"Gregory Topov" wrote in message ...
"John Rowland" wrote in message
...

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't shogi also played without time
controls? Games regularly last 8 hours or more. Surprisingly to some
perhaps, this hasn't detracted from its popularity in Japan. It seems then
that reducing classical time controls isn't the key to improved acceptance
of chess. It is Western culture's thinking about chess that needs to
change, not the thinking time we give the players!

Shogi does use time controls. Rather rapid ones at the amatuer level,
rather long ones (up to 4 or 5 hours per side) at the pro level. The
shogi public does not mind the long time controls because the games
are almost always decisive.

My whole point is that, in the popular view (and even from many a
chess lover's view), draws are boring. And there are just too many in
high level chess. My point in advocating short time controls in chess
is to increase the number of decisive games. If a game can't be won
on the board, it could at least be won on time. And yes, with shorter
time controls, more mistakes will be made. Which means there are more
opportunities to win.

As an aside, can you imagine what eliminating time controls would do to
chess? For instance, it was a blunder in time trouble (36.Rxd4) that cost
Karpov the decisive 24th game which handed the World Championship to
Kasparov in 1985. Shogi style time controls for chess might have changed
the outcome of many games. Admittedly in many respects shogi is even more
complicated than chess because of the possibility to replace captured pieces
on the board.

I definitely do NOT think long shogi time controls are good for chess.
Quite the opposite. Chess, because it is more drawish, needs
*shorter* controls. It needs more decisive games. The more time
control blunders the better!