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Clocks and Time Management

  1. I don't think the reason why Magnus does not want to play classical time controls actually applies to chess in general. IMHO it's rather a very specific problem of the top players like GMs and perhaps IMs. Games at 1400-1800 FIDE level definitely don't suffer from these problems, Even ~2000 level does not and probably not even ~2300.

  2. The blog you linked is extremely subjective and in some points even manipulating with facts. I, for one, definitely enjoy a solid 90+30 (or 40/90+30:30:30) game way more than any rapid. In our club we have a long term 90+30 tournament (one game every two weeks) and weekly 14+5 rapid (five rounds in an evening). I like the former a lot but I don't really enjoy the latter. In the short time control I don't have time to think properly, miss things and when I get into an interesting endgame, I usually flag or blunder under time pressure. And I cannot even analyse the game later.

  3. People often talk as if the increments were added to the traditional time controls but that is not the case. For classical games, the most frequent time controls used to be 120 minutes for 40 moves and 60 minutes after. Today it's 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes after and 30 second increment from move 1. For most games this is actually less time than without increments. When I was kid, we used to play 30+0 (everything was +0 back then), now kids mostly play 20+5 or shorter. Again, less time in most games. Even blitz used to be 5+0, now it's 3+2; unless the game takes more than 60 moves, it's faster again.

1. I don't think the reason why Magnus does not want to play classical time controls actually applies to chess in general. IMHO it's rather a very specific problem of the top players like GMs and perhaps IMs. Games at 1400-1800 FIDE level definitely don't suffer from these problems, Even ~2000 level does not and probably not even ~2300. 2. The blog you linked is extremely subjective and in some points even manipulating with facts. I, for one, definitely enjoy a solid 90+30 (or 40/90+30:30:30) game way more than any rapid. In our club we have a long term 90+30 tournament (one game every two weeks) and weekly 14+5 rapid (five rounds in an evening). I like the former a lot but I don't really enjoy the latter. In the short time control I don't have time to think properly, miss things and when I get into an interesting endgame, I usually flag or blunder under time pressure. And I cannot even analyse the game later. 3. People often talk as if the increments were added to the traditional time controls but that is not the case. For classical games, the most frequent time controls used to be 120 minutes for 40 moves and 60 minutes after. Today it's 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes after and 30 second increment from move 1. For most games this is actually less time than without increments. When I was kid, we used to play 30+0 (everything was +0 back then), now kids mostly play 20+5 or shorter. Again, less time in most games. Even blitz used to be 5+0, now it's 3+2; unless the game takes more than 60 moves, it's faster again.