There are four types of regular (not atomic, wild or bughouse) chess played on this chess server: Untimed, Lightning, Blitz and Standard.
A game is "Lightning" if the expected duration of the game is 3 minutes or less per player. "Expected duration" is determined by a formula that takes into account both the Start time and the Increment (Inc) value. Here is the formula:
Expected duration = (Start + Inc*2/3)
The following table shows the slowest Lightning and fastest Blitz time controls, the dividing line if you will between those two types of matches.
| Slowest Lightning | Fastest Blitz | ||
| Mins | Incr | Mins | Incr |
| 0 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 0 | ||
As you can see, Lightning chess is very quick!
You can list logged on users according to their lightning ratings by typing
"who L". "Lightning" is also a variable that can be used in formulas in order
to screen match requests.
See also: blitz, formula, match, standard, untimed, who