The time in chess

Time in chess

Time is a fundamental element in chess. Pay attention that we are not talking about about the duration of the game nor the time allocated to each player to make his moves. That is the time which we all are used with (measured in hours, minutes, seconds, millenniums.. and so on..). The time we are talking about is a special kind of time whose measure unit is the move. That is why this time is determined by the succession of moves each player does. Notes that time, just like the space in chess, is fragmented (made up by more than one separated parts)

As you may guess there is a strong connection between the fundamental concepts of chess: the space, the pieces and the time. Each piece is moved to a particular square one time. In the battle that takes place on the chess board each side tries to develop its position as faster and as better as possible. This is usual done by trying to control as much as possible the center (as we saw in the previous article). From this point of view White has an advantage because he always makes the first move and, normally, he should always finish first developing his pieces and occupying the best squares. So, because of that first move, White has a big enough advantage which, in theory, should help him win the game. In reality, because of the great complexity of the game and the huge number of possible moves the advantage of the first move has only the value of an initiative. That initiative could, during the game, pass to Black if White makes a mistake.

There is this notion you will surely run into when studying different publications: the tempo.(Which is basically the time we've talked about until now). So, for further understanding of the concept of time ("tempo") proceed in reading the next article.