The English Chess Federation grading database gives two types of Grades: your Standard grade and your Rapid-play grade. What are the differences between these types of game? And what are Blitz and Bullet games? We take a minute to look into the different types of chess game.

Standard and Rapid are just two of several types of chess game duration. There are also Blitz and Bullet. Time duration is usually defined as the amount of time each player gets to complete the game, and can be formed of a base set amount of time plus an option for extra time added with each move made – called an increment (such as 5 seconds per move and so on). Online you might see a time control described as a number followed by a + another number – for example 5+3: it will be the base amount of time in minutes + number in seconds for the increment: 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move in this example (for a Blitz game).

Another type of time control can also be set on the time for each move.

Standard

Standard chess games are defined by the international Chess body FIDE as being chess games where each player’s thinking time is at least 60 minutes.

There are various ways Tournaments and Leagues determine their time-control: this could be one fixed time of say 90 minutes for all moves each, or to have a time-control for a certain number of moves followed by a fixed ‘quick play finish’ (QPF) to complete all remaining moves (example: 36 moves in an hour and 15 minutes, followed by 15 minutes each QPF to complete all remaining moves). Another method is to have a fixed element plus increment: each player has a basic amount of time, but every move they make gains extra time on the clock, say 5 seconds a move; digital clocks are necessary for this.

For our League games (certainly in the lower Divisions) and our own tournaments we previously favoured a fixed all-moves time control of 90 minutes each (i.e. without adding increments). The digital clocks count down, and analogue clocks, where used, were set at half-past four, flag falls (time’s up) at 6 o’clock. Whoever’s flag falls first loses the game – they’ve “lost on time”.

SCL (and now our own Tournaments) time control: 80+10

New: As we look forward to the 2025-26 Southampton Chess League season, we can remind ourselves on setting the DGT 2010 digital chess clocks for League matches (and our own internal tournaments) for the 80+10 time control. That is, 80 minutes each, plus a ten second increment added for each move. Please see the Youtube videos made by Chandler’s Ford Chess Club’s David Culliford:

Rapid-play

Rapid-play is defined as being a game where players’ thinking time is more than ten minutes but less than 60. Some tournaments now have games where the players have 25 minutes each to start with, with an increment of say 5 seconds a move: these games do not usually go beyond one hour in all.

Blitz

Blitz is where all moves are played in 10 minutes or less each per player. If a game time is under 3 minutes, that is defined as Bullet.

Bullet

Bullet games are under 3 minutes for each player. Playing this type online would avoid the inevitable knocking-over of pieces in a frantic live face-to-face game..

Relevant Links

FIDE Laws of Chess see Appendix A and Glossary

Chess.com – interesting article on chess clocks and time control https://www.chess.com/article/view/an-introduction-to-chess-clocks

Wikipedia on Fast Chess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_chess

Examples of tournaments of various time controls

Castle Chess castle-chess.co.uk their time control is of Standard type of length, 75 minutes plus 30 seconds increment.

Southend Easter Congress http://southendchesscongress.org.uk/ Another example of a Standard play tournament: 90 minutes per player per game plus 30 seconds per move.

Docklands Rapid-play http://www.spanglefish.com/docklandschessclub/ An example of Rapidplay, time control at their regular tournaments in Poplar is 25 minutes plus 5 seconds per move (i.e. about an hour a game in all).

Golders Green FIDE Rapidplay goldersgreenchess.blogspot.com/ have a time control of 20 minutes per player plus 5 seconds per move increment.

Lichess.org Arenas (tournaments) for Blitz as well as other types – bullet, Rapid etc.

Chess.com online chess website: players can select the time limits for their games.

With the early end of the season, and no club nights due to the coronavirus crisis curtailing any new club activity, we take a look back over a previous highlight, when some of our club went to watch the London Chess Classic in 2012.

The London Chess Classic 2012 was held at the Olympia Conference Centre, Kensington, London, 1-10 December 2012. The world’s best players competed, but there were also tournaments for players of all strengths. The top players playing in the Classic were: Luke McShane, Hikaru Nakamura, Mickey Adams, Vladimir Kranmik, Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Judit Polgar, Levon Aronian, and Gawain Jones.

Three of us from the club went to spectate on 2nd December. We watched the world’s best players do battle on the stage in the main auditorium, and we listened to analysis in the analysis/media room. Guy is blind, but was able to follow some of the action using his Braille chess set.

