Where am I getting into time trouble?

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Jaybird127

I'm very happy with my chess progress. I'm no longer losing in the opening or down a piece starting the middle game and I'm playing more of my games deeper into the endgame.

Unfortunately, I'm losing many of them due to time pressure/ trouble.

Where are good tools to give a player like me an idea where I'm dropping the most time in my 30 minute games?

chessterd5
Jaybird127 wrote:

I'm very happy with my chess progress. I'm no longer losing in the opening or down a piece starting the middle game and I'm playing more of my games deeper into the endgame.

Unfortunately, I'm losing many of them due to time pressure/ trouble.

Where are good tools to give a player like me an idea where I'm dropping the most time in my 30 minute games?

Losing on time is the symptom not the actual problem.

A) If you are running out of time in the middle game, it is because you are calculating every move and simply reacting to your opponent's moves with out a long term or short term plan.

Read Reasses Your Chess by Jeremy Silman

B) if you are running out of time in the endgame, it is because you don't have a practical knowledge of endgames. Meaning being able to look at the position and know where to put your pawns, king, minor pieces etc to achieve a certain endgame result.

Read 100 Endgames That You Must Know by GM Jesus De la Villa.

When I say read, I mean play through every diagram in each book with a board and pieces.

You should start seeing results soon.

tygxc

@1

"I'm very happy with my chess progress." ++ Good

"I'm no longer losing in the opening" ++ Good.

"or down a piece starting the middle game" ++ Good.

"I'm playing more of my games deeper into the endgame." ++ Good.

"I'm losing many of them due to time pressure/ trouble."
++ Do you lose on time, or do you lose because you speed up for fear of losing on time?
If you lose on the board with time left on your clock, then you played too fast, slow down.
If you lose on time in a lost position, then you gave it your best effort. Identify your mistakes and learn from them.
If you lose on time in a won or drawn position, then you played too slowly.
Identify the move that cost you most time. Was it a good move?
Why did it take you so long? Could you have played it faster?

"Where are good tools to give a player like me an idea where I'm dropping the most time"
After a game you lost on time,
look at the times per move and identify the move that took you most time.

"in my 30 minute games?"
++ Better play 15|10. It is the official rapid time control like for the Rapid World Championship. Thanks to the increment you have time to win a won position or draw a drawn position.

Jaybird127
tygxc wrote:

"in my 30 minute games?"
++ Better play 15|10. It is the official rapid time control like for the Rapid World Championship. Thanks to the increment you have time to win a won position or draw a drawn position.

I've vacillated between 30 min and 15|10; unsure which I like better. When I play on my iPad, I play 15|10; lately I've been playing on my Chestnut Evo and thought 15|10 was too fast, as I also have to move for my opponent, then I start thinking. That's why I switched to 30min there. I consider the site should have different ratings for each time control.

tygxc

@4
Assuming a game of 60 moves, 15|10 lasts 50 minutes and 30|0 lasts 60 minutes, no big difference. On the other hand with 30|0 you can get into time trouble with less than 10 seconds per move. So you can more fully utilise 15|10 than 30|0.