lightning

  There are four types of regular (not 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

[Last modified: December 25, 1995 -- Friar]