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Clock usage guidelines

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Saturday, 6 February 2010, at 11:55 p.m.

In Response To: Revisiting a position that Christian Munk-Christensen posted (Marv Porten)

The more I think about your request, the more I think you may be barking up the wrong tree by asking people about their time usage.

Suppose we were all to comply with your request. What good, exactly, would it do you to learn that Stick played a certain subtle opening move instantly because he had invested a week's worth of computer time in advance and memorized the results? Or that Bob Koca spent 45 seconds OTB simply Because It Was There? Or that Jason Lee can do mental math three times faster than you can?

The simplest rule of thumb for time usage is that you should spend more time on a move if doing so decreases your chances of making a large error. If there's not much equity at stake, don't waste time splitting hairs. If there might be a lot of equity at stake but you have no idea how to assess the position, and are just as likely to make an error whether you spend 30 seconds thinking about it or not, then don't waste those 30 seconds.

The same position may be easy for one person and hard for another, depending on the person's individual experience. While it's good to try to make the same moves as strong players do, I don't see the point in trying to spend the same amount of time on a move as someone else. Which moves you need to spend more or less time on is a highly individual thing and the best way to figure it out is to clock yourself while you play a bot, and analyze the results afterwards. Look carefully not just at wrong moves that you spent too little time on, but moves that you spent a lot of time on with not much benefit, either because there was no equity at stake or because you spent the time ineffectively. This will ultimately be vastly more valuable to you than any statistics about how other people spend their thinking time.

Messages In This Thread

• Revisiting a position that Christian Munk-Christensen posted
  Timothy Chow -- Friday, 5 February 2010, at 11:09 p.m.
  • Revisiting a position that Christian Munk-Christensen posted
    Marv Porten -- Saturday, 6 February 2010, at 12:55 a.m.
    • Revisiting a position that Christian Munk-Christensen posted
      Timothy Chow -- Saturday, 6 February 2010, at 1:10 a.m.
      • Revisiting a position that Christian Munk-Christensen posted
        Marv Porten -- Saturday, 6 February 2010, at 1:25 a.m.
        • Clock usage guidelines
          Timothy Chow -- Saturday, 6 February 2010, at 11:55 p.m.
          • Clock usage guidelines
            Marv Porten -- Sunday, 7 February 2010, at 2:47 a.m.
            • Clock usage guidelines
              Timothy Chow -- Sunday, 7 February 2010, at 5:01 a.m.
  • 5 ply/4 ply XG RO
    Stick -- Saturday, 6 February 2010, at 3:51 a.m.
  • Revisiting a position that Christian Munk-Christensen posted
    christian munk-christensen -- Saturday, 6 February 2010, at 9:52 a.m.