Time Controls in Chess

In chess, usually we won't like seeing our opponent think forever 😑
Because of this, we put a clock. It works like this:

• At the start of the game, both players have a time of (something) each.
• White starts the game. White's time starts first.
• White makes a move. Online, we do this automatically. Over the board we typically "click the clock".
• White"s time pauses and Black"s time starts.
• This continues until the game is finished.

Insane Time Controls

These time controls are insane; That means it's so fast it ain't even chess.

PRO-TIP: Don't play these time controls to improve. Instead play rapid.

• ULTRABULLET🚅: 15 seconds for each player (more generally, any time control where each player has less than 30 seconds on the clock)
• HYPERBULLET😵‍💫: Between UltraBullet and Bullet chess. The most common type is 30 seconds. On certain platforms, 0 | 1 is also quite common.
• BULLET🔥🏃: The most common types are 1 | 0, 1 | 1, and 2 | 0. Generally, we call it bullet if (base time in seconds) plus (40 times increment in seconds) is less than three and greater than or equal one.

Blitz🔥

Blitz chess range from three to nine minutes. They are not too fast; they are playable; still, we do not recommend playing this all the time. Play this MAX 2-3 times a week for optimal improvement.

Common types of blitz include 3 | 0 (aka SuperBlitz), 3 | 2, 5 | 0, 5 | 2, and 5 | 3.

The longer blitz formats (six to nine minutes) are commonly called Long Blitz; no mainstream name exists for them, however individual chess coaches, etc might make up stuff like "Double Blitz" to fit schedules or training aims.

Rapid🏃

This is what you should be playing the most.

Nowadays 15 | 10 is the most common OTB time control for rapid. However, we do call 20 | 5, 20 | 10, 25 | 5, 25 | 10, 30 | 10, etc., Standard Rapid on this platform.

In online, most people don't have time for 15 | 10 or longer controls. Thus, controls like 10 | 0 and 10 | 5 are more popular online.

Classical🐢

This is the "serious" time control. Any time control sixty minutes or above is classical. It is not popular online because it takes too long (most people don't have time for this!!)

In OTB this is most common for serious tournaments. Most common classical time control is 90 | 30.