Avoiding time pressure

In my country, games are usually 60/0 (one hour), or 60/30 (one our with 30 second increment). Following Silman's advice I usually manage to get a good position when I reach the time pressure. Then, I ruin the position with some hasty moves and lose/draw the game. My opponent usually has 55 minutes on his clock while I have 5! People advise me to try to syncronize my time with my opponents, saying that I should make "normal, general moves that don't affect your game" when I have less time than him.

Do you agree?

Originally posted by anthias
In my country, games are usually 60/0 (one hour), or 60/30 (one our with 30 second increment). Following Silman's advice I usually manage to get a good position when I reach the time pressure. Then, I ruin the position with some hasty moves and lose/draw the game. My opponent usually has 55 minutes on his clock while I have 5! People advise me to try to sync ...[text shortened]... general moves that don't affect your game" when I have less time than him.

Do you agree?

I think that if you are left with 5 minutes against 55, you're taking way too much time on some of your moves. You may be spending far too much time on moves that aren't crucial - say, in a situation where 2 or 3 or more moves are close, and there are no serious tactical shots to worry about - leaving yourself not enough time to concentrate on the crucial moves.

Don't make "normal, general moves," though. Make moves you know are good, but be conscious that you may not be able to take quite as much time as you'd like to find a great move.

Originally posted by anthias
In my country, games are usually 60/0 (one hour), or 60/30 (one our with 30 second increment). Following Silman's advice I usually manage to get a good position when I reach the time pressure. Then, I ruin the position with some hasty moves and lose/draw the game. My opponent usually has 55 minutes on his clock while I have 5! People advise me to try to sync ...[text shortened]... general moves that don't affect your game" when I have less time than him.

Do you agree?

Dont worry about how much time your opponent takes the chances are they are getting it wrong anyway 🙂 If you have 60 mins for a game id concentrate on getting good opening prep, you can knock out the first 7-12 moves without much time spent at all and then concentrate on the middle game. Try not to spend too long in positional positions, a inferior move or two there wont cost you the game but when it becomes tactical then you should slow down and caculate things till you know what the outcome of a move will be for sure.

Good opening preparation can save your time, but dont forget - after opening (when you got out of theory you know) dont continue play so fast - make strategic plan for middle game.

Perhaps you should analyse the games afterwards and see why you are experiencing chronic time trouble. Is it because of the opening or because of the middlegame?

I would also suggest you play about 15 minutes of blitz to improve your play under pressure.