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Abstract

How is competition to be understood as a time-bound activity? While the comparison of task completion success is a central feature of competition, time is routinely used as a principle through which contests are organized, either as a direct measure of success or as a constraining resource that insures the contest is fair. In competitions various models of temporal organization (and sequential turn-taking) organize strategy and produce constraints that lead to the evaluation of success. I present an ethnography of competitive chess to demonstrate the centrality and consequences of temporality in contests in which time is used as a resource. Time shapes chess on the macro-level (for organizing events), the meso-level (as interpersonal engagement), and the micro-level (as psychic pressure). Put together, activities create a temporal tapestry. Treating time as a resource in competitive activity emphasizes that rules depend on temporal strategies to create equitable outcomes.

Keywords

Chess competition games resources temporal capital

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Time to play: The temporal organization of chess competition

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