A match during the 1st round of the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026. (Pic credit: FIDE) The Candidates chess tournament, which started in Cyprus on Sunday, made sure that the men did not lose in time. But only after the 41st turn. Until then, they can suffer from not following the legendary Bobby Fischer’s principle of creating the excitement of timed races.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!On the other hand, candidates who will be played simultaneously in the same hall will have an increase of 30 seconds from the first move. But they only get 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, while men get 120 minutes for the first 40 moves.
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Exclusive Nihal Sarin: 2026 Candidates Predictions, Anish Giri’s ‘Drawish’ Label & More #chess GM Swapnil Dhopade, one of the popular chess coaches in India, said, “They want to create some excitement. Especially when players reach move 40 and the clock is not ticking. If one player is under time pressure, it is exciting to see if a player completes 40 moves in a few seconds without getting anything wrong.” Experiment with more time and more openings.Differences in time control for men and women were also during the 2024 candidates.Fischer invented his version of a digital clock, which provided the possibility of an increment for the movement made. The idea was to ensure that a player whose position is better on the board is penalized with a loss only if he continues to play below par.The principle of “losing to time” assumes that a player in a better position will play moves favorable to the opponent and to his own detriment. This principle does not apply if the opponent has no pawn or winning material on the board. In such a case, a draw will occur when the clock turns to zero.IM, author and trainer V Saravanan said, “Different time management for different sections is indeed strange. FIDE may have done this after consulting the participants. If not, it is a strange setup.”Seven-time national champion Praveen Thipsay called the decision ridiculous.When they claimed that in practice men get 10 minutes more (120) than women 110 (with increments) for the first 40 moves, Thipsay differed. “The increase cannot be compared to the time available,” he said, acknowledging the lack of time for women as well.
