Players who move fast in long time control games

Hi everyone,

I tend to play games with longer time controls (like 45 mins + 45 sec increments). I've had quite a few opponents who move very fast even with those time controls, like after 20-30 moves they still have 45 mins on their clock.

I'm just wondering what that means. At those time controls, I tend to take my time for each move (I'd say I use a "normal" amount of time) but these opponents will move after a few seconds. 

Does that mean they're very good at anticipating my moves and are very efficient in using my time to think about their moves? I don't think these people are cheating because many of them have played many games here on chess.com so cheating would have been detected. (I also don't want to turn this thread into a discussion of cheating).

Anyway, have any of you had the same experience? Why do people choose to play long time controls if they want to play fast? Maybe it's their experience that allows them to anticipate my moves? Any thoughts?

(PS. these opponents are of similar rating to me) 

Well, they're not playing to the full potential of their ability. I doubt there is a single reason why people do that.

I think many people see a 45 45 game as a game "without clocks", because they have simply made up their mind after half a minute or so and just play. They have never learned to take more time than that.

You see it with over the board chess too, many youth players move much too fast as well, the ones who actually use their time are the ones that become better quickly.

There will be other reasons as well, maybe they were hoping to practice their favorite opening but you didn't play into it and they lost interest, or they think they are already winning or lost, or you had the audacity to exchange queens and now the game is boring, et cetera.

Anyway, they haven't yet learned to play their best, and you should take advantage of it.

It reminds me of those people who play 3-day online chess and then get annoyed when you don't reply immediately.

Sometimes I play 15 | 10 chess and play way too quickly, just because I'm in the blitz mindset.

When I play 5 minutes blitz game after playing a lot of longer time control games, I play slower for the first few games. And when after I played a lot of blitz games I play a standard time control game and I find myself playing moves faster than usual. But I adjust to normal speed after 2 or 3 games. Age is also a factor when it comes to a player's speed.

I'm one of those guys. This is a vicious, a bad habit. We think that we can understand the position easily and there are no complications, so we trust in our flawed intuition. And in my case it's not a habit from blitz: I played here 19 bullet, 182 blitz and 823 standard games. I think I'm very impulsive by nature.

I too am one of those.

Its a bad habit.

Thanks for all the comments!

I typically move fairly fast as well.  I usually don't need more than 10 min or so, though sometimes I do make mistakes.  That said, I can usually whip through the first 10 moves or so without having to think too hard, but after that I try to slow down some.  Even still I tend to play a bit faster than I should.

Lack of patience, fear of defeat, poor habit, immaturity, overly confident, trying to intimidate.. list goes on and they're all negative. The best thing to do in that sort of situtation if you're dealing with an opponent like that is to try and make the position more complicated so that they're eventually forced to think longer which evidently they're not very good at doing and could work in your favor. 

I have this problem. I recently played in an OTB tournament with 2 hours for 40 moves and a 30 minute add on and a 10 second delay . At the end of the game I had 10 minutes more than when I started. I think it stems from playing untimed online games for years. I felt compelled to move quickly because I didn't want to make them sit all day when there's no clock. And I think that impulse has just carried over. My intuition is decent most of the time so I just find reasonable moves and make them quickly. Obviously I should take my time to look for better options since time pressure wouldn't be an issue for me regardless. It's a double edged sword . I play so quickly that I often slowly fall into a worse position, but at the critical point my opponents clock is winding down and they cracked under the pressure. So it's a give and take.

It also plays into my hands pretty well in the later rounds. My opponents are often exhausted from hours and toiling away at variations while I'm still relatively fresh since I don't exert my mind too much during my rounds. I always seem to finish strong in final round games and I think that may be a big reason why.

Here's my meat for This thread. I usually play 1 or3 minute games. The ONLY reason I play long games is to boost my rating for those long games... So I play fast on long games. It doesn't mean that people like me are any worse because we don't think much it just means that some fast players only do it for reasons like mine. That's all ^_^

You play fast in long games because you want to improve your long game rating? How logical.

Lexicanum181 wrong. I play fast because I'm used to it. I know it's a long game but I just can't resist playing fast. It's just what I'm used too... You actually think on a 30 min game I'm trying to win by time? Oh gosh!

It is human psychology - a phenomena called instant gratification. By nature we're all tempted to act quick and see the result, we're wired by stories and we'd like to know what happens next. Training and education curbs this - for the good and bad - but everybody has the impulse. Some just choose to act on it where others are patient/wiser. 

Pay attention to their accuracy.If they move very fast all the time and their moves are always accurate, this suggests engine usage.

Otherwise, it's as people said here. They're not playing to their full potential.

They can move very quickly and accurately with no engine depending on their rating.  Even then, if it is less than 20 moves in, someone around my rating will every now and again get the "perfect game"; usually by catching the opponent in a trap.  

It also depends on the position. The Alapin Sicilian, for example, is easier to play. But the French Winawer, poisoned pawn variation, is more complicated. If your opponent moves fast no matter and accurately no matter what you throw at him/her, you should be suspicious (of course, more than one game might be needed to find this out).