How Fast Is A Speed Chess Champion?
Since the Speed Chess Championship (SCC) debuted in 2016, it's been completely dominated by two players. GM Magnus Carlsen won the first two editions in 2016 and 2017. After that, GM Hikaru Nakamura won five years in a row before Carlsen took back the title in 2023. NM Todd Bryant has analyzed the speed of all 39 SCC participants since the event began. Let's take a look at his data and determine the strategies that Magnus and Hikaru use to contend in every SCC.
Speed Helps, But It's Not Everything
How fast are the best SCC competitors? In the three different time controls—five minutes, three minutes, and one minute, (all with a one-second increment) Nakamura is consistently among the fastest players but not quite the fastest. In the 5+1 time control. Nakamura is the seventh-fastest player, making each move in an average of 5.93 seconds. In 3+1, he's the sixth fastest, averaging 3.59 seconds per move. In 1+1, he plays with a lightning-fast speed of 1.55 seconds per move, making him the second-fastest player. However, while Nakamura is among the fastest SCC players in every time control, he's not the fastest in any of them.
Carlsen is just as successful as Nakamura in the SCC, but he plays with a more average pace. Carlsen plays 5+1 moves at a rate of 6.59 seconds per move, 3+1 at 4.08 seconds, and 1+1 at 1.85. Those are all better than the SCC average, but not by much.
Speed helps, but it's not the most important factor in any time control. The fastest performances in all time controls worked out poorly for the fastest player. GM Sergey Karjakin played the fastest match in 5+1, GM Haik Martirosyan played the fastest 3+1 segment, and GM Daniil Dubov played the fastest 1+1 segment, but none of those players won their matches. Speed isn't everything— what really matters is when you spend your time.
When Should You Think?
Despite Carlsen and Nakamura playing quickly in every match, they don't start their games in a rush. By move 20, both Carlsen and Nakamura are typically behind on the clock in 5+1 games, and on average, they're only slightly ahead at that point in 3+1 games. How can they win so frequently when they start out behind on the clock? We should remember that they're investing that time in getting good positions. It doesn't take long for them to catch up when the opponent is forced into a long think, trying to avoid losing quickly on the board.
Here's a typical Carlsen game. He surprised his opponent in the opening and won material. The clock situation is irrelevant if you win early in the game.
It's OK to spend time early in your games. It's much easier to play quickly if you have a good position!
The main thing that really sets the stars apart in terms of the clock is that they rarely have to take deep thinks to recover from a bad position. Both of them are among the top players in terms of how rarely they think for more than 10 seconds in any position during the SCC. In their 5+1 games, Magnus only thinks for more than 10 seconds on 17.22% of his moves. Hikaru is even faster, only tanking for 10 seconds on 16.26% of his moves.
In the faster time controls, Hikaru really stands out. In the 3+1 format, he only thinks 10 seconds or longer on 8.85% of his moves. In 1+1, we lowered the bar to six seconds or longer, and he only reached it on 3.88% of his moves. In both the 3+1 and 1+1 formats, Nakamura had the fewest deep thinks among players who have played more than one SCC match!
The fastest players rarely think for more than six seconds on a move in their bullet games.
There's No Need To Premove
Although mouse skills are important in speed chess, the one-second increment in SCC matches means that there's rarely a need to premove. The top players, Carlsen and Nakamura, aren't much more likely than average to premove. When you consider how often they play each other in close games, that's going to raise the rate of premove time scrambles considerably.
Check out the time scramble in the final bullet game that decided the 2023 SCC title. Notice that the top players are thinking a bit just about every move, even with seconds on the clock. As is typically the case, the clock situation affects the quality of moves, but top players know how to avoid losing on time as long as they have one second added to their clocks for each move.
The unforgettable moment @MagnusCarlsen sacrificed TWO rooks and became the 2023 SCC champion!#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/KBrwYGHWzj
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 22, 2023
Conclusion
The secret to SCC success is great chess moves and smart handling of the clock. The best players don't rush the opening or rely on premoves to survive. Instead, they focus on getting good positions so they don't have too many problems to solve on the board and avoid having too many deep thinks.
Who do you think will use these tricks to win the 2024 Speed Chess Championship? Let us know in the comments.
Jeremy Kane is a National Master and three-time Wisconsin state champion. He is the Director of Training Content for Chess.com. He has been teaching chess in person and online for over 15 years and has designed hundreds of lessons, available on chess.com/lessons. He is the author of Starting Out The Trompowsky on Chessable and The Next To Last Mistake, a book on defensive ideas in chess.
He is the developer of the Caro-Kane Variation of the Caro-Kann Defense.
email: [email protected]
Twitter/X: @chessmensch
