Fastest FIDE rated time control

Running Chess Tournaments
1

What is the fastest FIDE rated time control? Does it require an increment?

Thanks.

2

Well are we talking regular, rapid, or blitz?

Let’s talk regular - that’s then based on the rating of the highest rated player in that section

Now remember if you use a 30-sec increment then you base the total think time based on a 60 move game.

So you can have people rated under 2200 and do Game-60 + 30/sec increment (which is what I do during my Amateur Closed events over Turkey Day weekend).

I’m assuming you’re not talking about norm tournaments so I won’t go there.

3

From the FIDE handbook:

There are more restrictions on events that can earn norms:

4

YES, Regular time control, highest rated over 2200. No need to worry about norms.

So that means, you could have a G/120 (no increment) or a G/90 + 30s increment.

Right?

(Also, I suppose G/120 + 5 second delay would also be fine… yes?)

5

No norms, then G/120, G/120 + 5/sec delay, G/90 + 30/sec increment, G/60 + 60/sec increment.

Take your pick. Minimum think time must be 120 minutes per side.

Remember, no more than 3 rounds per day.

6

Perhaps Sevan can point out otherwise, but there does not appear to be any mention of delay mode with regards to the ‘regular’ FIDE rating system in the FIDE handbook or on the FIDE website.

There is some mention of it with regards to Blitz or Rapid ratings at
fide.com/component/content/a … lists.html

To translate this into USCF terms: MM+SS must be at least 15 but less than 60 to be FIDE Rapid rated, MM+SS must be at least 5 but less than 15 to be FIDE Blitz rated. The USCF does not currently support quick rating events where MM is < 5, the Delegates could change that in August.

7

There isn’t any mention of delay anywhere else for regular ratings. That’s an omission from the past that hopefully will get corrected this coming cycle.

To be safe, use the core base time. I wouldn’t recommend though going down the route of G/120 + 5/sec delay and having 3 rounds in a day. First that’s murder of a schedule, second it can be argued you went over 12 hours of play in a single day.

One reason why I like 90 30 :wink:

8

The FIDE Blitz time controls may need some tweaking as well. Although they give the example of G/3;+2, as written it would seem to allow G/1;d4 and possibly even G/0;d5.

It is gratifying to see that FIDE doesn’t do any better job than the USCF of writing time control rules that can’t be ‘creatively interpreted’ by organizers. :slight_smile:

9

Amen.

One problem is the tendency (on the part of both USCF and FIDE) to allow almost anything to be rated in one system or another.

Let’s say, for example, that we want to rate anything G/6 or slower, either regular or quick (or dual, of course). But we don’t want anything faster than G/25 (regardless of delay or increment) to be regular-rated. This means that, for example, G/20 inc/180 (that’s 180 seconds) would have to be quick-rated, despite the tortuously slow time control. The “quick-rated” system now becomes the “junk-rated” system – it’s the garbage receptacle for anything that won’t fit into the regular system.

It would be far better to establish reasonable standards that specifically limit both the main time individually and the delay/increment individually, as well as the sum of the two.

For example:

  • Regular:[list][*]Main time must be 25 minutes or slower.
  • Delay or increment must be in the range 0 through 120 seconds.
  • Main time in minutes, plus delay/increment in seconds, must total at least 30.
  • Secondary time controls are allowed. The above limits apply to the first control. Subsequent controls must be at least 10 moves (or sudden death) and at least 15 minutes.
    [/:m][]Quick:* Main time must be in the range 6 through 29 minutes.
  • Delay or increment must be in the range 0 through 10 seconds.
  • Main time in minutes, plus delay/increment in seconds, must total at most 29.
  • Secondary time controls are not allowed.
    [/:m][]Blitz:* Main time must be in the range 3 through 5 minutes.
  • Delay or increment must be in the range 0 through 2 seconds.
  • Main time in minutes, plus delay/increment in seconds, must total at least 5.
  • Secondary time controls are not allowed.
    [/*:m][/list:u]
    The above would remove the potential junk, while not removing any present-day actual tournament that I know of.

It is not necessary to institute a blitz rating system in order to set standards like the above. For the time being, blitz events can continue to be rated under the quick system. When/if blitz ratings are implemented, do a re-rate back through 1-1-2012, changing some events (as appropriate) from quick to blitz. For example, if the main time was 5 minutes, undo the quick ratings for that event, and calculate blitz ratings instead.

It is also unnecessary to include standards for dual-rated events in the above. That issue should be kept separate from the discussion of the various tournament types.

The separate definition of dual-rated could be:

  • A dual-rated event is an event which:[list][*]Satisfies the above definition of a regular-rated event, AND
  • Delay or increment must be in the range 0 through 10 seconds.
  • Main time in minutes, plus delay/increment in seconds, must total at most 65.
  • Secondary time controls are not allowed.
    [/*:m][/list:u]
    Bill Smythe
10

G0/d5 would indeed be blitz!

11

Isn’t this the old “rapid transit” time control?

Alex Relyea

12

Yes, and it is far from clear that FIDE intended it to be part of their Blitz ratable time controls.

13

It’s the same old thing – trying to define the time control only by the sum of main minutes and increment seconds.

Much better to define using a combination of three – main time only, increment time only, and the sum.

Bill Smythe