Why is standard time control so unpopular?

The standard OTB time control of 40/2 isn't even an available option here. There must not be much demand. Why not? You would think that games that mimic an OTB weekend Swiss would be more useful in improving your game.

I understand that blitz and bullet can be a lot of fun but those are what everyone plays out on the smoking patio while waiting for the next round of real games to start.

Think about what you could accomplish in 6 hours if you were not tied to sitting at the board for that amount of time.

Maybe you know it already but you can enter custom time controls when creating a game request..

Also, you migt want to look around in the groups, there are several ones for people wanting to play slow chess, such as "Slow Chess League" and "World Standard Time Control". These groups also arrange slow time control events on the live server.

everyone on here is a noob thats why

i also like to play longer timed games. ( 30|0 minimum, but prefetably 45|45 or 60|30), but the truth its that sometimes you can wait 1 hour before someone accept and then the opponent start plaiing "blitz style", getting a lost position in 5 mins and then he just let the game expire for retaliation. Waiting 5 minutes in a blitz game its not a big deal, but waiting 1 hour?

Sadly this happens quite often, so the best option so far its to join some slow chess team.

Would be great if chess.com implement a long time live chess  ( over 30 mins) with dedicated timeout percentage in order to be able to open a game request filtering those with a hign "timeout ratio".

I think OP makes a valid point. I think longer time controls should be implemented to better serve the players.

The thing its that you can set up the time control you want ( custom), but without some help from chess.com this would be never popular. Looking how many people are in the "slow chess teams" its clear that a lot of users would like to play slow chess. but the actual timeout control its good only for blitz, not for slow chess games.

We need to be able to open game request filtering who are not reliable. in other words we need a timeot % check as we have in online games.

BTW i also tried to look at ICC and fide arena to see if there the situation its better. Fide arena have a lot less players than chess.com, so foget about it. In ICC maybe its a bit easier to find long time players, but not so much either, and anyway there is not any feature to help us filtering idiots.

If chess.com will implement something,  would be the first site  ( as far i know) with something like that, and will for sure atract even more players. I woudl nopt mind if this advanced filtering feature would be available for "premium only".

Some good points here.

Most people prefer to play long games OTB, because you don't have to care about cheating or various impolite behaviours.

Please, define "most".

I'm sure most of chess player would like to play OTB, wich its not the same thing.  Probably the people who play chess in internet are the ones that don't have a chess club at the next door. 

Also extending your point , we could then ask ouself why we do not play also blitz games OTB, or why are we here at all. 

The answer its that probably because most of the people don't have a good chess club close enough and chess.com ( or equivalemt) its the best practical solution.

I love to play OTB when i canas i really enjoy to "push woods". Hell, i even use a real board when i play slow online games in internet! (30|0 or more). Its not the perfect solution, but its the best i can get, ad i can bet its the same for most of the people that play chess in internet.

I really want to play a 90|30 but unfortunately I tend to play quickly because of how I think

Not to mention that even if you DO have a good club next doors (as some of us have) and you DO get to play OTB regularily (as some of us get) it's nice to sit at home in the couch and get a slow chess game at a time that's convenient for you... try to get an OTB game at a club Friday at midnight 

This is part of the problem. Playing too many blitz games make give us the bad habit to move fast before considering all the options. This make us weak OTB players at standard time control.

I remember the fist time i saw a live match on internet. I was wondering what the hell those people was thinking!

On each move i chosed my move in matter of seconds, but the players ( i'm talking of top GM's here) was thinking for minutes and minutes.

What are they thinking for? Then, after 20 minutes or so of deep analisis, they moved a different ( obviously better) move, and i started to think: " if a top GM thinks 20 mins in a position like this, what are the chanches that i pondered well this positionin few seconds?"

The answer its obviously :"No chanche at all"

So i realized that i have to "learn to think", hence i'm trying to play longest time control possible to get used to calculate in a proper manner.

The "Dan Heisman Learning Center" group says it's about Slow Time Control games, and has lots of members, looks to be quite active.

Anyone got experience of this group? Can you get a slow game whenever you want if you're in this group?

ghillan wrote:

jetfighter13 wrote:

I really want to play a 90|30 but unfortunately I tend to play quickly because of how I think

This is part of the problem. Playing too many blitz games make give us the bad habit to move fast before considering all the options. This make us weak OTB players at standard time control.

I remember the fist time i saw a live match on internet. I was wondering what the hell those people was thinking!

On each move i chosed my move in matter of seconds, but the players ( i'm talking of top GM's here) was thinking for minutes and minutes.

What are they thinking for? Then, after 20 minutes or so of deep analisis, they moved a different ( obviously better) move, and i started to think: " if a top GM thinks 20 mins in a position like this, what are the chanches that i pondered well this positionin few seconds?"

The answer its obviously :"No chanche at all"

So i realized that i have to "learn to think", hence i'm trying to play longest time control possible to get used to calculate in a proper manner.

Well I mean that naturally I think quickly, I tend to mix up my lines if I don't have a tool to keep my lines separate...

The DHLC and its sister group "Slow Chess League" offer tournaments for 45/45 games, ranging from seven rounds (one per week) down to only one round! However in all of these games you are paired with a specific opponent and have to negotiate a time that suites both players for the game.

More Cacual games are supported by the DHLC chat club team which is "open" regularly. Go there on the announced opening time and you will find people willing to play a slow game on the live server. 

In addition to this you can build a network of friends who like playing slow chess games. Note that when you are logged into the live server you can see all your friends that also are logged in and challenge them to a game.

Generally, DHLC and all associated groups are very, very well moderated and controlled, I highly recommend it.

Thanks for the response Bishop-Brask, that was exactly what I wanted to know

I think part of the problem is that the site seems completely geared towards blitz/bullet.  For example, if you put out a challenge in Live for a 45/45 game, the dot is completely off the right-hand-side of the chart.  The shorter standard time controls that are on the chart aren't really that different to Blitz and are still way shorter than most OTB tournament time controls.  Then, if you do get a game, more often than not your opponent plays it as if it were Blitz anyway and gets frustrated because you're taking so long.

It would be great if we could have a new time control 'category' (maybe call it OTB or something), with its own chart and rating pool.  Maybe it could start at 1 hour per side.  I think it would help encourage longer-time control pay on the site.

Right now, the best way to find a long-time control game is through one of the slow-play groups, but I think its a shame Chess.com doesn't really cater for this.

blitz...