How to play Time Control Chess

Learn the rules toTime Control Chess quickly and concisely – This video has no distractions, just the rules. For a refresher of the original Chess rules, check out this video:

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RULES:
The rules are the same as regular chess except for these changes. If you run out of time you lose the game. Set the chess clock to the side of the board in easy reach between the two players. The playing going second presses their button to start the game. During your turn, your time counts down. Press your button to stop your time and start your opponent’s time. If your time reaches zero, you lose; unless opponent has insufficient material to win, then the game is a draw instead.

There are multiple types of speed chess that change the constraint for the amount of time each player gets to make their moves. You can choose to play with or without time increments if you like. A time increment is the amount of time, usually in seconds, that is added to your time after you complete a move. You can play with “partial time” so that your increments can never bring your time higher than the amount of time you began your turn with. You can play with “limited time”. Limited time means that each player must make each single move within a certain time limit or they lose. The limit resets after each move. You can play with “Time Buffer” which means that a player is not allowed to end their turn until a specified minimum amount of time has passed. You can configure the players to have different amounts of time in order to accommodate for difference in skill.

During setup, configure a chess clock to the appropriate time according to the variant you are playing. Rapid Chess is anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes per player and is commonly played with 10 second time increments. Blitz Chess is 10 minutes or less per player, but typically uses 3 minutes with 2 second increments. Bullet Chess is anything less than 3 minutes per player, with lower time controls being called hyperbullet for 30 seconds per player and ultra bullet for 15 seconds per player. Bullet typically plays with 1 or 2 second increments.

If you play online you don’t have to worry about knocking over pieces and you can also allow pre-moving, which is the ability to make your move before the opponent has taken their turn, thus automatically moving your piece on your turn, using up very little time.

Armageddon chess is a variant of Blitz chess where black wins drawn games but white gets more time on the clock. Common times are 6 minutes for white and 5 minutes for black. Lightning chess limits each move to 10 seconds or less, with the time resetting after each move.

Determine which rules you will play with before beginning a game.