Chess tournament The three main types of time controls used in chess tournaments are "blitz", "standard", and "compensation". In blitz chess (also known as "sudden death" chess) each player starts with a fixed amount of time to spend on their moves of the game. The FIDE Handbook designates the following common blitz time controls: Blitz time controls increase the odds that one would "lose on time", meaning a forfeiture of the game due to the expiration of one's chess clock. Blitz tournaments are often documented with the notation "G/5" or "G/15", meaning "game in 5" and "game in 15", respectively. Standard time
John Littlewood (chess player) siblings. He did not start playing chess until he was 13, when he was introduced to the game by a friend. He kept on losing to his friend, so he went into the school library and checked out every single chess book. He then read a lot of chess tactics, and eventually beat his friend. At 16 he had improved and joined the local chess club. As he had not played that many people, he was surprised when he found he could beat everyone in the club. At this point he became very keen on the game. While at Sheffield