Time Management

Martin Burrows, 8 November 2024 There is a huge amount of chess literature but very little of it covers the important area of how to manage your time. When I am playing in the league I often look over to see that the other match being played on the night, involving several of our promising juniors, has finished by 8.30pm. Then about half an hour later I am distracted by the thud of the clock on an adjacent board as one of the time trouble addicts on my own team has left themselves less than a minute by move 25 to navigate a complicated middlegame. Clearly both approaches fail to maximise your chances of playing the best moves and getting a good result. That leads me to my first conclusion: Adults should play more quickly; juniors should play more slowly!

Managing your time in a league game

Most matches are played at a time control of 75 minutes for the whole game. There is also a 10 second per move increment, but I will ignore that to keep things simple. You don’t know how many moves a game will last, or what part of the game will require you to spend a lot of time. However, you can come up with a rough outline that will be broadly applicable for most games. Typically the first 10 moves will get played quickly (say in 5 minutes) as you are playing a known opening line. You don’t know if you will end up playing an endgame, but it is probably a good idea to aim to still have around 10 minutes on the clock at move 40. This leads to the approximate timeframe in the table below. This is only a rough guide and there will be occasions when you spend more or less time that the ‘budget’, depending on the complexity of the position.

How long to spend on each move: The ABCD approach

The ‘budget’ above allows an average of 2 minutes per move from moves 10 to 40. However that does not mean you should spend 2 minutes on each move. I split moves into 4 types (Automatic, Basic, Calculation, Deeper). This is largely based on the model used by Jacob Aagaard in his book “Thinking Inside the Box”.

1.

Automatic moves

You should only spend a few seconds on these. Examples are: • There is only one legal move in the position. • There is only one sensible move in the position. For example your opponent has just played queen takes queen and there is only one move to recapture their queen. • You are still in ‘book’ and are certain of what the right move is e.g. after 1.e4 e5 if you always play 2.Nf3 then there is no point spending time on it. As you get further down the opening line and become less sure you should spend a little longer checking what you are playing.

2.

Basic moves

These are moves where there isn't much to calculate, and the evaluation of the position between the best and other moves is not significant. These moves should take 1-2 minutes on average. There are a wide range of plausible moves for white here. You could play a rook to d1 or e1, create some luft with g3 or h3, offer a queen trade with Qf3 or Qb5. Stockfish gives 1.Rfe1 as the best move, with an evaluation of -0.17. Its 10th best move is 1.g3, with an evaluation of - 0.25. Against each of these moves black would also have a choice of around 10 moves with a similar evaluation. It is pointless trying to work out all the possibilities, so just play a sensible move fairly quickly. Before you move you should do a blunder check to make sure you aren’t missing any tactics. In particular look out for any threats or opportunities that your opponent’s last move may have created.

3.

Calculation

Sometimes you need to do some concrete calculation and work through the variations. This is particularly important when there are a number of forcing moves in the position (checks, captures, threats) The amount of time will depend on the complexity of the calculation, but typically you might spend 5-10 minutes. White has sacrificed a piece for a dangerous attack. Black to move has a number of options (Qe7 -best move, -1.8 per Stockfish; Re8? +2.3, Kg8 -0.1). You can only make the correct choice by calculating the lines, and it is worth spending plenty of time on this as it is complex and is the critical moment in the game.

4.

Deeper thinking

This is where you need to delve into the position more than for a Basic move. For example: a) Your first think when you are out of theory. You should try to remember the key plans for both sides. If your opponent has played a move that is not in your book then try to work out how it may be inferior and whether you can exploit it. Also, it is good to spend a few minutes on your first real decision, to get yourself settled down. b) There is a particular problem to solve. For example, how am I going to develop that knight on b8 that currently has no squares. c) The position has changed significantly. This could be a change in the pawn structure that changes the nature of the position and forces you to re-think your plans. Another example would be a trade of queens when you may need to forget about your attack and think in terms of endgame plans. d) When you think your opponent has made a weak move. Don’t rush as it may be a clever trap. Just calmly work through the variations. e) When your opponent plays a move you did not expect. The worst thing you can do is panic and play a quick move. Instead you should calmly sit there and work out the point of the move and whether it can be exploited. You should look to spend 5-10 minutes on these moves. You can probably afford a longer think (Calculation or Deeper thinking) about once every 5 moves.

Other considerations

• Make a note of your clock times. I do this every 5 moves, but you can do it every move if you prefer. This helps you budget your time during the game, and afterwards you can look at whether you allocated your time wisely. • If you keep finishing your games with an hour on the clock then you are probably suffering from playing too much online blitz that gets you into the habit of moving without thinking deeply. Try playing some longer time limits online or in casual games at the club. Also, look through your games and try to identify the moments where you would have benefitted from a longer think. • If you have the opposite problem and get short of time every game, then you are probably treating every move as Deeper thinking and should play more Basic moves. • Occasionally getting into time trouble isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes the game will be really complex, or you are playing a strong opponent who is setting you lots of problems. It is only an issue if it happens every game. • You should pay careful attention to your opponent’s moves but with the clock the opposite is true. Ignore it, and play at your own tempo. Don’t get drawn into playing at their fast pace. It doesn’t matter if you are 30 minutes down on the clock. It isn’t a race and you don’t get extra points for having more time at the end. Alternatively, if your opponent gets short of time, don’t be tempted to move quickly to pressure them into a mistake. You are far more likely to make one yourself.