lichess.org
Donate

Why aren't there more increment tournaments?

Every once in a while I try to play in a tournament on lichess, which almost invariably has no increment. (I understand there are one or two blitz tournaments per day with increment.) Personally I don't understand the appeal of time controls like 1+0 , 3+0, etc. Funnily enough my rating usually improves from playing such tournaments because the games that come about from them are of such low quality that I can fairly easily scrounge some wins from much higher rated opponents out of sheer luck.

I'm curious whether there has ever been any actual gauging of the lichess community about what time controls they would prefer for regularly scheduled tournaments. I would be very surprised if the percentage of people who prefer incrementless time controls is greater than or equal to the percentage of incrementless tournaments.

I understand that anyone can create their own custom tournament with their own custom time control, but obviously such custom tournaments can't hope for the same adoption and participation as the regularly scheduled ones.
I believe part of the reason for the use of X+0 in tournaments is the fact that in a tournament the goal is to win points in as little time as possible.
An increment would cause some games to take longer, draining the players' valuable tournament time.
It appears that for this reason most tournament players prefer X+0 tournaments.

I prefer playing with an increment, to avoid the time scramble and players trying to flag the opponent when in a losing position...on the other hand, I don't play in tournaments.
I think part of the reason was that round times are slightly more predictable... but I too wish there were more scheduled tournaments with any increment.

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.