In serious competitive chess the play is regulated by time limits for completion of the moves. In the mid-19th century, players could take as long as they wished over their moves. This proved unsatisfactory and it was recognised that time needed to be rationed and the failure to meet time control would result in the loss of the game.
There have been freak accidents with time restrictions. In the first round of Hastings 1895, the German grandmaster Dr Siegbert Tarrasch lost on time with one move to go against Amos Burn. The reason for Tarrasch’s time forfeit was that he had written his own name in the space for his first move. His opponent tried to make him aware of the blunder, but the dogmatic German refused to take heed until his clock flag had fallen. A quick reconstruction showed that Burn had been right.
Another weird occurrence involving clocks came in the Smyslov-Botvinnik, 15th match game in the World Championship, Moscow 1958. Having reached a highly advantageous endgame with two bishops against bishop and knight and a superior pawn structure, Botvinnik forgot about the clock and lost on time.
Magnus Carlsen has just made the same mistake in the super-tournament in Stavanger, Norway. Entirely unnecessarily, he lost on time to the Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov, whose position was in fact hopeless.
Carlsen-Topalov: Norway 2015 (diagram 1)
Black had just played his 60th move and Carlsen believed he had 15 minutes to make his next move, as was customary in previous years. However, the time control had been altered and players had just 30 seconds per move from here on. This had been announced more than once and Carlsen should have realised.
In terms of the position on the board, Carlsen is winning because his queen and bishop can co-ordinate effectively.
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