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Fischer and Bronstein time systems
The Fischer time systemUsed for timing systems in which a player has time added after each moved played (presumably by an electronic clock).
Andrew Walkingshaw: Fischer Time, like Bronstein Time, is an alternative time system for chess designed to get games over with in a single session without having to resort to a sudden-death finish. To understand this, chess games, like two-day Go title matches, used to be adjourned after one playing session (of six hours); the time control was thus two hours for each player's first forty moves, and twenty moves in each subsequent hour (apart from the restriction on the first period, much like Canadian overtime.) However, computers have killed adjournments by being plain too strong. Thus, chess moved to a time control of 40 in 2 hours, then 20 in one hour, then half an hour to complete the game: but some players objected to this last, sudden-death period. Fischer time was suggested to counteract this. As Tristan said, it works by each player starting with an initial allocation of time (say, 90 minutes) and receiving an increment (say, 30 seconds) *after* each move. The net result is that the players have the same amount of time (three hours total) for their first 60 moves, but will never get into the situation where a player has to, say, make twenty moves in five minutes: they will always have 30 seconds to make their next move. The Difference between the Fischer and Bronstein time systems... is in the rules for the increment: Fischer time increments stack. For example, imagine I have one minute left: I move in 10s. Under Fischer rules, I now have 1m20s ; this is 50s plus my 30s increment after the move. The Bronstein time systemBronstein rules state that increments don't stack: this has more of the flavour of traditional byo-yomi in Go. In the above example, my time would not be 1m20s after the move, but only 1 minute: an increment can never increase your total time beyond where it was at the start of your move. I think this would make an excellent rapid control for Go servers, incidentally: say 3 minutes main time with a Bronstein increment of 10s. I'd certainly prefer it to the Canadian-type "twenty-five moves in four minutes" settings - it would keep the pace of the game more even. Tristan Jones I did ask the Blessed Admin Tweet whether IGS had any plans to introduce Fischer time. The answer was no. One can only hope that dashn and KGS will soon offer this excellent time system. This is a copy of the living page "Fischer and Bronstein time systems" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |