en_4_Clock Controls

When setting up a game that will interest other people, probably the most complex factor is what time control you want to use for the chess clock. For some fast players this is not as pertinent, as they tend to be flexible to either long or short games as long as it means taking the win.

Careful! The FICS function moretime() is a unique part of Lichess that allows either player to grant an extra 15 seconds of time to their opponent's clock, whenever. If you use a chess clock, resist the urge of giving an unfair time advantage.

If you use no chess clock, you might interest analytic players, as many of these games have completed successfully after long and hard-thought battles. However, there are those that have not completed. Remember that without a time limit, even checkmate might not be a possible way to win your games, as your opponent can try to stall for time forever during his or her turn. Fortunately for you, if it's your opponent's turn, and your connection to Lichess holds out overnight, you can eventually force resignation where your opponent has abandoned the game.

The old clock programming, minutes per game, is where you fixate a number of minutes for both players, each having their own clock, by which the game must be concluded. This can be set up to thirty minutes. Obviously, in these games, it is better strategy to value your time from the beginning, when the style of the game has not yet been decided. When a game ends by timeout, the clock of the player who lost is said to have flagged.

The new clock programming is Fischer time, so-named for the revolutionary player who introduced this time method: The base time for both players' clocks accumulates by a number of seconds every move. In these games, it will likely be a fatal mistake to just play as fast as you can with only adequate moves until the endgame where your opponent's clock is about to flag, because the time accumulation can feed the opponent's clock back up to minutes of time left in such endgames, where he or she is more decisive about the style of the game reached.

All in all, most games here use Fischer's clock, but beginners might be easier to take advantage of in min/game controls. A lot of the stronger players play lightning-fast games here (like 1 min + 1 s per move, 1 min, or 0 min plus 1 s per move) both to exercise immediate instincts and to prevent games against cheaters.