By: Bhavya Singhal
The art of time management is often an overlooked skill in chess. Many chess
coaches tell students that it is better to play slow instead of fast to avoid blunders. But
that advice usually causes students to slow down when making simple decisions which
ends up causing blunders towards the end. To avoid this I have made 3 ways to
improve time management regardless if you move fast or slow.
- My first suggestion would be to write down the time you have left after each
move when notating a tournament game. This is super helpful to see if you are
spending to much or to little time, and it’s helpful in realizing whether you spend
enough time on critical positions or not. The great thing about this is that it’s
helpful whether you play to fast or to slow. - My second suggestion would be to play more blitz chess if you get into time
trouble regularly. The most common mistake people make Is that they don’t
analyze their blitz games. Whenever you play blitz it is best to analyze the game
for the opening and to see if there are any patterns in your game that have
become instinctive that need to be corrected. - My third suggestion would be to use your opponent’s time to think. This seems
like an obvious suggestion, but in my experience it is very overlooked. Many of
my students on their opponent’s move spend the time either just staring at the
position or walking around and looking at other games. While I think looking at
other games is fine, time and energy would be better spent by calculating and
considering candidate moves in your own game!