The Philosophy of HitThePin: Time Controls

Hello, chess.com! I’m HitThePin, and thank you for aiming your eyeballs at a screen and reading my blog. 

Chess.com, as you probably know, offers a wide variety of time controls, ranging from an ultrabullet 15 seconds for the whole game to the grinding, two weeks/move daily games. Some people are more comfortable in certain time controls and others. It’s almost like a gauntlet of personalities towards time.

And among this gauntlet of personalities, there are two extremes. One extreme is the classical player, the daily king. He has the stamina to concentrate for five hours on the same game. He thrives in long time controls, but throw him into a 30|0 game and he’ll completely panic.

The other extreme is the speed player of the new generation. He has all sorts of tricks to throw you off, from his weird opening to his unsound sacrifices. With less than a minute under his clock, he still remains calm under the pressure and plays to a high degree of skill. But throw the guy into a 3|0 game and he’ll blunder enough for anyone to beat him.

As with many things in life, I believe that the correct, or best personality is in between the two extremes. Both of these personalities are completely missing out on most of the time controls. There are multiple time controls and multiple ratings for each profile on chess.com for a reason! A complete experience involves playing at all time controls. 

And, as such, you’ll find me, as I say in my profile, “playing at any time control”. I can proudly say that I have played every regular time control offered on chess.com. (Ok, busted, I haven’t done 45|45). How many users can say that they did that? I feel that a good proportion cannot.

And, honestly, however much time you have, it is still the same game. It is still chess. As we have seen from the elite chess players, a truly good chess player has the capability to play chess with any amount of time.

So, we should broaden our horizons. Try something new, maybe. There’s an infinite number of time controls available for you, just waiting to be played. (1|60? Sure why, not?) 

So, what are you waiting for?

Hey, thanks for reading my post! Since you’ve already come so far as to view the post, why not go all the way and drop a comment as well? Is this philosophy idea good? Any suggestions? I do read and appreciate every comment you give.

Hope this post was everything you hoped for. See you around!