Clock advice

[Dan O'Dowd]

Me again

While I'm sure if I scour my many books for advice on the subject, such advice won't come from real world players, so all opinions are welcome please.

I'm one of those people who sits besotted with his clock and frequently indulges in Bronsteinesque time consumption. I believe at the moment that besides desiring to be thorough this stems from lack of understanding of the ins/outs/imbalances (whatever you wish to term it) of the stem positions from openings of my repertoire, such that, when I get into a non-book or sufficiently unfamiliar position, no matter how early in the game, I start verbalising to myself, and/or calculating lines as if I were doing research in the comfort of my own room.

So the question I put to you all is,

What is clock time in a serious game NOT to be used for? Should I be able to come to the board and know that once my book knowledge runs out in a position, I ought to be conversant enough with the positions I'm getting, that say, I'd be able to give my club a 5 minute presentation on the static/dynamic features of my position, the typical possible plans for each side etc? Or am I just a slow bod?

[Roger de Coverly]

Should I be able to come to the board and know that once my book knowledge runs out in a position, I ought to be conversant enough with the positions I'm getting, that say, I'd be able to give my club a 5 minute presentation on the static/dynamic features of my position, the typical possible plans for each side etc? Or am I just a slow bod?

I'd suggest that you ought not to know when your "book" knowledge runs out unless the position is immensely tactical. So you know where the pieces go and typical tactics. That way you can handle "normal" positions even where strictly speaking they are original. But every player has their own approach. Books are often proved wrong anyway. So when an author writes a book " Winning with the X", lines which disrupt the core marketing theme might be disregarded.

[Reg Clucas]

There is an interesting article in this month's "Chess" magazine on time trouble, its causes and some suggestions for cure. As a fellow sufferer I am hoping to put some of this to the test.

[Roger de Coverly]

There is an interesting article in this month's "Chess" magazine on time trouble, its causes and some suggestions for cure. As a fellow sufferer I am hoping to put some of this to the test.

Much of the discussion in the article is of the FIDE rates of 90 30 and 40/90 + 30 30, so four or five hour games. How much would be applicable to the typical league three hour game or even Congress three and a half hours?

I would query five moves in five minutes as "trouble", pressure maybe, but trouble is ten moves in under a minute.