The Chess Timer

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Chess Time Controls Explained: Bullet to Classical

Published September 28, 2026 · 9 min read

Chess time controls explained in one line: a time control says how many minutes each player starts with and how many seconds, if any, are added for every move. “3+2” is 3 minutes plus 2 seconds a move; “90+30” is 90 minutes plus 30 seconds a move. Whether a game counts as blitz, rapid or classical depends not on the base time alone but on the base time plus 60 times the increment, a rule that makes 10+0 blitz under FIDE and turns the online word “bullet” into the fastest kind of blitz.

How do you read a chess time control?

The notation on online platforms and on The Chess Timer is base + increment: minutes, a plus sign, seconds per move. 5+3 means 5 minutes each and 3 seconds added after every move; 10+0 means 10 minutes and nothing added.

Tournament notation adds two ideas. A multi-stage control gives extra time after a set number of moves. FIDE’s glossary gives the example “40 moves in 90 minutes, all the moves in 30 minutes, plus 30 seconds cumulatively from move 1”; the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026 uses exactly that: “90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1” (Regulations, Article 4.3.5). In shorthand: 90/40 + 30, +30.

US Chess writes moves, a slash and minutes (“40/90”), uses SD for a final sudden-death period, G/ for “game in”, inc/ or + for increment and d/ for delay (Rules 5A, 5B, 5B1a, 5B1b). So 40/90 SD/30 inc/30 is the Olympiad control in US notation, and G/30 d/5 is 30 minutes with a 5-second delay (Increment vs delay shows what a delay does).

Blitz vs rapid vs classical: where FIDE draws the line

FIDE’s Laws of Chess define the categories by the time each player has for the whole game, counted as if the game lasts 60 moves:

  • Blitz: “all the moves must be completed in a fixed time of 10 minutes or less for each player; or the allotted time plus 60 times any increment is 10 minutes or less for each player” (Appendix B.1).
  • Rapid: “more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes for each player; or the time allotted plus 60 times any increment is of more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes” (Appendix A.1).
  • Standard (commonly called classical): “a game where each player’s thinking time is at least 60 minutes” (glossary).

So: total = base + 60 × increment, compared with 10 and 60 minutes. Worked examples:

Control Base 60 × increment Total FIDE category
3+2 3 min 60 × 2 s = 2 min 5 min Blitz
10+5 10 min 60 × 5 s = 5 min 15 min Rapid
15+10 15 min 60 × 10 s = 10 min 25 min Rapid
25+10 25 min 60 × 10 s = 10 min 35 min Rapid
90+30 90 min 60 × 30 s = 30 min 120 min Standard

The increment matters at the edges: 10+0 totals 10 minutes and is blitz, 10+5 totals 15 and is rapid; 55+0 is rapid, 55+5 totals 60 and is standard.

FIDE’s rating regulations use the same arithmetic. A game is rapid-rated when “the time allotted + 60 times any increment must be more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes for each player”, and blitz-rated when that total is “more than 3 minutes but not more than 10 minutes” (Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations, 1.1.1 and 1.1.2). A standard rating needs at least 60, 90 or 120 minutes per player “assuming the game lasts 60 moves”, depending on whether the players are rated below 1800, 1800 or higher, or 2400 or higher (Rating Regulations, 1.1).

Is 10+0 blitz or rapid?

Blitz, under FIDE: 10 minutes with no increment is “10 minutes or less for each player”, the exact wording of Appendix B.1. Under US Chess rules “G/10 d/0” is likewise listed as blitz, while the same 10 minutes with a 3-second delay (“G/10 d/3”) totals 13 and is rated as quick chess (Rule 5C). The Chess Timer labels its 10+0 preset Blitz for the same reason.

Online platforms draw their own lines. Lichess estimates game duration as “(clock initial time in seconds) + 40 × (clock increment)” and calls anything up to 479 seconds blitz and up to 1499 seconds rapid (Lichess FAQ). By that formula 10+0 is 600 seconds and therefore “rapid” on Lichess. At the board, the rulebooks’ definition applies.

What is bullet chess?

“Bullet” is the online platforms’ name for the fastest games; Lichess uses it for an estimated duration of 179 seconds or less (Lichess FAQ), so 1+0 and 2+1 are bullet there. The FIDE Laws have no such term: anything “10 minutes or less” is blitz under Appendix B.1, so for FIDE a 1+0 game is simply a very short blitz game. FIDE will not rate it, though; blitz ratings require a total of “more than 3 minutes” per player (Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations, 1.1.2).

