Answers.Body: <p>The biggest <em>problem</em> with this variant, is that it gets players to play even more impulsively(the clock becomes a strategy to win). Imagine a scenario where white has accumulated a lot of time while black has very little time, instead of thinking hard to find the best move, white would much rather play quickly(otherwise black would gain time). In normal chess you can not control your opponents clock, in this variant you can. So the game becomes more about the clock than chess.</p>
  <p>This is likely why it is mostly unknown, and not played OTB.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-03-19T18:58:33.273Z
Answers.Text: I see this rather as an incentive (especially for bullet wizards :-), but answer accepted.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Hauke Reddmann
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2023-03-11T12:46:17.837Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2023-03-11T19:11:55.227Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2023-03-11T19:11:55.227Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Vivaan Daga
Body: <p>Consider the following time control idea (which obviously would
  not be implemented with a sand clock, but a modern
  electronic clock): The hourglass starts in neutral, each
  move reverses it. Thus any of your pondering automatically adds to the time of the opponent. As soon as the last sand grain has fallen, loss on time.</p>
  <p>Has such a time control been tried in a &quot;serious&quot; game or even tournament?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-03-08T21:39:10.537Z
Comments.Text: Technically, this is definitely doable with a real hourglass (starting horizontally, with an equal amount of sand on both sides) - see [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_control#Hourglass). The DGT 2000 had it as one of its modes. See also [this Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/6r7vvx/hourglass_chess_tournaments/).
Comments.UserDisplayName: Glorfindel
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-03-09T03:07:13.450Z
Comments.Text: In my youth we often played casual games with a 3-minute [egg timer](https://www.giggletimetoys.com/product/3399.php).
Comments.UserDisplayName: bof
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-03-09T11:38:05.087Z
Comments.Text: I think this is an included mode on many electronic chess clocks already. I have no idea how common use it is, though.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Arthur
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2023-03-09T13:45:42.333Z
Comments.Text: @Glorfindel: Yup, "can take forever" (Reddit) is an issue (although not a practical one, I think - unless two trolls play a 100 move seasnake and use all of their, say, 10 minutes for every move).
Comments.UserDisplayName: Hauke Reddmann
Tags: <chess-variants><time-control><chess-clocks>
Title: Hourglass chess timer
ThreadText: # Hourglass chess timer
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2023-03-08)
  
  Consider the following time control idea (which obviously would
  not be implemented with a sand clock, but a modern
  electronic clock): The hourglass starts in neutral, each
  move reverses it. Thus any of your pondering automatically adds to the time of the opponent. As soon as the last sand grain has fallen, loss on time.
  
  Has such a time control been tried in a "serious" game or even tournament?
  
  **Tags:** chess-variants, time-control, chess-clocks
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Technically, this is definitely doable with a real hourglass (starting horizontally, with an equal amount of sand on both sides) - see [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_control#Hourglass). The DGT 2000 had it as one of its modes. See also [this Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/6r7vvx/hourglass_chess_tournaments/).  
  > **username_2**: In my youth we often played casual games with a 3-minute [egg timer](https://www.giggletimetoys.com/product/3399.php).  
  > **username_3**: I think this is an included mode on many electronic chess clocks already. I have no idea how common use it is, though.  
  > **username_0**: @username_1: Yup, "can take forever" (Reddit) is an issue (although not a practical one, I think - unless two trolls play a 100 move seasnake and use all of their, say, 10 minutes for every move).  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2023-03-11. Score: 4 | Accepted answer
  
  The biggest *problem* with this variant, is that it gets players to play even more impulsively(the clock becomes a strategy to win). Imagine a scenario where white has accumulated a lot of time while black has very little time, instead of thinking hard to find the best move, white would much rather play quickly(otherwise black would gain time). In normal chess you can not control your opponents clock, in this variant you can. So the game becomes more about the clock than chess.
  
  This is likely why it is mostly unknown, and not played OTB.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: I see this rather as an incentive (especially for bullet wizards :-), but answer accepted.  
  
  ---
  
  