Go back
How long do you spend on a game?

How long do you spend on a game?

Only Chess

h
Hopeless romantic

The sticks

Joined
01 Oct 06
Moves
41291
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

Alright, so we all know that thorough analysis is in general a good thing if you want to play at your peak, but how long do you actually spend thinking about your moves for any particular game? Obviously it will vary widely depending on the type of game, but I reckon it's about 45 minutes or so as an average for me, though I have been known to take an hour to stare at an individual position. Any advance on that, or any mind boggling feats of blitzing out there?

i
SelfProclaimedTitler

Joined
06 Feb 06
Moves
23543
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by hunterknox
Alright, so we all know that thorough analysis is in general a good thing if you want to play at your peak, but how long do you actually spend thinking about your moves for any particular game? Obviously it will vary widely depending on the type of game, but I reckon it's about 45 minutes or so as an average for me, though I have been known to take an hou ...[text shortened]... an individual position. Any advance on that, or any mind boggling feats of blitzing out there?
10-20 seconds. It gives me plenty of time to be frustrated when I lose ๐Ÿ˜›

Ponderable
chemist

Linkenheim

Joined
22 Apr 05
Moves
670010
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by ivan2908
10-20 seconds. It gives me plenty of time to be frustrated when I lose ๐Ÿ˜›
10-20 seconds on a game? That's faster than Blitz. Maybe per move? That would be about what I use.

i
SelfProclaimedTitler

Joined
06 Feb 06
Moves
23543
Clock
01 Jul 08
2 edits
Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by Ponderable
10-20 seconds on a game? That's faster than Blitz. Maybe per move? That would be about what I use.
10-20 seconds per move, of course. So, that can be less then 10 minutes for a game. If the opponent is below 1500 then sometimes even less than 10 seconds per move. When I was non sub on this site, last februar in the mid 1200 range I was annoyed with my impatince and I started 6 six games with "Serious game" name, analyzing them and spending at least 5 minutes on a move and I won 5 times in a row against 1500-1600 players. Now I would probably do that against 1700-1800 players. After all, I should be able to play chess good after practicing and learning seriously for more than three years. I just can not control myself in any form of chess except OTB (against worthy opponent - against weak I go for cheap traps and can lose badly ๐Ÿ˜›). Then I play by 200-300 points stronger then my internet games (blitz or CC, doesn't matter)

STS

Joined
07 Feb 07
Moves
62961
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

Usually a few seconds per move, rarely over 10.

z

127.0.0.1

Joined
27 Oct 05
Moves
158564
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by Sam The Sham
Usually a few seconds per move, rarely over 10.
me too. There are occasional exceptions such as when I find myself winning against a 1700+ opponent.

l

Milton Keynes, UK

Joined
28 Jul 04
Moves
81605
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

First move - less than a second.

Still within opening (2 to 10 moves usually) - 5 to 20 seconds.

Complex positions in the middle game - Will look at the game, note down some lines (this process can take a few mins). I usually leave the game and come back, check through the lines again, see if there are problems. This stage of the game can take 10 mins or much longer (quantifying exactly how long I am looking at the board will be difficult as I am often jumping in and out of the game looking at the possible lines, sometimes will take well over an hour on a single position in total).

Sometimes I am too hasty and still make a serious blunder. When I am down in material, I still will take my time and see if there are tactical winning lines I could spot (also depends on the strength of my opponent).

The endgame if there are usually a few pieces left, I will have various lines noted down and figure out within 10 seconds what move to make. I also have conditional moves set up, so in forced wins, I just let the conditional moves make it for me and often do not have to look at the game again.

w
If Theres Hell Below

We're All Gonna Go!

