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Sweaty palms and little beauty

UseWithCare | Jan 26, 2015 at 2:48 AM | Posted in: NoGrs Blog | 619 reads | 2 comments

When I added online chess to my list of long-term hobbies in earnest, believe it or not, I was
blissfully unaware of the term 'blitz chess' or 'bullet chess', or Chess 960. I've never met an
amateur like me playing regular chess OTB in a blitz manner.
It seems that Chess.com believes solving chess puzzles in a matter of seconds is the best way to
train. Now, if you solve chess puzzles according to a book or, say, on Lichess (which also provides
a useful tool for practicing openings), you can concentrate on the process a little longer.
Having played some 50 blitz and bullet games anonymously in a matter of two weeks on
Chessbase, with a moderate percentage of wins, I find it will take for me quite some time to
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appreaciate the beauty of playing chess fast.

Here's an example of a game I played recently as White in a three-minute blitz, with time

NoGrInternational

controls at ca. 2:20 for both players (ca. 3 secs per move). It started out as Queen's Pawn, I
suppose but quickly got quite defensive in Black's pawn structure, perhaps due to the lack of
experience as a blitz player.

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1-0
8

1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 e6 3. Nf3
c6 4. e3 Bd6 5. g3 f5
6. Bg2 Nf6 7. Qe2 Ne4

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8. Nxe4 fxe4 9. Ne5 O-O

10. O-O Qf6 11. f4 exf3

12. Rxf3 Qh6 13. e4 Qh5

14. Rxf8+

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I can't yet see the ways one can possibly benefit from such wins, because it's obvious I won
because the opponent blundered in haste. Yes, there is a combination after the opponent
blundered with his Queen, too eager to exploit the open line, but is it quality chess? If I could
choose, I'd prefer to smother my opponent slowly, rather than quickly. Yes, playing blitz helps
find candidate moves faster but the percentage of errors and blunders must be impressive for all
players. Even GMs blunder in their first 40 moves.
What's your experience and attitude towards playing blitz? How has blitz helped you? When did
you start to feel more confident? Did it take a year or two? Has blitz chess also harmed you in any
way?
I'd be interested to hear from amateur players like me who think they first need to improve their
skills in regular chess.
Best wishes,
Normund

Comments

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Stansteel

9 months ago

I'm a decent OTB player, but I'm terrible at bullet or blitz. Terrible. In a timed, OTB
tournament game, the value in being able to find the best move quickly is clear, and I
can see how bullet/blitz helps with that, but you simply can't blunder in regular games -not like folks do in bullet and blitz. Each to their own, but to me bullet and blitz are as
different from correspondence as one-on-one basketball is different from 5-man play.
A few months before coming across this thread, I saw a thread discussing how folks with
a disparity of more than 200 rating points or so between correspondence and bullet or
blitz chess must be cheating. No other possible explanation. The arguments spiraled as
online banter does, until the implication was that those who can't make great moves in
seconds -- those who think for five, ten, maybe more minutes on some moves -- aren't
really chess players.
Some folks definitely have never tried to play bullet or blitz chess as one of two adults in
a house full of kids and dogs. One, average interruption = a loss. You can ramp up a -500
point disparity fast since a crying kid isn't likely to make you lose even a lightning fast,
one-move-per-day, correspondence game.
So, as it turns out, I find I simply don't have the time to play bullet or blitz. :)

timeless-2

11 months ago

I personally share Fischer's feelings on blitz and bullet--it's "disposable chess" and can
ruin your OTB and correspondence chess game.
It's very fun to watch powerful players duke it out, but beyond that, I have not found
much use for playing it, when I don't have the time (often I will take a day or two to
contemplate moves in my most crucial games) to think at a relaxing, deeper level.
Chess is a game of conceptual and spatial thoughts, yet algorithmic. I think "speed
chess" decpreciates the true core of the game and erodes the allure and beauty of it,
overall.
I find that there is much more material value for improving game play in reading (I love
Silman's books), studying, post-mortem analysis, and repetitive tactical puzzle play
(especially to repeat the "failed" tactics puzzles over-and-over).
Now, finding the time for all of this...that's the true challenge. :)
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