I'm not saying you should play unthinkably but you should be able to play faster 4. You should calculate variations in tactical positions and think logically in strategic positions :) hope this helps bye bye for now

Perfectionism.

When playing fast chess. Move quickly. I have trouble doing it aswell. But in The end. That extra knight u won by calculations that took wayto long wont be worth it when u have 10 seconds remaining. Just get used to playing Quick. And start playing OTB with lobger timectrl! Nothing feels better than having time calculate some nasty tactics

I need to get back to this topic again because i'm really bad when it comes to play on time and i don't know what to do about it. I've lost huge amount of games with decisive advantage and i feel that people make jokes about me - "Hey this is guy who usually has winning position but losing anyway". It's embarassing. Sometimes people chat me that i will lose on time and i lose indeed. Maybe do you have some exercises for it? I'm a real time trouble.

One of the bits of advice that stuck in my mind (I tend to play too slow, trying to find the best moves I can) was that playing two moves after 60 seconds each will give you a higher average strength of move than playing one move at 90 then one move at 30.

In other words pace yourself (obviously) but this way of putting it spoke to the perfection-focused side of me... that I'm not playing worse by speeding myself up, on average I'll be playing better!

Of course difficult positions need extra time, but like you said, sometimes I know the move, but I take extra time to check it.

Although this is more OTB advice than for 10 minute chess heh.

As for exercises, maybe try 100 games of 2|0 chess. You'll get used to playing a move based on first impression instead of on calculation.

Well, the most obvious answer would be: play longer games, for example 15 min + 10 secs increment or 30 min games (maybe also with increment).

Even experienced players have sometimes the problem of simultaneously controlling their position and their time. This problem is fairly common and not restricted to beginners.

If the time is dropping below 5 min it may be a good idea to move after (let's say) 30 s - 1 min, later (below 2 min) also faster. Like everything it is a matter of training to evaluate the key features of a position in a limited time.

Having a clear plan helps also to play fast. If the advantage is really decisive often 30s / move are enough. Playing a game with increment is also helping.

O.

I've also heard the advice to think of it in terms of an investment. How likely is it that the amount of extra time invested will give a proportional increase in strength of the selected move?

For example in a difficult position, an extra 5 minutes may mean the difference between a winning move and a losing move! But Rad1 vs Rac1 in a quiet middlegame may objectively be worth 0.05 difference, so it's not worth any extra thought.

I want to play fast but do not make mistakes. Many people play faster than me but they tend to make blunders and mistakes and that is why i can have decisive advantage but often i have too little time to convert it into mate.

When I played blitz a lot, if I ever got a big advantage (up a piece and they have no real play), all I'd need is about 30 seconds and even if it took 40 moves it would be no problem and I'd usually win.

I think that understanding the winning idea very quickly and having the technique to do it you gain through long serious games i.e. OTB tournaments.

The other side of converting a clearly winning position in blitz is dodging all the cheap little tactics they can set up. What helps here, IMO, is having played a lot of 3|0 and 2|0 games.

3 and 2 minutes games sound very dangerous for me. Even if i have 2 minutes in a game where i have big advantage but not huge and it's not that clear how to convert it because an opponent smartly avoids exchanges and he can have counterplay then i can't think clearly and waste my time.

Yes, the first step is probably long serious games. If you spend 30 minutes winning a rook endgame, you're likely to remember how you did it. Or if your opponent tortures your weak pawns created after a minority attack for 2 hours you'll remember that too.

Games like 2|0 chess force you to play badly and if you play them often you'll develop bad habits, but they also force you to check for the most simple tactics over and over and over to where it becomes 2nd nature.

I'm the same. I suspect it's down to an inefficient thought process. I often find I calculate and then recalculate the same thing over and over. As one poster said, "perfectionism". That probably hit it on the head. Even now, I've read this post at least five times before sending. It's unnecessary, excessively meticulous and borderline neurotic. If you are anything like me, I guess the answer would be to make a conscious effect to structure thought processes better and to trust your workings out you've made in your head first time round rather than doubting your own mind. The silver lining? I don't think I've made any spelling mistakes.... or have I? I'll just read this again before posting. No, I don't think I have, but it's cost me a good part of my evening to type this!! Darn, one more check now I've typed more....

I'm not sure that it's about lack of technique. For instance recently i had Queen + Rook + several pawns against Rook + several pawns. I had maybe 10 second left and i couldn't checkmate him although it was simple of course. I was overwhelmed and couldn't think properly. Also I'm a little bit clumsy with a computer mouse. Sometimes my move can be slipped and I have trouble to move my pieces fast.