How Much Time Do You Spend Thinking?

I currently have five turn based games in progress. It makes me a bit nervous when thinking of adding more games, because I do spend time thinking over each move. In a complex middle game position, I could easily spend a few hours working out continuations before entering a move.

I recently had a chat with someone who at one time had 600 games in progress, with only 360 games in progress currently!  What is the average? 10 games? 20 games?

If you spent only 5 minutes per move, that would translate to 1 hour and 40 minutes to enter 20 moves. That sounds comfortable with 3 days per move.

What if all 20 games hit a critical moment (complex middle game position) at the same time? Ouch! Let's see...20 minutes x 20 games = 400 minutes, or 6 hours and 40 minutes. That would almost be a full work day!

How much time, on average, do you spend thinking on each move?

What advice do you have for someone who wishes to play more than 5 games?

I would imagine that my standard rating would drop, since I wouldn't have the time to go into these deep thinks as often. As a second year chess player, perhaps experience trumps ratings and/or best play? Is there such a thing as reasonable play in turn based chess?

What do you think?

Thank you.

i usually don't play more than two at a time, but that's more because i can't remember my plans for two many games at once.  but you know, it seems like now would be a good time for you to go ahead and load up with 30 - 50 more and give it a test :). 

Slow thinkers do nothing but piss me off...

It takes me about thirty seconds to two minutes per move.  I currently have 27 games going and I can remember what i want to do the next move.  I think that 40 or more is too much, but 30 or less is a good amount.

Average about 20 seconds, I would say.

sounds about right

I usually just rewind a few moves, try to remember my plan, analyze the position, and find a good move in 5-10 minutes. Sure, middle game takes longer, but I usually have one-two of those running, fortunately.

Right. You want me to give 30-50 games a test run while we just started a game! Advantage planeden.

Your rating is very high. How do you think that fast and play so well?

Then why don't you play live chess?

hmmm, i didn't even think of that. 

Some times I make a move in seconds and sometimes ponder over a move for a week.

1-5 seconds per move on average but if the game reaches a critical moment I could take up 10 minutes max.

2-5 minute, if it's very critical then maybe 7-10.

I don't know what about you, but i play max 10 games simoultaniously.

Through the book theory usually 30 seconds to a minute but in a critical position i will usually go for a goo 15-90 minutes. I can't understand the people who say 1 second to five minutes, that's how much time i spend on standard time controls!  

 That's the whole point of correspendence chess.

I usually take around 10-20 seconds per move. If it is a critical position I think for maybe a minute. I don't have the patience to think longer than that I just want to move on to the next game. I have found that for me to have 20-25 games going is the best. More and I just makes blunders because I get stressed by the number of moves I have to do (I never want to log off with "My Move" in any game) and less is just boring because I log in and often there are no moves to make. But how many games that are optimal is very personal so you should try out for yourself how many games you should have.

Sometimes, I make a move in a few seconds or a couple of minutes. But, once in awhile, I "feel" that there is a brilliant move embedded in the situation and spend literally hours going through the various lines. It's an advantage when playing correspondence chess. I may as well use it.

A friend and I play OTB chess without a clock and no time limit.  We wait patiently while the other thinks. But neither of us just sits there waiting, we think out our plans.   Our games average around 2 and a half hours.  However, it does not seem that long.