Why only 50 000 players play classical?

@AlexiHarvey said in #10:
> Well given that most OTB players would consider 30mins per player Rapid rather than Classical, the stats are inflated somewhat. The surprising thing is if you adopt this approach then Rapid would be the most popular format on Lichess!
>
> As to why much longer formats are not played, the main reason I suspect is that the Lichess rating gained is not worth it for the time spent. What I mean is that you would spend, say, 3 hours to get the opportunity to increase your OTB rating by 5 but not your Lichess rating by 5. You wouldn't play a one-armed-bandit machine if the drums took 3 hours to roll with a payoff no different than if it took 5 seconds to roll!
>
> A secondary factor is that playing OTB Classical you know your opponent is a attentive as you are, om-line that is just not the case.

I'm gaining far more for my results in Classical than I am in any of the other four disciplines.

Yes, very impressive. I could be entirely wrong in my suspicion.

@KaiserOfBlunders123 said in #1:
> Yesterday I saw, that classical chess are very unpopular.
> For example:
> 811 091 played Blitz this week
> 424 869 played Bullet this week
> 478 897 played Rapid this week
> Only 48 387 played Classical this week.
> Why is classical chess very unpopular?
Because Blitz is fast.

Why would somebody endure the pain of losing one match when he can lose 30 matches in the same time? Kappa

I think Classical chess on Lichess is less popular simply because it takes too long. When I started I played only Classical. I couldn't think of a move fast enough to be comfortable playing a shorter game. At some point an opponent said, you know you could play more games in Blitz and therefore practice more. I didn't like the advice because I new it was impossible for me.

At some point a couple years after that I improved my fast game enough that I felt like I could at least say competitive in a Blitz game. That kind of freed my mind to experiment with time controls. Lately I've settled on 15 minutes a side as my most comfortable game. It still gives me time to think really hard about the game I'm playing, but I can play twice as many games as in Classical, which I now neglect greatly.

People are under the impression that playing 30 blitz games is both worth more and less time consuming than playing 1 classical game instead - in reality the opposite is the case. The second reason is that sadly a lot of players stall in classical games, so as soon as they get into a losing position they play extra slow to use all of their time. For those two reasons people don't play classical chess anymore, at least online.

@CheerUpChess-Youtube said in #16:
> People are under the impression that playing 30 blitz games
Actually its 30 bullet games or 10 blitz games

@KenulL_76 said in #17:
> Actually its 30 bullet games or 10 blitz games

It probably will depend on the game you play. A classical game can take only 20 minutes or 2 hours.

@CheerUpChess-Youtube said in #16:
> People are under the impression that playing 30 blitz games is both worth more and less time consuming than playing 1 classical game instead - in reality the opposite is the case. The second reason is that sadly a lot of players stall in classical games, so as soon as they get into a losing position they play extra slow to use all of their time. For those two reasons people don't play classical chess anymore, at least online.

This is not my experience, quite the opposite in fact; on the whole I have found the "classical crowd" to be courteous, inviting, thoughtful and prompt.

I think people just want to have fun, or it’s because they see super GMs, GMs and other titled players playing short time controls, or it’s because they have a short attention span, or it’s because they don’t have time for a classical game very often. Or maybe they’re afraid of cheaters and think it would be harder for a cheater to cheat in a game of bullet without flagging (having the clock run out for those of you who are too young to remember the mechanical clocks we used to use at OTB tournaments where there was a literal flag that would fall when time ran out).