US Chess does use the word. Its blitz chapter opens: “Blitz Chess (also known as Speed Chess, 5-minute Chess, Lightning Chess (2-minute), and Bullet Chess (1-minute)) is a variant defined as a single, sudden death time control from 1 to 10 minutes”, and adds that “currently, Lightning and Bullet are not included in any rating system” (Chapter 11). Blitz rating needs 5 to 10 minutes of total time with a base of at least 3 minutes (Rule 5C).

So bullet is blitz, played too fast to be rated by either federation. The Chess Timer’s 1+0 preset is filed under Bullet because that is what players call it.

Chess time control names and the events that use them

Name you will hear Typical control Where it is written down
Bullet 1+0, 2+1 Lichess FAQ (estimated duration ≤ 179 s); US Chess Chapter 11 (“Bullet Chess (1-minute)”)
Blitz 3+2, 5+0, 5+3 FIDE World Blitz Championship 2025: “3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move” (4.3.1.2.1); US Chess standard blitz “G/5 with no delay” (Chapter 11, rule 1a)
Rapid (US Chess: quick chess) 10+5, 15+10, 25+10 FIDE World Rapid Championship 2025: “15 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move” (4.2.2.1); US Chess examples G/15 d/3, G/25 d/3 (Rule 5C)
Classical (FIDE: standard; US Chess: regular) 90+30, 90/40 + 30 (+30) FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026: 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes, +30 s from move 1 (4.3.5); US Chess examples G/90 inc/30, 40/120 SD/60 d/5 (Rule 5C)

How FIDE and US Chess categorize the same total time

US Chess sorts games into rating systems with the same arithmetic as FIDE: “add minutes (mm) and seconds (ss) for total playing time for each player”, with “one second delay or increment counting as 1 minute playing time” (Rule 5C). G/30 d/5 totals 35, exactly as 30+5 does under FIDE’s 60 × increment rule. The federations then cut the scale in different places; the table compares them on one basis, total time per player with one second of increment or delay counted as one minute.

Total time per player FIDE Laws of Chess FIDE rating list US Chess rating system
3 min or less Blitz (B.1) Not rated: blitz needs more than 3 min¹ Not rated: blitz needs 5 min and a 3-min base²
More than 3, less than 5 min Blitz (B.1) Blitz¹ Not rated²
5 to 10 min Blitz (B.1) Blitz¹ Blitz, if the base time is at least 3 min²
More than 10, less than 30 min Rapid (A.1) Rapid¹ Quick³
30 to less than 60 min Rapid (A.1) Rapid¹ Dual: rated as both quick and regular³
60 to 65 min Standard (glossary) Standard, if the minimum for the players’ ratings is met⁴ Dual: rated as both quick and regular³
More than 65 min Standard (glossary) Standard, if the minimum for the players’ ratings is met⁴ Regular³

Table notes:

  1. FIDE Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations effective from 1 March 2024, 1.1.1 and 1.1.2: rapid is “more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes”, blitz “more than 3 minutes but not more than 10 minutes”, each counting “the time allotted + 60 times any increment”.
  2. US Chess Rule 5C: “Blitz: Total playing time for each player is from 5 to 10 minutes inclusive and the primary time control must be at least 3 minutes”; Chapter 11: “Lightning and Bullet are not included in any rating system”.
  3. US Chess Rule 5C: “Regular only: … (mm+ss > 65)”, “Dual (both regular and quick): … from 30 to 65 minutes”, “Quick only: … more than 10 and less than 30 minutes”; the US Chess rating system specification gives the same ranges (blitz 5 ≤ mm+ss ≤ 10, quick 10 < mm+ss < 30, regular mm+ss ≥ 30, dual through 65).
  4. FIDE Rating Regulations effective from 1 March 2024, 1.1: at least 60 minutes when both players are rated below 1800, 90 minutes when a player is rated 1800 or higher, 120 minutes when a player is rated 2400 or higher, “assuming the game lasts 60 moves”.

Two consequences: a 25+5 game (total 30) is rapid for FIDE but dual-rated for US Chess, and a 2+1 game (total 3) is blitz under the FIDE Laws yet rated by nobody.

Try these time controls

Each link opens The Chess Timer with the preset selected:

  • 1+0: bullet, blitz by the rules.
  • 3+2: the FIDE World Blitz control.
  • 10+0: the “ten-minute game”, blitz under FIDE.
  • 15+10: the FIDE World Rapid control.
  • 90+30: a single-stage classical game.

The Olympiad’s two-stage control is the Multi-stage link below the preset grid. Setting and pressing the clock: How does a chess clock work?. Other rule differences between the federations: FIDE vs US Chess (USCF) clock rules compared.

Sources

Checked on 2026-09-28: