Chess Time Controls: Blitz, Rapid and Classical
Hiroki Obara · Developer
Article 6.3.1 of FIDE’s Laws of Chess, in force since 1 January 2023, says that when a chessclock is used, each player must complete a minimum number of moves, or all their moves, in an allotted period of time. Any time added with each move is part of that period, and all of it must be specified in advance.
How that time is set decides whether a game is blitz, rapid or something longer. This post goes through where the lines are and how to work out which side of a line a game falls on.
Rapid and blitz in the Laws
Appendices A and B of the Laws define the two faster forms.
- Rapid (A.1): more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes for each player.
- Blitz (B.1): 10 minutes or less for each player.
When time is added with each move, you take the starting time plus 60 times the increment. A game of 10 minutes with 5 seconds added per move comes to 10 minutes + 60 × 5 seconds = 15 minutes. That is more than 10, so it is rapid.
B.1 sets no lower limit for blitz. FIDE’s Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations, effective from 1 March 2024, do: a blitz game is rated only if the same total is more than 3 minutes and no more than 10. A 3-minute game is blitz under the Laws but does not count for a FIDE blitz rating. The same regulations also say that games where the two players have different playing times are not rated.
Longer games
For games slower than rapid, FIDE’s Rating Regulations, effective from 1 March 2024, do not give a named definition. They set the minimum time a game needs in order to be rated, assuming the game lasts 60 moves:
- at least one player rated 2400 or higher: 120 minutes each
- at least one player rated 1800 or higher: 90 minutes each
- both players below 1800: 60 minutes each
90 minutes with 30 seconds per move comes to 90 + 60 × 30 seconds = 120 minutes, which is enough even when a 2400 player is at the board.
FIDE calls the rating for these games the standard rating. Some online sites, Lichess among them, call their slowest category Classical, and that is the word in this post’s title.
Article 1.2 of the same regulations says that if the first time control specifies a number of moves, it must be at least 30. That is the kind of control where you have to reach a set move number within a set time. Under Article 6.3.2 of the Laws, time you save in one period is added to your time for the next.
How the rating number itself moves is in Chess Ratings Explained.
Fischer and delay
The glossary of the Laws describes two ways of adding time per move, and gives the increment as anything from 2 to 60 seconds.
In cumulative (Fischer) mode, a player receives an extra amount of time before each move. The glossary gives 30 seconds as a common example. If you move quickly, the unused part stays on your clock, so your time can grow.
Delay (Bronstein) mode is set out in Article 6.3.2. Both players have a main thinking time, and each also gets a fixed extra time with every move. The main thinking time only starts counting down once the fixed extra time has run out. If you press the clock before that, your main thinking time does not change, however much of the extra time you used.
The difference shows when you play fast. With Fischer the seconds you do not use pile up on your clock. With delay your main time simply does not go down; it never goes up.
Working it out
Here a time control is written as starting minutes + seconds per move. Under the FIDE rules:
| Time control | Total (increment × 60) | FIDE |
|---|---|---|
| 3+0 | 3 min | Blitz (not FIDE blitz rated) |
| 3+2 | 5 min | Blitz |
| 10+0 | 10 min | Blitz |
| 10+5 | 15 min | Rapid |
| 15+10 | 25 min | Rapid |
| 45+15 | 60 min | Slower than rapid |
| 90+30 | 120 min | Slower than rapid |
Exactly 10 minutes is blitz, and exactly 60 minutes is not rapid. The rules say which side each boundary falls on.
Online sites draw the lines differently
Playing sites set their own categories. The Lichess FAQ, for example, says Lichess estimates game duration as the starting time in seconds plus 40 times the increment, and sorts games like this:
- 29 seconds or less: UltraBullet
- 179 seconds or less: Bullet
- 479 seconds or less: Blitz
- 1499 seconds or less: Rapid
- 1500 seconds or more: Classical
The same page works through an example: a 5+3 game is 5 × 60 + 40 × 3 = 420 seconds.
Because FIDE multiplies the increment by 60 and Lichess by 40, and the cut-off points differ, the same game can land in different categories. 10+0 is blitz under the FIDE rules but 600 seconds, so Rapid, on Lichess. 25+0 is rapid for FIDE but 1500 seconds, so Classical, on Lichess. A “blitz” label on a site follows that site’s own scheme.
Rules that change with the time control
Some of the rules themselves change when the clock gets shorter.
Article 8.1.1 requires each player to record both players’ moves during the game. In rapid, Appendix A.2 says players do not need to record the moves, and they keep the right to make claims that would normally be based on a scoresheet. Even in a long game, Article 8.4 says that a player with less than five minutes left in a period, and without an increment of 30 seconds or more, does not have to keep score for the rest of that period.
Penalties are lighter too. In a long game, a first illegal move gives the opponent two extra minutes (Article 7.5.5). Under A.3, the penalties in Articles 7 and 9 become one minute instead of two in rapid.
In blitz, unless one arbiter supervises the single game and the arbiter or an assistant records it (B.2), Appendix B.3 applies A.2 and A.3 from the rapid rules. Players do not have to record the moves, and penalties are one minute.
When running out of time does not lose the game is covered in the section on time in Draws in Chess.
Sources
- FIDE, “FIDE Laws of Chess taking effect from 1 January 2023” (FIDE Handbook)
- FIDE, “FIDE Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations effective from 1 March 2024” (FIDE Handbook)
- FIDE, “FIDE Rating Regulations effective from 1 March 2024” (FIDE Handbook)
- Lichess, “Frequently Asked Questions”
Practising with Chess365
Chess365 is a checkmate puzzle app with 1,000 puzzles each of mate in 2, 3, 4 and 5. You always play White, you can make any legal move, and Black replies automatically. If the line ends without mate, the app tells you the king got away and you start again from the beginning. If you stalemate Black, the app shows a separate message explaining that it is a draw.
A hint lights up the piece to move and its destination, and you play the move yourself. After solving, “Review moves” lets you step back and forward through the moves to check the line.
All the puzzles are free, and a one-time “Remove Ads” purchase removes the ads. How to start with mate puzzles is in Chess checkmate puzzles for beginners, and how to use the app is in Getting Started with Chess365.
