Hello,
I completely understand your frustration with the current time control format in chess. The remnants of old adjournment rules do seem to create unnecessary time pressure and affect the quality of games. A single time control with an increment, like 2 hours for the entire game plus a 30-second increment, could indeed allow players to showcase their best moves without the added stress of arbitrary time checkpoints. This approach might help maintain the integrity and excitement of classical chess. It's time for organizers to consider more practical and player-friendly time controls. flvs student loginBest regards,
David Scott
Should Classical Chess Time Controls Change?
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After watching the time scramble played between Gukesh and Anish starting from move 30 in the first round of the Tata Steel Masters, I couldn't help but be reminded how weird the standard classical time controls are for these top level events. For this tournament the time control is 1 hr 40 min for the first 40 moves, then 50 min for the next 20, then 15 for the rest of the game with 30 sec increment. It is definitely not an intuitive way to distribute time to the players, and ends up creating weird situations where players have to play with no time on the clock until they reach the arbitrary move 40, forcing bad moves which ultimately decrease the quality of the games.
I always thought the reasoning behind this was to help players distribute their clock management better, but after a little research, I found that it is actually the remnants of the old adjournment rules that stopped games at move 40 and let players finish on another day. Of course, the time control we have now is not even close to how the game was played in adjournment days. First of all, adjournment was used to give players MORE time to think, not to rush them in the middle of the game. Personally, I would much rather watch games with a single time control (2 hr for the whole game, plus an increment). I believe that the point of classical chess is to allow players to showcase their best chess moves, which to me is the best form of entertainment, not 2 players making blunder after blunder, ruining a very well played game, then after time control take a sip of tea and getting up to use the restroom.
Surely I am not the only one who thinks this right? Eventually, organizers should start to take a more common sense approach to these time controls. It only makes sense!
(BTW, the time scramble I was referencing)