Blitz chess timer
Three and five minute games, ready to start. The display drops to tenths of a second when it matters, the half on move is impossible to mistake, and there is nothing to sign up for.
Nothing leaves this tab. The clock is JavaScript running on your own device. No account, no upload, no ads, no time limit — and once the page has loaded it keeps working with the Wi-Fi off.
What this clock does
Tenths when they count
Under thirty seconds the display switches to tenths, because in a blitz scramble whole seconds tell you nothing useful.
You hear the last ten seconds
A short beep marks each of the final ten seconds, rising in pitch for the last three. Turn it off in settings if you are in a quiet room.
Press on the way down
The tap registers the moment your finger lands rather than when it lifts. At three minutes a game, that difference is real.
The blitz controls, and who plays them
Blitz covers roughly three to ten minutes a side. FIDE's own definition is about the total time a game can take rather than the base alone: an event is blitz when each player's base time plus sixty times the increment comes to ten minutes or less.
| Control | Feel | Longest a game can run |
|---|---|---|
| 3|0 | Pure speed; endgames are a lottery | 6 minutes |
| 3|2 | FIDE standard blitz; endgames are playable | About 9 minutes over 40 moves each |
| 5|0 | The classic club blitz control | 10 minutes |
| 5|3 | Comfortable; the usual online default | About 14 minutes over 40 moves each |
| 5|5 | Break-even for a fast mover | About 17 minutes over 40 moves each |
Why the increment matters more than the base
A 3|2 game and a 5|0 game take roughly the same wall-clock time, but they feel nothing alike. In 5|0 the last thirty seconds are a shuffling contest and material sometimes stops mattering. In 3|2 you always have two seconds coming back, so a rook endgame stays a rook endgame instead of turning into a race to press the clock.
If you are choosing a control for a club blitz night, 3|2 is the one to pick. It is the FIDE standard for a reason, and it keeps rounds predictable.
Blitz rules that catch people out
Two things change at blitz speed. An illegal move can be penalised much more harshly than in a long game — in blitz the first illegal move can lose the game outright if the opponent claims it before making their own move. And a flag has to be claimed: the clock reaching zero does not by itself end the game if nobody notices.
The clock on this page stops dead at zero and names the winner, which removes the second problem entirely.
Read next
Guides that go with this clock
What does 3+2 mean?
Three minutes plus two seconds a move — and a table decoding every other control written the same way.
Read it Choosing a controlBlitz vs rapid vs classical
Where the boundaries actually are, why FIDE measures total time rather than base time, and where bullet fits.
Read it Choosing a controlHow long does a game take?
The ceiling for any control is (base + increment × moves) × 2. A table of real numbers, and what to budget per round.
Read itFAQ
Questions about this clock
What is the standard blitz time control?
Three minutes plus a two-second increment. FIDE uses 3+2 as its standard blitz control for rated events. Five minutes with no increment is the older club standard and still very common.
How long does a blitz chess game take?
A 5|0 game can never exceed ten minutes because there is no increment to extend it. A 3|2 game caps at roughly nine minutes over forty moves each. In practice most blitz games finish in half that, because somebody resigns or gets mated.
Is blitz the same as bullet?
No. Bullet is one to two minutes a side and is not a FIDE category at all — it is an online term. Blitz starts at about three minutes and is a rated FIDE category with its own rating list.
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Same engine underneath, set up for a different game. Pick the one that matches what is on the table.
Two players, one phone
Lay the device flat between you. Each player taps their own half, and the far half is rotated so it reads correctly across the board.
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Real multi-stage controls. Reach move 40 and the next period is added to the time you saved, exactly as a hardware clock does.
Open it OfflineOffline clock
Load the page once and turn the network off. Nothing about your game is uploaded, because there is nowhere for it to go.
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