What time settings do you feel comfortable playing at?

For a long time, about the first two years I was playing, pretty much any setting seemed too fast to me. No matter what I got into byo-yomi and I never felt that 30 secs was enough time to make a decision.

The first setting I got comfortable with was the IGS standard of 1 + 10 mins/25 moves Canadian time. Then, about a year ago, partially to work on my speed, I started playing blitz with the setting 1 + 3 mins/25 moves, and was pleased to discover that I could indeed play some interesting and enjoyable faster games. I did however come into a rut, and when I again started playing slower games, I discovered that a 40 sec byo-yomi with a 20 minute main time was also a setting I liked.

Lately, it seems to me that most anything in the middle is fine, and that I can adapt fairly well to various settings, though I don't like playing either too fast or too slow. How about you?

_________________
Patience, grasshopper.

Even before looking at the choices, I could say that my favorite time setting is 30 minutes + 5 periods of 30 second byo-yomi.

I'm comfortable with other time settings as well, though. I suppose the Malkovich time settings are a bit slow...

_________________
be immersed

my favourite is KGS 30 mins + 3x30 s, but i have no problems with playing anything from 10 to 30 mins basic time and occasionally i try some 10 s blitz. in real life i like no limit in casual games and 60 or 75 mins + 3x30 s in tournament ones (standard time allowance in Czechia and presumably elsewhere as well)

recently i started experimenting with playing real-life jubango with Fischer time 40 mins + 20 s which is also not bad. and i am still tempted to try a serious game(s) with some ridiculously long time, like 120-150 mins basic time, to see what can i do at my very best

_________________
Spilling gasoline feels good.

I might be wrong, but probably not.

I think I have to be in the right mood for a slow game, so I rarely start them online. One thing that never fails to put me in that mood is getting into an interesting position in a very fast game...

_________________
That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
--
My (sadly neglected, but not forgotten) project: http://dailyjoseki.com

My favorite time setting is the standard KGS fast setting: you get enough time to play interesting games and the pace is fast enough to let you play several of them in a row (a game usually lasts between 20-30 min)

If I want to play a serious game I need 40 min. If I have that I don't care what kind of buy-yomi I get. The longest game I ever played was a tournament game against a friend of mine that was just a huge middle game mess with at least 7 interconnected groups fighting for life and several big ko's. I needed 37 minutes till move 280 when he gave up.
Last weekend I played in a 30 min tournament and I got to buy-yomi twice, both times we were already filling dame points.

_________________
While I was teaching the game to a friend of mine, my mother from the other room:
"Cutting? Killing? Poking out eyes? What the hell are you playing?"

Most games I play are 15min/5*1min, that way I can play at least two to three games a day. Rated I only play 25min/5*30sec (KGS automatch slow-time-setting).
I tried just 5*30sec a while ago but it's really not a game of quality then.

Sometimes I play 40min/5*30sec with a friend, but I always screw up in the end because my concentration doesn't last that long ^^

_________________
My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Haha yes I get online to play some blitz, and then I get interested in some early game position!

On the opposite end, I felt like such a pro the one time I adjourned a game for lunch. It was at Congress against my roommate He had a game adjournment the day before, and I told him how cool I thought that would be. Next thing you know we were paired against each other, and had a long and interesting game. As it came near lunchtime we knew -- it was time! We adjourned and went to lunch. Then we came back and proceeded to muddle through a still extremely complex game in byo-yomi.

When I want to focus: 10:00 main, 30 sec. byoyomi x 3
When I don't care: 5:00 main, 20 sec. byoyomi x 3
When I'm trying to finish homework due in 3 hours at 5:00am and in need of a break: 1:00 main, 10 sec. byoyomi x3

Recently I've started not minding slow settings as much as I used to, and I can make use of the extra time, but blitz is still king.

I started off with the standard kgs setting but have been playing 15 + 5x0:30 lately; I still find anything under 30 sec. byo-yomi to be too fast though.

For me, the timing system is a big factor of "comfort". I feel more comfortable in Fischer time blitz (6/3 or the like) than with 45 minutes main time plus 20-in-5 canadian byoyomi.

_________________
A good system naturally covers all corner cases without further effort.

I used to play a lot of 15 or 20 + 3-5 x 30 games, sometimes even 30 minutes of main time. Then I decided I should practice playing faster and play 1 + 5 x 20. Now I play KGS automatch on blitz, which is really too fast for me, but what I have to do to play games on my lunch break.

I loved my 90 + 5x30 seconds games at the US Go Congress. It's fun, albeit challenging to spend that long focused on a single game. Sadly I haven't been back since 2007.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

It is interesting to see which time settings you consider fast, medium and slow. Apparently, anything over about 20-30 minutes is slow to you.

Personally, I would consider anything with 45-75 min sudden death or 40-60m plus 10-30s byoyomi as medium. More than that is slow, less than that is fast.

As for my preference, I really have none. I love playing, regardless of the time setting. I enjoy using up the 2h30m + 1x1m byoyomi of congress games, but also very fond of (ultra-)blitz.

Yes that's true. As a beginner, I would often take an eternity to make a move, and for about the first year, I felt exhausted by the time the middle game started, and typically I was already in byo-yomi, so it seemed to me that longer time settings might just kill me off.

Now, my mental endurance has improved, but since I play mostly only online, it seems to me that taking more that 2 or 3 minutes for a move feels ... impolite. Perhaps this is also a factor in slowing my improvement. I certainly take more time with tsumegos, and the few times I've played in person (without a clock) I also played at turtle speed.

_________________
Patience, grasshopper.

When playing online, I tend to prefer 30:00 + 5x0:30 byo-yomi; I usually end up with ten or so minutes of time left. I occasionally play 5x0:10 blitz on 9x9, but figuring out where to tenuki to takes too long for me to play that on 19x19. The only tournament I've played in was 30:00 absolute time, and that was long enough for me to not think about the time at all.

Having read this thread, I think I'll try playing on some other time settings.

Regardless of the time settings, I can find my way into trouble. Even with no time limits I suffer from time trouble since I will suddenly realize that I have been thinking for a long time and rush to make a few moves, undoubtedly some of which will be careless.

Chronophobia - a morbid dread of time, describes me well!

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

My all around favorite time limit is 5 minutes main time, + 5 minutes/5 stones Canadian time. Such a game affords one the time to take an eternity when I need to, and to play at a lovely brisk pace when I don't.

One month plus 1 day x 10 byoyomi.

_________________
KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku

My main setting on KGS is 10:00 x 3 periods of 1:00 byo-yomi. It gives me enough time to play my opening, and I have enough time to focus during yose.

I always do something like 5-10 min main + 5x45 byo yomi. But the quoted time seems really nice, I might end up trying it.

I like a fast-paced but not outrageously speedy game, so I try to tone down the main time and tone up the byo-yomi. Gives you enough time to read fair-to-middling life and death, but not enough time to dwell on everything going by.