The Dreaded Chess Clock

Welcome to our Wednesday Q&A! The stellar question of the week is by SmilingTiger - "When you are playing with a clock, how can you manage your time better?"

Well! From the original time-pressure lady herself, here is your answer. By, Mrs Jessica E Prescott (aka BoundingOwl).

So, one day, after losing thousands of blitz games on time, my friend IM Greg Shahade said something like, "Hey Jessica, you need to stop losing on time. You know, if you lose on time you can't win."

This shockingly simple fact came off as awfully profound. Right, if my flag falls on the clock, I won't have a chance to keep playing on the board. If I make sure I have some time left, I can keep playing and possibly win! I made this my new mantra and promised never to lose on time in blitz (I mean, you can't always help it but you can try really hard). I started trusting my instinct more and winning tons more games. I also got checkmated a bunch. (But I didn't lose on time!!)

Some kids are super fearful of the clock. Their hands get all sweaty and they look around all nervous and wag their foot. They ask questions like, Black gets to choose, right?  [NB: Black just chooses the materials or type of clock, like if he/she wants to use his/her own stuff.]  They start playing speed chess from move one and slamming the clock like it's about to jump up and run away from them. This doesn't have to be you.

If you are not sure how to win quickly, but you know you are ahead, go for the sure thing. Simplify!

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Trading is a thousand times better than forking and winning the hanging pawn on g7! Without spending the time calculating Black's skewer on e1 and whether you might be able to win with just your f pawn, just simplify! 
 
More is not always better...what would you do here?
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Getting a new queen is pretty exciting! But not when it leads to stalemate (doh!). Play what you know. You know the ladder mate, right??
 
Think more when the position is complicated. If you have memorized your opening and it's going as planned, don't waste time trying to create a novelty! How much time should you spend on this move?
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Zero seconds! Well, just enough time to make sure you drop your bishop where you meant to! Once you are out of the opening or when you see something new, SLOW DOWN!
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There you have it, SmilingTiger and other ChessKids, don't think so hard that your whole time runs out. Chess is a balancing act!

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