The Total Chess World Championship Tour’s new fast classical format is pushing grandmasters to their limits, revealing significant challenges in time management, opening strategy, and player fatigue.
Photograph: Stanley Cheah/Reuters
Key Points
- The fast classical format at the Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot requires players to balance classical depth with a significantly faster pace, leading to errors.
- Players, including Indian GMs R Vaishali and R Praggnanandhaa, are struggling with time management, opening preparation, and fatigue from playing two games a day.
- Even World No.1 Magnus Carlsen has found it difficult to secure wins, while Arjun Erigaisi has adapted by playing quicker after initial struggles on the opening two days.
- The format forces players to reconsider opening choices, as some conventional classical lines are impractical under tighter time controls.
- While some players like Fabiano Caruana find the workload tiring, others like Bibisara Assaubayeva appreciate the reduced pressure of extensive preparation.
The fast classical format at the Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot is proving to be a difficult balancing act for the players, who must retain the depth and precision of classical chess while adjusting to a significantly faster pace that leaves little room for error.
The unfamiliar time control has forced even some of the world’s leading players to rethink their approach, with time management, opening preparation and fatigue from playing two games a day in the group stage emerging as major challenges during the competition.
In the fast classical format at Total Chess, players have 45 minutes against their opponent, plus an increment of 30 seconds per move.
Indian Grandmasters’ Struggles
Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali, who has just one win from eight games, admitted she was finding the format particularly challenging, especially when it came to managing the clock.
“It is quite challenging for me, I have been struggling with time also,” Vaishali said.
Her brother R Praggnanandhaa who has lost three games while drawing five, described the frequent time scrambles as a defining feature of the format.
“With time scramble, it’s just a crazy game always. Obviously the results aren’t great. I’m still trying to adapt,” said Praggnanandhaa, who committed an inexplicable blunder against Richard Rapport to lose from a winning position on Saturday.
Even World No.1 Magnus Carlsen has struggled to register a win.
Arjun Erigaisi, the best-performing Indian with three wins and four draws from eight games, said he had to change his approach after spending too much time on his moves during the opening two days.
“I have almost zero experience in the format. The first two days I was taking a lot of time. Then I made a choice that I’d try to play a bit quicker and maintain a quicker pace. The more experience you have, the better you get,” Erigaisi said.
All three Indian GMs have no prior experience of the format.
Tactical And Strategic Demands
The challenge, however, is not limited to managing the clock. Players also have to reconsider their opening choices, with some lines that work in conventional classical chess proving impractical under the tighter time control.
Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian said finding the right strategy was perhaps the biggest challenge in adapting to the format.
“For some people it’s harder (adapting to the format). Generally, finding the right strategy is the biggest challenge. You can’t play certain openings you are comfortable with; they are impractical,” he said.
Vietnamese GM Le Liem summed up the format’s difficulty, saying players are expected to maintain the quality of classical chess, which can be anywhere from 90 minutes to two hours, despite being pushed into time trouble much earlier.
“It’s a difficult format to play. You have to play classical but you land in time trouble pretty quickly,” he said.
Fatigue And Preparation Impact
The workload has added another dimension to the challenge. Playing twice a day means players must prepare strategies with different colours while also managing their energy across two demanding games.
American Fabiano Caruana, who is doing tremendously well with four wins and as many draws, said fatigue was contributing to a rise in mistakes, particularly in the second game of the day.
“Playing two games a day and also preparing to play with two different colours a day. Players are getting tired and making too many mistakes in the second game and the time control is very unforgiving. So if you are tired it can be especially tough,” he said.
Mixed Player Reactions
Not everyone, however, has found the change entirely taxing.
Women’s World No 7, Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva said the shorter games had brought a degree of relief by reducing the pressure of extensive preparation.
“It’s getting tiring but at the same time more relaxed because you are not stressing about your preparation and the game finishes much faster,” she said.
Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, meanwhile, felt preparation remained important but said he’s prefer to focus on a single game teach day.
“Preparation always plays a role. I think now you have time to prepare and memorise something. I think one game a day is even better, I like that because then I can prepare for that one game fully,” he said.
