Keeping online games in proportion

Why the hours slip

Online play removes the natural pauses of a real board. There is no setting up, no putting the pieces away, no opponent who needs to catch a train. Fast time controls compress a game into a minute or two, and the button for the next one is always right there. None of this is sinister. It simply means that the stopping point has to come from you.

Choose formats with built-in endings

Correspondence and turn-based games end themselves: you make your move, the game waits, you close the tab. Tournaments with a fixed number of rounds have a clear finish. Arena tournaments and quick-pairing lobbies do not, so use them deliberately rather than by default.

Count games, not minutes

“I’ll play for half an hour” has a way of stretching. “I’ll play three games” is easier to keep, because the count is visible and the third game has a definite end. Decide the number before the first move.

Stop after a bad loss, and after a good win

The urge to play again at once is strongest straight after a frustrating defeat, and the next game is rarely better for it. A good win produces the same urge in a pleasanter form. Either way, a short break, or a few minutes with the finished game on the analysis board, is a better use of the moment.

Keep slow games slow

Correspondence only helps if you let it be slow. Checking a game every twenty minutes turns a relaxed format into a constant low hum in the background of the day. Pick one or two fixed moments, with the morning coffee or after dinner, and make your moves then.

Play people you know

Games with friends tend to end at a sensible hour, because the friends have lives too. A regular game with the same person, live or turn-based, is also more memorable than a long run of anonymous pairings.

Switch from playing to studying

Puzzles, lessons and post-game analysis are a natural brake: they reward attention rather than speed. Ending a session with one puzzle, or with a look back at your last game, leaves you calmer than ending it with a loss on time.

Use what the sites provide

• Vacation settings for correspondence games, so slow games don’t press on you while you are away.
• Notifications switched off in apps, so the board waits for you and not the other way round.
• Only a few turn-based games open at once.
• Fast lobbies kept off the devices you use for work.

When it stops being fun

If online games begin to crowd out sleep, work or people, take a proper break: log out, remove the app, play across a real table with someone for a while. The games will still be there. That is rather the point of games that are centuries old.