Per-move time controls
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Hi, I started playing a couple of months ago and I realized I hate the time pressure. I think having a mode where you have X minutes per move would be pretty nice.
In my mind it would work pretty much like the mode for daily/weekly moves but for a couple of minutes instead of days.
What do you guys think? And is there an official way to ask for a specific feature like this?
The format W|X means you have W minutes total but gain X seconds for each move (called an increment).
You can do custom increments on chess.com by clicking "more time controls" and scrolling to the bottom.
However, it seems the maximum increment in chess.com is 60 seconds. But maybe you could try doing a 1|60 game and see how it feels? You would need someone else to pick your challenge up, though; so it'll take longer to find an opponent than one of the "standard" time controls.
Yeah I know about time increments, but it doesn't provide exactly the same experience I'm talking about. Even if I could set a 2|120 game for example, that could easily spiral into a ton of extra time accumulated. If it was a set 2 minutes per turn for example no turn could last more than that amount. I think that would remove a lot of the time pressure while still making for a decently fast paced game.
And there's also the issue you mention where it takes a lot longer to find opponents with custom time controls, so it would be cool if it was added to the standard choices.
I've put some thought into this. I wouldn't mind a system persé in my games cos people do take their time making moves sometimes. I generally play 1 hour games cos I enjoy the relaxed nature of them matches, but it can come with the setback that one would be waiting a long time for players to make moves. When push come to shove though, I consider that part of the territory.
When playing matches I'm confident in, I normally make a move within 10 seconds. Semi confident, usually between 30 and about 1 minute. When I really have to stop and think, I can take up to three minutes. When I really, really, have to stop and think, I've taken up to 15 before today - though they're usually single moves and quite rare 😲
I feel the 1 hour time limit gives a nice balance to the speed of the game - they're not going on forever. It gives "slower people" (such as elderly) the chance to legitimately play without rushing, and there's no unwarranted time pressures. Having a "per-move" clock would remove all of that.
I don't think you really need a "per move clock" for your more typical blitz and bullet matches; them games are often over before you can blink anyway so the setup they have for those is fine.