Time Control
The total amount of time (and any increment) allotted to each player for a game.
Common categories include classical, rapid, and blitz, distinguished by how much thinking time each player receives before the game must be decided or the clock runs out.
Etymology
“Time control” is a transparent English compound naming a mechanism so that each round of a tournament can finish in a timely way; no source consulted dates the phrase itself or names a coiner. The practice it names is well documented: the 1851 London tournament raised concerns about deliberation time, with one player taking two hours and twenty minutes over a single move; in 1861 the first time limits, using sandglasses, were employed at Bristol, and the London 1883 chess tournament introduced chess clocks and a new rule for loss on time. Several modern methods carry personal names: the Bronstein delay, named after David Bronstein, and increment, also called “Fischer” after Bobby Fischer's 1988/1989 patent, first used in the 1992 Fischer–Spassky match.
First documented: 1861 — First sandglass time limits used in tournament play, Bristol, England, 1861
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.