Chess tips to remember when in time trouble

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One of the most painful experiences in chess is when you are in a winning position, but lose on time. After reading this article the rate at which you lose on time will be noticeably reduced because today we'll be looking at chess tips to remember when in time trouble.




1. Give checks

     During a time scramble always remember to give checks this distabilizes your opponent's plan therefore, he has to waste time thinking on how to answer the check.





     Take for example the position above, there are lots of winning ideas white can implement to checkmate the black king, but when low on time there is only one strategy that wins for white and that's is to give checks. Giving checks makes the person playing black unsure of what to which leads to further consumption of his time.

   2. Make definite moves

       When you have low time on the clock always remember to make definite moves.

     

     



           Take for example the position above, black can decide to give a check on the c file but the best move will be to set up a ladder checkmate pattern with the move Rg7+. This move gives black a plan and that is two checkmate in the next few moves.



3. Use premoves

If your chess platform allows allows it premoves are a good way to navigate time trouble as it makes an automatic response to your opponents move. To learn more about the different types of chess platforms check this post

Link





4.   Capture all of your opponent's pieces

     One underated rule of chess is the fact that if all of your opponent's pieces are captured or the remaining piece of your opponent is a knight or a bishop (pieces which cannot checkmate) even if you lose on time the game is considered a draw.

              



In the position above, white is winning and white can simply promote. But when in time trouble promotion is not the best choice as you may lose on time. 

But the wise choice will be to capture the a5 pawn with the bishop so that even if you lose on time it won't be counted as a loss because black has no pieces left therefore it will be counted as a draw.


5. Flag your opponent

Though this may not be the most respectful approach, flaging your opponent might be the only way to win in some situations.

Flaging  occurs when you are in a losing position but your opponent is low on time time and in an effort to win the game you make useless moves just to pass the time back to your opponent.



  In the example above, we can see that white is in a winning position but it still takes some effort to win the game. Nevertheless in a time scramble the game can go either way, so black could make careless moves which worsens his position and still win because white will be thinking of improving moves which takes a toll on white's clock. This is called flagging.



In conclusion proper time management is the key to escaping time trouble 

 



















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