Chess quality vs Time control

I'm curious about how much you chess play increases with a long time control for those of you on here who uses different timecontrols.

I know that going from 1 day timeout to 3 day timeout would increase you play quite a bit. I play 1 day timeout, 7 day timebank but for several moves I use my timebank and move after 2-3 days after I know what the best move is.

So 3 days compared to 1 day increases you chess a lot.

But what about those of you who play with a 3 and 7 day timeouts.

Do you think your chess really improves that much by using a 7 day timeout compared to a 3 day timeout?

I mean 3 days should be good enough to find the move, and I can't see how spending 4 extra days really improving your play.

Sort of like letting a computer think for say 3 hours on 1 move compared to letting it think for 5 hours. After a point, the extra time is just useless.

What do you guys think?

Originally posted by Sicilian Smaug
I normally use 3/7 time controls as a safety net. I move very quickly in all my games, but i just like to have that timebank in case the game continues into a time when im on holiday. I'd hate to be timed out, it's never happened yet and i intend for it to never happen.

Actually I meant using say 3 day timeout vs 7 day timeout with the timebank not being relevant. So say either they both have no timebank or they both have the same timebank but you didn't use them in either case.

Originally posted by RahimK
Do you think your chess really improves that much by using a 7 day timeout compared to a 3 day timeout?

I mean 3 days should be good enough to find the move, and I can't see how spending 4 extra days really improving your play.

I play mostly games with a 7 day timeout or more. That doesn't mean I spend much more time to decide on the moves than I would in a 3 day timeout. But I have a lot of active games, and I don't look at all of them every day. Sometimes I concentrate on a few games in which I may move several times a day, while I leave the rest alone for a few days (sometimes I have a quick look at them so that I don't completely forget what's going on in them). So I don't think it improves my play, but it enables me to play more games. I am trying to reduce my game load, though, and if I manage to do so, I may start playing more 3 day timeouts again. I find that I can lose track when I am playing too many slow games.

Originally posted by RahimK
...I mean 3 days should be good enough to find the move, and I can't see how spending 4 extra days really improving your play....

I almost exclusively play 7-day timeouts minimum. I don't spend anymore time (the "extra" four days) looking for a better move, though. I just like to have the extra time available to me for finding the best move. I'm really trying to improve my chess, so I spend a lot of time reading books instead of playing games. Once I get a better grasp on chess, I may take on 3-day timeouts. That will take years, though, I'm sure, at least if I want to maintain a balance with the rest of my life.

3/7 or longer is a nice safety net. In general I log in and move in each of my waiting games 1 or more times a day, but sometimes work is very hectic (12+ hour days) and I don't get the chance. A timebank would do the same thing, but 3 days also means I don't have to move over the weekend if I don't want to.