I’m starting this thread to see how many of y’all would be interested in playing some longer time control games online. There aren’t always tournaments nearby, and sometimes it’s difficult to dedicate an entire weekend to a tournament with other life commitments. But the majority of online chess is 5-min or quicker, and so those of us that want to play longer time controls are usually out of luck. The longer games provide a chance to really dive into a position and work on your game in a way that blitz can’t (they complement each other, though). If anyone is interested, just post in this thread with either a FIDE, USCF, or online rating, and perhaps we can all get matched up and get some good games going. It might even be fun for both players to do a post-mortem on 2+2 for the entertainment of the forum, and to get feedback for learning purposes as well.

This isn’t limited to any specific time control. I was just thinking something like G/60’+10” up to G/120’+5”, but there certainly aren’t any rules. It’s up to the participants, of course.

Love the idea, although I personally have a lot of trouble finding large enough blocks of time to be able to commit to playing any games myself.

I can commit to to tasks that can be broken up into smaller blocks of time to be done when I'm able, though, and toward that end I'll say that if there's enough interest in this concept, I will organize some kind of structure for it. Depending on the interest levels this might mean a tournament (if a lot of people can commit to playing multiple long games), or a ladder (that can only be climbed with long games), or an ELO rating pool that only includes long games played by 2+2ers against each other, or some other format. Let's see how much interest there is first, and then figure out a structure, but whatever that structure ends up being, I'll do the administrative side of it.

Always appreciate your willingness to TD tourneys and stuff like that. Thank you BJJ.

I am interested. I am about 1726 CFC rated, which I'm guessing is similar to USCF.

Finally. I was beginning to think this place was all blitz players

Haha... I was just busy playing a tournament this weekend (+3 -2 =0, with a 15 move resignation in a kings gambit against a 2200ish player) so I hadn't been paying attention.

I'm interested, though I'm almost guaranteed to be the worst player + I'm in Sweden, so the time difference might be an issue. Not your optimal candidate, but available .

Post your rating.

I'd potentially be interested in this. Uscf is around 2000.

I'll update rating when I get a better idea of what it might be. Right now... ~1000.

Um...I have no idea how the OP is having trouble finding long games online. Chess.com, ICC and FICS all have just countless games going of standard time controls. I just looked on FICS - There are literally dozens of games going with a standard time control of over 60 minutes right now.

Where on earth are you looking for non blitz games that you can't find any? lol

Cashgrinder,

As of this time... the highest rated seek for "standard" time controls at chess.com is 1410 for a 30|0. I am under the impression OP is about 2000 USCF, and is looking for a game close to his level at time controls more like 90|30.

That's a significant different market, and the player pool is much smaller than you lead on.

I deleted some posts. Take it easy guys

Sorry. I got a little carried away.

My point was that these games are a lot easier to find than the OP has experienced. If you were to sign up for chess.com, ICC, and FICS you would see that the majority of long, high rated games are on FICS and ICC. By far. They appear on chess.com throughout the day but it's just not the same and it tends to be mostly players rated between 1000 and 1700.

If you sign up for ICC (really not that expensive for people on this site) and download Babaschess for FICS, you'll be able to find games of just about any time control/variation, with no exaggeration - 24/7. I mean, you might have to wait sometimes when trying to find a 90/30 @ USCF 2000, but it will be there far before painfully long.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not seeing all of these games you're referencing on ICC. For example, I'm logged on right now at what I would think would be a busy time, and the longest game is a 45/45 seek from a computer. The longest human seek is a 30/30 game from a 1600 player, followed by a 25/25 game from that same guy. Those are the only two human seeks with time controls greater than 20 minutes.

The tendency on ICC is for more people to join a game than create their own. If they don't see what they like after a while, they go play blitz or do tactics or whatever. Your best bet is to create a game and then sit back and watch TV or listen to music until someone joins the game. Trust me, they will. If it takes too long for you, log off for a few and create a game on FICS as well as peruse the list of other seeks on FICS. Between all of that, you're going to find a game, man. Trust me.

source: I'm on ICC and FICS and I have both heard and participated in countless discussions with NM+ players on this very subject.

I hadn't thought of that, similar to starting a game (in poker). I think a possible downside could be that while you wait you could get distracted and start a game with less focus than if you knew you were starting a game at a certain time.

Still, it'd be pretty cool if we could get some of the stronger players here to share their thoughts and analyse the game afterwards.

I'm interested in any long time control games/tournaments. I have a USCF rating in the 1600s but a wide variety of online ratings, everywhere from 1000 to 2000

I've also been considering trying to organize a webcam tournament (even it was just a quad) that tried to simulate over-the-board play as much as possible.

Alright, looks like there is some good interest. Let's kick this pig.

So who wants to play this overrated 2000ish USCF piece-donator?

Slow down, not too many responses at once guys

I promise to add some donkey'ish analysis after the games are posted here, so someone, go go go!

Tex, I'd be up for a game some time in the next couple of weeks. PM me when you're free?

PM sent, sir.

Def. post the game/s when you play it/them Tex

Yes sir, will do. Chocaholic2 and I scheduled a time to play a G/90'+10" this week, so hopefully we can have the game posted (for some lolz@tex) and analysis/thoughts up this weekend.