Some ideas on time management

 Today I'm talking about time management. Not an obvious entry in an endgame series, but as I showed last time it is definitely relevant for me. Besides, some players are defined by zeitnot - I've captained way more than can be healthy - and I think almost everyone could make some improvement. So, with apologies to endgame fans, we're going on a detour.

 Once again, I'm going to be our case study. I suffer this disease fitfully, but increasingly often. It is usually a symptom of rustiness, bad form, or, critically, nerves. My trouble is not strategic thinking, but calculation: I can't organise variations well and struggle to hold a position in my head, so I always loop round in inefficient circles. Having to choose between two moves is bad news, as is getting a won position on the board or the clock - I just freeze in such cases. Time scrambles cause me to panic and move instantly, and my lack of endgame knowledge forces me to either figure it all out unaided, or reject basic wins if I'm not absolutely sure. But the problem is not massive: in the Bristol League this season I made 199 of 410 moves in under 2 minutes, and 360 in under 5. That only leaves about 3 moves per game, some of which do need a big investment. But 26 minutes in a 90-minute game is too much for one move.

Naturally, much has been written on this subject. Nunn gives it a few pages in Secrets of Practical Chess, Botvinnik touches on it in the Foreword to 100 Selected Games, and Aagaard has written not one but two relevant blog posts. But usually they focus on how to avoid time trouble, not how to cope with something that, unlike Nunn, I think is often inevitable. That's probably a warning, but I've tried anyway. I give you (in no particular order) my Top Ten Time-Trouble Tips:

1. Painful though it is to admit, there's no room for perfectionism in OTB - leave that to the correspondence players. Like it or not, the clock is the 33rd piece and we have to embrace this fact. Sometimes it will be necessary to compromise.
   
2.  Little decisions need little time. Some moves definitely call for a lot of thought, so save your time for them - too often we agonise over the smallest details. As Nunn puts it, the piece you hang in the time scramble later on may be rather more important.
   
3. He who hesitates is lost. Obviously you need to check you're not being stupid, but I've lost hours of my life triple checking every tiny thing. Have some belief in the moves you find, and be decisive.
   
4. Botvinnik suggested training games where the clock takes precedence over the quality of play - he hated rapid chess but this is precisely what I use it for. It's good training in thinking quickly, and for time scrambles. And yes, it can be fun...
   
5. Another of his methods was thinking strategically in the opponent's time, and calculating in his own. I haven't tried this yet but maybe should; the wider point is to keep focussed when it's not your move, even if like me you can't sit still. Easily said, but often forgotten.
   
6. A really basic one, but neglected by too many: record the clock times after each move. That way you know where your time is going. Plus it forces you to look at the clock! I've seen people flag with a 30-second increment, which is plain carelessness.
   
7. Sometimes you need to know, not figure it out. A broad range of knowledge is invaluable, be it preparing your openings properly and knowing the typical plans, learning strategic patterns - it's always hxg3 - or knowing how to evaluate particular endgames (hence key squares, checking distance, and so on.)
   
8. Alright, so despite everything you get into a time scramble. Stop recording if you can! People find the rules hard for some reason: if there's an increment of 30+ seconds you have to record forever, otherwise you can stop at 5 minutes for the rest of the game, even if you go over again.
   
9. Use the increment! I'm terrible at this, and tend to forget that whilst 30 seconds isn't much, it is something: I start moving instantly, often with ugly results.
   
10. More than anything: Don't Panic. Chess is hard enough with a clear head. Even if you have 5 minutes for the rest of the game with no increment, that's 30 lots of 10 seconds: you can make plenty of moves. And as Reshevsky built a career on, often it's the opponent who is the more nervous...

 I make it sound so simple! But then, the best way to sort out your ideas is to try and explain them to others, and it's all there on the page now. In reality it's not so easy: the methods are well-known, but we lack the discipline to apply them consistently. Still, I can think that I know what to do - a form of self-hypnosis, if you like. And I am being partly serious: my slow play, and endgame ability in general, revolves around a lack of confidence, and that's what I'm really trying to attack by working on other things.

 Next time, we may actually see some endgame positions on the screen! More specifically, how we learn (and forget) theoretical positions, and my early dabbling in Jonathan Hawkins' book Amateur to IM.