And we met Viswanathan Anand and Luke McShane.

We met the chess stars Luke McShane and Vishy Anand as they emerged from their gruelling game in the second round of the Classic. Their match ended drawn. The time control for the top players playing in the Classic was: 2 hours for 40 moves, followed by 1 hour for 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes + 30 seconds per move for the rest of the game. They still seemed weary and drained from their game, but both were happy for their photos to be taken.

The two chess stars were good sports and only too happy to oblige with photos.

The Classic ran from Saturday 1st December 2012 through to Monday 10th. We visited on the second day – Round 2 games. There were 9 Rounds, one a day (but note how long the games could last), with one rest day.

The winner was Magnus Carlsen, who finished with a score of 18 points (the scoring system was 3 points for a win, one for a draw). Vishy Anand came 5th with 9 points, and Luke McShane was 8th, with 5 points.

Guy Whitehouse has since moved to Leicestershire. He plays for Wigston club, Leicestershire County, and is the Secretary of the Braille Chess Association. Don Creasey and Keven Lamb are members of the Chandlers Ford Chess Club.

Kev Lamb

Malcolm Clarke has two stories to report on this week: an online chess opportunity, and change at the top of the League Committee.

Although the Coronavirus has put over the board chess on hold until things improve there are still many opportunities to play chess online.

Ringwood chess club has instigated Lichess arena events for its club members, and  this is also open to members of other local chess clubs.  Further details of the events being organised can be found either on the Ringwood chess club website or by contacting the organiser mjclancy@btconnect.com.

Gillian Moore is standing down as chairman of the Southampton Chess League at the next AGM. after more than 10 years of honourable service.  If local player or chess enthusiast wants to take over and carry on Gilllian’s good work the Southampton Chess League committee would like to hear from them.

Malcolm Clarke‘s latest press report announces the chess club’s closure until further notice due to the coronavirus. Things have moved rapidly in the last few days, with the Prime Minister’s announcement that social venues should all close. Our venue, Chandler’s Ford Central Club, is now closed.

Like all other sporting events the Coronavirus has put the chess season on hold and Chandlers Ford are one of many local clubs to stop meeting until further notice.

Originally with their spacious venue allowing a reasonable amount of spaces between boards and the introduction of vigorous hand hygiene and sanitisation procedures they did consider the possibility of playing on, but things have moved on in the 10 days since that option was considered and  with vulnerable adults being amongst the chess playing community, as the government introduced more radical measures to prevent the spread of the disease there was absolutely no way the club could not fall into line.

The Chandlers Ford chess club had six remaining league matches to play, two for both the B and D teams and one for both the A and C team, but at the present time it is clear that people’s health is a more important consideration.

Chandlers Ford Chess Club will not be meeting until the Covid-19 Coronavirus health crisis is over.

Southampton Chess League and Cup matches are all off as the SCL’s default position from now, and several chess clubs had already announced they are closing for the duration.

Government health advice about the coronavirus to everyone can be found at the government website and at the NHS website. Further information about social distancing (avoiding contact with other people) – and isolation – can be found on the BBC website.

Please note: this Post relates to the Chess Club: the venue itself is still open – as long as you don’t have symptoms.

The B Team stay top of Division 4 despite losing one match, whilst the D team played in the Division 5 Cup Final. Malcolm Clarke reports.

Chandlers Ford B suffered their first league defeat of the season when they went down 2.5-1.5 to University C. Despite this they comfortably sit at the top of Division 4, but they can still be caught by three other teams. Surprisingly it is only the bottom three teams that can catch them with Andover whose last four games are all at home, one of which is against Chandlers Ford having the best chance. The two players with the white pieces got Chandlers Ford’s 1.5 points against University with Keven Lamb winning and David Culliford drawing.

Chandlers Ford D lost their Division 5 Cup final against Salisbury C 3-1 with the two players playing with the black pieces Rob Sims and Steve Dunleavy drawing, with Dunleavy’s draw against a higher graded player being particularly meritorious.  A couple of games counting for grading purposes only were played, but both of these were won by the Salisbury player,

Malcolm Clarke reports on 2 Chandler’s Ford matches against Salisbury -and their different outcomes. Also, Winchester C’s match against Southampton D.

