Chess Time Controls Explained
From bullet to classical - how time shapes the way chess is played.
Published 2026-02-01 | Last verified 2026-02-12
Professor Archer says: I played my first timed game with trembling hands. The clock felt like an enemy sitting beside the board, counting down my doom. But over time, I came to see the chess clock as a friend. It adds urgency, prevents games from lasting forever, and creates some of the most thrilling moments in all of chess. The first time you win on time in a lost position, you will understand the drama a clock brings.
Why Chess Uses Clocks
Chess clocks were introduced in the 19th century to solve a very practical problem: some players would take hours to make a single move, making tournaments impossibly slow. The chess clock gives each player a fixed amount of time to make all their moves. When you make a move, you press the clock, stopping your time and starting your opponent's.
If your time runs out before the game ends, you lose - regardless of the position on the board. This means time management is itself a skill, as important as knowing openings or endgames. You must balance the desire to calculate deeply with the practical need to keep enough time on your clock.
Modern chess clocks are digital and can be set with various time controls, including increments (extra seconds added after each move) and delays (a brief pause before your clock starts ticking). These features prevent absurd time scrambles where players have less than a second per move.
The Main Time Control Categories
- Bullet (under 3 minutes) - Bullet chess gives each player less than three minutes for the entire game. Common formats are 1+0 (one minute, no increment) and 2+1 (two minutes with a one-second increment per move). Bullet is chaotic, exciting, and heavily dependent on speed and instinct. It is popular online but rarely used in serious over-the-board competition.
- Blitz (3 to 10 minutes) - Blitz chess typically gives each player three to ten minutes. The most popular format is 5+0 or 5+3 (five minutes with a three-second increment). Blitz requires quick thinking and solid pattern recognition. It is the most popular format for casual play and is used in many official blitz championships.
- Rapid (10 to 60 minutes) - Rapid chess gives each player between ten and sixty minutes. Common formats include 15+10 (fifteen minutes with a ten-second increment) and 25+5. Rapid is considered the best balance between speed and depth. FIDE organizes an annual Rapid World Championship that attracts the world's best players.
- Classical (over 60 minutes) - Classical chess gives each player over sixty minutes, often ninety minutes for the first forty moves plus thirty minutes for the rest of the game, with a thirty-second increment. This is the format used in World Championship matches and is considered the "purest" form of competitive chess, allowing deep calculation and strategic planning.
Increments and Delays
An increment is extra time added to your clock after every move. For example, in a "5+3" game, you start with five minutes and gain three seconds after each move. This means you can never truly run out of time if you move quickly enough - the increment keeps replenishing your clock.
A delay works differently. With a delay, the clock waits a set number of seconds before starting to count down. In a "5|5" game (five minutes with a five-second delay), you have five seconds of "free" thinking time each move before your main clock starts ticking. If you move within the delay period, you lose no time at all.
Increments and delays serve the same purpose: preventing games from ending purely on time in positions where both players have reasonable moves to make. Most online platforms use increments, while the delay system (also called Bronstein time) is more common in American over-the-board tournaments.
Time Trouble and Time Management
Time trouble - finding yourself with very little time left while the position still demands careful thought - is one of the most stressful experiences in chess. When you are low on time, you are more likely to make mistakes, miss tactics, and panic.
Good time management starts with the opening. If you play an opening you know well, you can move quickly through the first ten to fifteen moves, saving time for the critical middlegame decisions. Conversely, if you play an unfamiliar opening and spend ten minutes on move six, you are setting yourself up for time trouble later.
A useful rule of thumb for classical games: try to have used about one-third of your time by move twenty, another third by move thirty-five, and keep the final third for the endgame and any complications. For blitz and rapid, the principle is simpler - if you are spending more than a few seconds on routine moves, you are wasting precious time.
Time Controls FAQ
What happens if my time runs out?
You lose the game, provided your opponent has sufficient mating material. If your opponent only has a king (or king and bishop, or king and knight), the game is drawn because they could not possibly checkmate you even with infinite time.
Can I pause the clock during a game?
Only the arbiter can pause the clock in a tournament setting, typically for disputes or if a piece is knocked over. You cannot pause the clock yourself. In online chess, there is generally no pause function except in some correspondence formats.
What is the fastest time control used in competition?
Official competitions sometimes use 1+0 bullet. However, some unofficial speed events use even shorter controls. In mainstream competitive chess, three-minute blitz is typically the fastest standard time control.
Professor Archer says: My recommendation for improving players: spend most of your time on rapid games - ten to fifteen minutes per side. It is fast enough to keep things exciting but slow enough to actually think about your moves. Blitz and bullet are fun, but they reinforce speed over understanding. Rapid is the sweet spot for learning.
Quick Quiz
A game is labelled "10+5." What does this mean?
- Each player gets 10 minutes, with 5 seconds added after every move (Correct) - Correct. The first number is the base time in minutes, and the second number is the increment in seconds added after each move. So "10+5" means ten minutes per player with a five-second increment.
- The game lasts 10 minutes and 5 seconds total - The numbers refer to each player's individual time, not the total game length. Each player gets 10 minutes, plus 5 seconds added per move.
- Each player gets 10 moves in 5 minutes - Time controls in chess give a total time allotment, not a per-move limit. "10+5" means 10 minutes total per player with a 5-second increment per move.
- The first player gets 10 minutes and the second gets 5 - Both players always receive the same time in standard chess. The "+5" refers to the increment, not the second player's time.