Why can’t there be 40 minute games?

I play a lot of 30 minute games, and it has happened several times that I’ve gotten 1-3 moves from checkmate but run out of time, and thus lose on time. Like once I just needed to get my queen two squares over but I had .3 of a second left and couldn’t move my thumb fast enough. It’s very frustrating to take a loss from a winning position just because the clock ran out. I wish there were an option for a 40 or 45 minute game. I know you can choose a custom time and slide it to whatever you like, but every time I’ve tried that and tried to start the game it can never find an opponent match, likely because no one else happens to be seeking the same custom time at that moment. If there were a button to choose 40 as a suggestion, like there is for 30 or 15 for example, maybe more players would choose it. I submitted a request for this, and the response was basically “we’ll see what the developers can do but we think most people prefer 30 minutes”. Then nothing further. What’s the harm in having an additional option for a slightly longer game? If it was available, I bet I’m not the only one who would prefer it. I don’t see what’s so special about 30 minutes...as far as I know professional games have a much longer limit. Yeah yeah, I should make my moves faster. I just play for fun and it would be really nice to take the frustration out of it. Does anyone else have this problem? If there were a 40 or 45 minute option would you choose it at least some of the time?

There's already a 45/45 option. Click on Custom and then More.... (may depend on platform). Under custom, you can also choose any time limit and increment you want. E.g., 37 minutes 4 seconds with a 19 second increment. You can also play daily games.

Edit - sorry for skimming the details of OP's post

Yes I realize that albacored but as I said above, any time I set a custom time, whether it’s 40 minutes or whatever, I can’t find an opponent. It just searches and searches. Maybe I’m wrong but I assume this is because there has to be someone else out there looking for a game who has also set their custom time to exactly the same value as me. My point is, if there were a 40 minute button just like there is for 30 minute and other standard times, there would be greater likelihood of finding an opponent. And yes I play daily chess games too but I also like to play games that start and finish in one sitting.

Also after clicking on Custom I don’t see an option for “More” as you say. Whether that is a platform difference, I don’t know. I play in the chess.com app on an iPhone.

Just get faster

Just keep in mind that most people are too lazy to read that. by your question well, either you play faster in 30Min Games, wait 1 century for someone to join a custom time control, or play 45I45 in case your too slow for 30Min Games.

Personally I don't think there's much or any likelihood of a 40/45 minute option being introduced. One argument against it would be dispersing the relatively small pool of players looking for longer games among even more variables, leading to longer wait times for most (even if maybe not for you). 

 

If you have a 40 minute seek out, it can be accepted by anyone that sees it, there doesn't have to be someone else seeking the same length of game. Maybe widen your rating parameters so more people can see your seek - or join one of the slow time control clubs and schedule a 40 min game with someone by arrangement.

45|45 is ~75 minutes, but it sounds like you're looking for something shorter. There's a 15|10, which is ~22 minutes. I think it makes sense for G/30 and G/60 to change to 20|15 and 40|30 so that winning positions are far less likely to be lost on time. If that happened, 45|45 could be changed to 60|45 for those who want a G/90 feeling.

it's because 40 minutes doesn't look nice. You have 30, which is 1/2 of 60, which is one hour. You have 45, which is 3/4 of an hour. But 40 is 2/3, which is a really ugly fraction imo