Chandlers Ford C were whitewashed 4-0 by Salisbury C, but the Chandlers Ford A team had better luck in a match against Salisbury B winning 3-2 in a match which featured four draws.  Dave Holmes, Graham Stuart and Sam Murphy agreed draws early in proceedings which just left the games involving Ian Hardwick and David Culliford outstanding.  Hardwick was a pawn up and the game went down to a rook and pawn ending, which the Chandlers Ford player won after his opponent lost a rook, although by that stage in proceedings he had a winning position anyway,  Culliford agreed a draw when although after fighting back from an inferior position to be ahead on material after his opponent had allowed a pawn fork he was desperately short of time on the clock and agreed a draw to ensure the match was won.

Winchester C won 2.5-1.5 against Southampton D with Bob Cleave and Sam Rebdi the two players playing with the white pieces being their winners and Graham Payne drawing his game,  Winchester C are comfortably second in division 4, but they and third placed University C are the only teams in the division that cannot catch leaders Chandlers Ford B

This week Malcolm Clarke reports on the recent matches in the Robertson Plate and Cup.

Both Chandlers Ford teams were beaten in the Robertson Plate, but although the A team went down 4.5-0.5 to Fareham and the B team 5-0 to University B, but in truth they did well to get teams out for both matches.

The Chandlers Ford A team faced Fareham whose team consisted of players who had played in their team  that is currently top of Southampton Chess League Division 1, while the Chandlers Ford team had only David Holmes of the first choice A team players available and it was Holmes who got the team’s only half point, although all of the other Chandlers Ford players made their opponents work hard for their victories..

However rules do not allow players to represent more than one Chandlers Ford team in the competition and as a result the five players who played against Fareham could not play against the University.  Chandlers Ford’s situation became more difficult when for a match where captain Nobby George required one more player than he would for a normal league game, six of the seven players he asked to play at the club night two days before the game were unable to make it.  However phone calls from George and an email sent by secretary Malcolm Clarke yielded the three additional players.

The Chandlers Ford team faced a University B team  identical to that had played against the Chandlers Ford A team the previous week apart from the boards 3 and 4 being interchanged,  Despite being whitewashed the Chandlers Ford team gave a good account of themselves and particular credit should also be given to Suzan Dunleavy who provided transport for her husband and three other players.

In the Robertson Cup Winchester lost 4-1 to  Ringwood despite Jon Barnes and Alan Dyos getting draws against opponents more than  35 points higher graded than themselves.

Our intrepid chess explorer Steve Dunleavy and his wife Suzan visited New York in October, where they met the local street chess hustlers in Union Square. Steve tells us what happened; photos by Suzan.

I lost 3 games against John Hill who is easily graded 100+.

I played 3 lost 3, all on the clock against the same opponent. There was an anti-Trump demo in the background. The chess player hustlers play all day every day. There are a couple of locations that they play at. I found them on YouTube. One of the games I should have won; nice chap, very knowledgeable and helpful.

Actually it was an incredible day. A “Trump Out” protest in the background and such a wealth of diverse characters….. almost as diverse as CF Chess Club

Each game costs $5 if you lose. You have to keep a very close eye on them as they can often make illegal/inappropriate moves and pass them off as a mere mistake.

Links to some articles about Union Square chess players:

A Black and White Game: the Chess Players of Union Square

Chess hustler earns $400 a day

Chandler’s Ford A Team achieved a good result away at Southampton University; Winchester A and B teams both suffered defeats. Malcolm Clarke reports.

Chandlers Ford A had their top two boards available, but nine other players unavailable for their away match with University B who were weakened themselves and it was the away team who emerged 3.5-1.5 winners.  Ian Hardwick, Sam Murphy and Keven Lamb the three players playing with the white pieces were Chandlers Ford’s winners, while David Holmes who was the only Chandlers Ford player to play in both matches against University B drew his game.

Hardwick was able to prevent his opponent from castling and took full advantage, Lamb threatened in the same move to check mate his opponent and to win his opponent’s queen with a discovered arrack and the opponent was unable to defend against both threats, while Murphy also won his opponent’s queen.  The result moved Chandlers Ford into second place, above Salisbury B on game points.

Winchester B were beaten 3-2 by Salisbury B with Alan Dyos winning his game and Robin Atkins and David Kinsler drawing.  The Winchester A team lost 3-2 to Hamble A with John Schonenberger being their sole winner, with Dyos and Atkins drawing.