I have no interest in chess, but I’ve invented a new timed version that I feel, with all the enthusiasm of the truly ignorant, that I should share.
Wait, it gets worse: it came to me in a dream…
By way of explanation, I believe that the day’s event around which this nugget formed was that I had been thinking with some concern about the son of a friend, who is a very good chess player but who is absenting himself from college. I realise that there are various versions of chess in which players must either move within a specified time or have a total time that they must not exceed. This is a sort of variation on that and goes like this:
1. Players agree a starting time period each. Let’s say 5 minutes each.
Fairness would dictate that each start with an equal time period, but a handicap system could be used where the periods are unequal, e.g. one player starts with 5 minutes and one with an hour.
2. The game begins: player 1 starts their clock and stops it when their move is complete.
3. Let’s say the move took 10 seconds, so 4mins 50 seconds now remains on their clock.That 10 seconds is transferred to player 2, who now has 5mins 10 seconds on their clock.
4. Player 2’s clock starts immediately and stops when player 2 has completed their move.
Let’s say that move took 30 seconds.
5. Player 2 now has 4mins 40 seconds on their clock and the 30 seconds is transferred to player 1 who now has 5mins 20 seconds on their clock, which starts immediately.
And so it goes on.
If one player’s time expires, then they lose, otherwise the game is played to its conclusion.
The beauty of this version is that, if the game is played to a conclusion, then each player will have taken an approximately equal total time over their game (in this case, within 4mins 59seconds of each other). This is not necessarily the case in a game where each player simply runs down their own clock, and so makes it possible to use time pressure as an added tactical element by influencing the rhythm at which the game is played.
For example, making a move quickly will encourage the opponent to do likewise (lest they run out of time). However, one could make a more considered move and in doing so hand over a large proportion of time to one’s opponent. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since the opponent now has the luxury of a choice – to move quickly (playing for time) or to make a more considered move of their own (playing for the win), resulting in a slower-paced game (though within the time parameters initially set).
That’s it. It would need some sort of bespoke clock or to be played on a computer I guess, to do the time additions and subtractions without interruption.
I woke up thinking about all this and then wondered how I might remember it in the morning. Somehow the answer was to look at the alarm clock and note the time, which was 04:03. So, there you have it: 403 Chess. I think I might see if the NY Times is interested in a six-figure deal…
