Clocks and Flags

All games on ICC are timed with a clock for each player. Your clock runs while it is your turn to move. Your opponent's clock runs while it is his turn to move. The clock measures your "thinking" time. If you run out of time on your clock, you lose the game! (Technically, your opponent could turn off autoflag and allow the game to continue, but that's seldom done.)

The "initial time" is the amount of time you start with on your clock, in minutes. The "increment" is the number of seconds that are added onto your clock after each move you make. You can actually gain time on your clock if you move faster than the increment.

A "2 12" blitz game would be a game with 2 minutes initial time, and 12 seconds increment added to your clock after each move.

During a game, you can add more time to your opponent's clock with the ICC command moretime

Time controls: Time controls are specified in the match or seek command when you challenge someone to a game. The time controls determine if a game is Bullet, Blitz, or Standard.

SPECIAL NOTES:

• Providing a second time setting to the match command (eg. match fpawn 5 0 7 0) will offer a game where one side has more time than the other. The match offerer will play the first setting (5 0 in this case), and his/her opponent will play the second time setting. On ICC, this is known as "time odds". See our time odds helpfile for more details.
• Internet lag can cause the clocks to do strange things. ICC compensates players for time lost on the internet between them and the ICC. So a player's clock may pause, or even appear to have time added back to it after a move, even when playing without increments. Click here for more information about lag.
• If the opponent runs out of time, you can &qflag" him, which means claim a win on time. This is done automatically by the ICC server unless you manually turn it off.
• Sometimes a player's clock may fall below zero, and yet not forfeit the game. This is because that player is lagging. Since the connection is lagging, from his perspective he hasn't used up all of his time yet. If ICC can't make a connection with him after 121 seconds, it will adjourn the game automatically (unless the game is played with noescape, in which case he will forfeit the game), giving you a 15 second bonus on your clock. If you wish to waive this bonus time and courtesy-adjourn immediately, click the adjourn icon to force an immediate adjournment

See Also:
The Game Window
Standard, Blitz, and Bullet
Command Line Interface
Dasher Documentation