How long does a chess game take?

The three kinds

FIDE sorts chess by how much time each player gets. Often a few seconds are also added to the clock after each move, and then FIDE assumes a 60-move game.

For a game to count toward FIDE's classical rating, each player needs at least 60 minutes, counted over 60 moves, and more when someone has a high rating: 90 minutes if someone has at least 1800, and 120 minutes if someone has at least 2400.

Real games

A game can be over much sooner than the clock allows. Deep Blue's last game against Kasparov in 1997 took a little over an hour, because Kasparov resigned after 19 moves.

The longest game in the history of the world championship, by moves, is Game 6 of 2021. Magnus Carlsen beat Ian Nepomniachtchi after 136 moves and almost eight hours. The old record was 124 moves, in a draw between Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov in 1978.

The tournament game most often named as the longest is Ivan Nikolić vs. Goran Arsović in Belgrade in 1989: 269 moves and a draw. The time is usually given as 20 hours and 15 minutes. A decisive rated game has since gone longer: 272 moves, in London in 2024.

At home and online

At home you decide for yourselves, and without a clock a game takes as long as it takes. Against our computer opponents you can choose to play with no clock.

Under Play now you choose the time control, from one minute to 30 minutes a player. And in correspondence chess each move can take one, three, or seven days, so a game can go on for months.