Chess Timing Rules

i don’t know if this is the appropriate place to ask, but i figured someone could help me out here. if the rules for a tournament are 40/SD or 40/whatever, does that mean that each player gets 40 minutes, or does that mean that the game is over after 40 minutes (20 apiece)?

Generally the first number is the number of moves, so your time control example would be more like SD/40. To answer your question, though, the time is for each player. For instance, a time control of SD/40 would mean that each player would have forty minutes to make all his moves, so the game could last as long as eighty minutes. I hope that this helps.

Alex Relyea

Note that with delay clocks (which are now preferred equpment under USCF rules), the game could actually last longer than 80 minutes.

Of course, most of the old mechanical clocks always seemed to run slow, so a game on an old BHB clock could last longer than 80 minutes, too.

And, if the time control is stated as 40/60, this would mean that each player must complete 40 moves in 60 minutes.

Tournaments with one sudden-death time control are usually advertised as G/60 (Game in 60 minutes), for example.

Tournaments with two or more time controls are advertised as, for example, 40/60, SD/30, which would mean that each player has to complete 40 moves in 60 minutes, followed by completing the game in 30 minutes. This time control would allow for 3 hours of game time.

Terry

so G/60 still means that each person has an hour on their clocks?

You got it. If you’re using analog clocks, you’d set them to 5:00.

Alex Relyea