Joined
10 Sep 05
Moves
10228
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

I try not to move within the hour I first see my opponent's move. even better if I can put it off another day. or next week.

on hard games, I probably average on a couple of hours of total effective thinking time per move. that spread over a week. never underestimate the power of your subconscious, it'll work the problem on background if you just keep feeding the position to it every now and then. the maximum time per move probably goes up to dozens of hours, a few hours at a time.

quite often you end up with the move which you thought of in first 30 seconds, but it isn't that rare to suddenly see the light even after a week. in bed, toilet, garden or during a movie, just suddenly realize something really simple you missed all week.

blitzing is always bad in CC. even if you don't blunder, you'll miss a lot of possibilities, and easily end up with your (possible) advantage disappearing into thin air. there simply seems to always be some unforeseen defensive resource for your opponent if you try to blitz the 'win' home. and of course it all usually happens against much lower rated players, which makes losing the winning potential that more frustrating. so just don't. do. it.

also, if you follow the stronger players, you'll find out that they never rush it. they'll take their sweet time even with 'obvious' moves. I guess they've all learned it the hard way. rushing moves is very much a problem typical to low rated players.

making bad moves fast is nothing to be proud of. they're bad moves, of course they didn't require any time.

l

Milton Keynes, UK

Joined
28 Jul 04
Moves
81605
Clock
01 Jul 08
2 edits
Vote Up
Vote Down

I expect stronger players would have found better moves. I was down in material but took my time on move 12.

Game 5124186

12. ..Nb4 to encourage my opponent to take. If he did, I would have returned with 13. ..Bxb4 and then he would have been in a lot of trouble.

My opponent spotted this though, but I persisted and took my time. Ended up that I could have mated on move 17, but I got there in the end. ๐Ÿ˜•

h
Hopeless romantic

The sticks

Joined
01 Oct 06
Moves
41291
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by wormwood

If you follow the stronger players, you'll find out that they never rush it. they'll take their sweet time even with 'obvious' moves. I guess they've all learned it the hard way. rushing moves is very much a problem typical to low rated players.

making bad moves fast is nothing to be proud of. they're bad moves, of course they didn't require any time.
Sounds like sage advice from a strong player. It'd be interesting to know how far that extra minute/5 minutes/half an hour etc would affect your rating. I'm 1600ish now. I feel an experiment coming on...

K

Hollow earth

Joined
29 Apr 08
Moves
2472
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

10 to 30 seconds per move untill we reach a complex/intresting position,then I can take hours/days trying to find a good plan or combination.

i
SelfProclaimedTitler

Joined
06 Feb 06
Moves
23543
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by hunterknox
Sounds like sage advice from a strong player. It'd be interesting to know how far that extra minute/5 minutes/half an hour etc would affect your rating. I'm 1600ish now. I feel an experiment coming on...
You can always try to write your stats so you will know the right correlation between thinking time / rating fluctuation

l

Milton Keynes, UK

Joined
28 Jul 04
Moves
81605
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

Originally posted by hunterknox
Sounds like sage advice from a strong player. It'd be interesting to know how far that extra minute/5 minutes/half an hour etc would affect your rating. I'm 1600ish now. I feel an experiment coming on...
Yes, I take my time in a lot of moves, but now and again I am tempted to rush a move because it looks good only to find it to be a serious blunder. I am currently making serious cut backs on my game load and going to try and make an effort to take my time on just a few games. Hopefully this will train me to not make hasty moves and blunder so I can gradually apply this to more games and improve my rating.

Chris Guffogg
Alekhine's Gun

๐Ÿค” Bolton

Joined
10 May 07
Moves
169657
Clock
01 Jul 08
Vote Up
Vote Down

Depending on my mood or how much wine I've had I'll spend as much time as my time bank will allow (the longer you analyse a position the more you see) because for me that's what it's there for.I however like many others here get impulsive and nearly always pay the price,which I'm trying to remove from my game with some success.I also found opponents gradings a distraction when I first started here but soon learned to treat all like equals or better than me.

d

Joined
29 Mar 07
Moves
1260
Clock
01 Jul 08
3 edits
Vote Up
Vote Down

  • 8
  • a
  • 7
  • b
  • 6
  • c
  • 5
  • d
  • 4
  • e
  • 3
  • f
  • 2
  • g
  • 1
  • h

black to move.

today in Dortmund, Kramnik took 45 minutes on this move (whether to accept the rook sacrifice or not), and ended up playing ...Ng6, which turns out to be a blunder. (this is what the folks at chessbase tell anyway.)

45 minutes... about taking a hanging rook or not. can you imagine? The ironic thing is, it turns out he should have taken the rook. But this is just remarkable to me. I'm having difficulties even finding an opponent who would play a whole game in 45 min time controls at FICS.

I think this is one of the key features of the great, having that tenacious, enduring, patient mind set.

Cookies help us deliver our Services. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More.