Blitz chess

Blitz chess is a fast-paced form of chess in which each player is allotted a sharply reduced amount of time to make all of their moves, distinguishing it from classical chess and placing it within the broader family of fast chess time controls that also includes the slightly slower rapid chess and the even faster bullet chess. Under the regulations of the International Chess Federation, a blitz game is one in which each player receives ten minutes or less for the entire game, while rapid games allow more than ten but less than sixty minutes and bullet games allow less than three minutes; time increments added after each move are also permitted, and a player who lets the clock run out normally loses the game outright unless the opponent lacks enough material to deliver checkmate. Since 2009 the World Blitz Championship has used a standardized time control of three minutes per player with a two-second increment per move. Players are not required to keep a written scoresheet during blitz play, unlike in classical chess, and a specialized variant called Armageddon, which gives Black drawing odds in exchange for less time for White, is often used to force a decisive result in tiebreak situations.