Xiangqi Time Controls Explained: Bullet to Classical

Bullet, blitz, rapid and classical

Online players sort time controls into four broad families. Bullet gives each side less than about three minutes, and the whole game is over in a few frantic minutes. Blitz runs from roughly three to ten minutes a side. Rapid covers roughly ten minutes up to around an hour, and classical is anything longer, the kind of game where a single move can take a quarter of an hour.

Treat those boundaries as rough. Every platform draws the lines a little differently, and some sort a control by its expected length rather than its starting time, adding the base time to around forty times the increment, so a control with a big increment can land in a slower family than its first number suggests. Over-the-board events set their own controls in their regulations, and the exact numbers vary between organisers.

Chinese has its own everyday words for this. 慢棋 (màn qí, slow chess) describes long games, 快棋 (kuài qí, fast chess) describes rapid play, and 超快棋 (chāo kuài qí, super-fast chess) is used for the quickest formats. You will see them in event names and on Chinese apps, attached to whatever minutes the organiser has chosen.

Increments, sudden death and counting seconds

An increment adds a fixed amount of time to your clock after each move you make. A player who moves quickly in simple positions can keep a small reserve alive right to the end of a long game, and the increment rewards exactly that. A control with no increment is sudden death: when the main time is gone, it is gone, however many moves are left to play.

Many Chinese xiangqi apps and game rooms describe clocks differently, with up to three settings. 局时 (jú shí) is the total time for the game, 步时 (bù shí) is a limit on any single move, and 读秒 (dú miǎo), literally reading the seconds, is a countdown that applies to each move once the main time is used up. Under that system you can keep playing as long as every move beats the countdown. The details differ between apps, so read the settings before you start.

How the clock changes the way you play

In bullet, the clock is often a bigger opponent than the player across the board. There is no time to calculate a long line, so games are decided by patterns you already know, by safe and simple moves, and by who keeps their hand moving. That is a lot of fun, but it is a poor way to learn new ideas.

Blitz leaves room for a quick check of each move and one or two real thinks per game, and it suits players who know their openings and want plenty of games. Rapid lets you calculate properly at the critical moments, before a Cannon sacrifice or a trade into an endgame. Classical and untimed games are where you learn the most, because you can check every Horse leg and every Cannon screen before you commit.

Whatever the control, spend time where it matters. Move quickly through an opening you know, then slow down when the position stops looking familiar, when your opponent offers material, and before any trade that changes the character of the game. Keep a reserve for the endgame, where exact technique decides results and a player with ten seconds left is at the mercy of the clock.

One xiangqi rule makes time scrambles different from chess. Perpetual check and perpetual chase are forbidden, so a player who is losing on the board cannot save the game by checking over and over until the opponent's clock runs down. The repeating side has to change its move or lose. On XiangqiPlay this is checked automatically. When a position appears for the third time, the moves that produced it are reviewed, and if only one side was checking on every move, or chasing the same piece on every move, that side loses.

The clocks on XiangqiPlay

Online games against other players offer four choices: Untimed, listed as Casual, 1 + 0 Bullet, 5 + 3 Blitz and 10 + 5 Rapid. Blitz is selected by default when you open the lobby, and the same four options apply when you set up a private table for a friend. Online games are rated and saved to your dashboard.

The online clocks are server-authoritative. The server keeps the official time for both players, deducts the time you used when your move arrives, and then adds the increment. Your browser only displays the clock, using the same calculation, so the server's numbers are the ones that count. Only the side to move loses time, and a player whose clock reaches zero loses the game.

Games against the computer have a wider menu. The bullet group has 1 | 0 and 2 | 1, blitz has 3 | 0, 3 | 2, 5 | 0 and 5 | 5, and rapid has 10 | 0, 10 | 5, 15 | 10 and 30 | 0. A No clock option covers unhurried games. The setup screen shows a popular row of six, namely 1 | 0, 3 | 2, 5 | 0, 10 | 5, 15 | 10 and No clock, with the rest under More options, and the default is 10 | 5. Run out of time against the computer and you lose there too.

There is no classical control as such. The longest timed option is thirty minutes against the computer, and for anything slower, Untimed online or No clock against the computer gives you as long as you like.

For fast games there is also an optional premove setting, which is off by default. With it switched on, you can queue your next move while the opponent is still thinking, and it is played the instant their move lands. If their move makes your premove illegal, it is simply dropped.

Picking the right control

If you are learning the rules or a new opening, play untimed or rapid, where there is time to check every move. If you know your openings and want practice at spotting patterns, blitz gives you many games in an evening. Keep bullet for fun or for openings you already know well. And if you keep reaching good positions only to lose on time, move up a step rather than trying to play faster.

Every one of these is a click away on XiangqiPlay. Pick a clock and play the computer at any of its eight levels from Easy to God, sharpen your pattern speed on 5,000 engine-proven puzzles at /puzzles, or meet a real opponent online. A free account is needed to play.