I have been playing alot of Blitz and i noticed my game has gotten worse in otb. Does Blitz damage your game? I noticed most IM's and GM's stay away from blitz before a tournament. I am trying to slow down my game so i can play tournaments in the USCF this year . Should i stop playing blitz?

Blitz games can be helpful and can be damaging too, it depends on how you use it.

The problem with playing too much blitz is that your brain is getting used to play very fast which can be catastrophical in otb as the opponent would take his full time to make a move while you play it fast without thinking much of it.

In other hand, blitz is usefull for warming up your brain in the morning or to try openings and traps.

Yes! i noticed that but i end up playing too fast and loose slow games... then if i play only slow games i get destroyed in time in blitz or just get beat outright!... but i often here you play too much blitz and you end up a positional cripple that's is what am trying to avoid.

too much blitz is bad.  too little is the worst.  you have to be able to make reasonable moves quickly--even in slow games--especially the ones where you get into to pressure right before one of the time controls. 

not every top player plays blindfold, but they all play blitz on a respctable level... it's just an important part of chess. 

If you overdo it you'll do your game no favours. It may have a tendency to make you play for "cheapos" and play superficially. That's definitely been my experience anyway! As long as you adjust your mindset and remember the medium in which you're playing you'll be fine. To get better you have to carefully consider positions and take the time to understand them. If you do that over long time controls and with study it will tend to translate into better blitz ability.

I've personally had OTB tournament games ruined from being a blitz addict. In one game, I used 3 minutes on my clock after about 40 moves, while my opponent used nearly all of his time in the process. I had been dominating the whole game, and foolishly kept blitzing when I saw he was down to just a minute left on his clock. In my haste, I had blitzed my king up one square instead of diagonally up-left and lost the endgame on the spot. I was absolutely disgusted with myself, but thankfully I got revenge in the rematch against him (where I took time to be careful of course).

Blitz is great for practicing openings and practicing speed under time trouble, but you have to counter-balance it with some long games at the local club if you can.

Wow azure, you can outblitz the IM'S on this site by quite a large margin judging by your rating so I would really love to see your OTB performance.

I can't wait to see you represent Australia at the next Olympiad!

I don't know if they'll have enough powerpoints though....

Blitz is very different, think about it -- you have to reach conclusions very quickly and calculate only the bare necessities.  Good players find incredible moves, plans, and patterns almost unbelievably quickly but regardless the individual has no time to finesse when you compare to their true ability.  If you practice this too much, simply out of habit you'll cut analysis short, reach speedy conclusions, not look at all possible replies by your opponent, etc.  You get what you practice; period.

I had a similar game recently.  A highschool kid who used ~3 minutes for our entire game (G/90 +30) while I used almost all my time.  The position stayed relatively equal (although he started to drift, I didn't have many chances yet) and then he missed a tactic and his knight can be trapped, and after that I won easily.

I watched two highschool 1800s play an endgame, and the losing one started to blitz and slam his clock.  I had just finished so I went over to watch, and his opponent started to blitz in response (both had 20-30 minutes left) the guy went from winning, to drawn, to losing... but they kept blitzing and it was drawn again... and they kept blitzing and it was lost again.  They guy went into the endgame with a very clear plus (rook+pawns -- much better king, better rook, safer pawns) and lost... lol.

Attila, you need to study and play tournaments, and analyze your games. hit me back, let's talk.

carlos

GM Allan Stig Rasmussen, says that blitz improve your game, and is very useful for everyone.

hi dear.

i would like to know the difference between the standard/blitz/bullet.

can any one to explain :)

Bullet: 1-2 mins each player each game
Blitz: 3-14 mins each player each game
Standard: 15+ mins each player each game 

I think this really depends on the person.
Lately I have played like 500 blitz games in two weeks. But I still take my time on my games (winningstreak at the moment).

thank u .. thank u very much dear SimonSeirup.

i appreciate your immediate response  

I my humble opinion,yes,blitz does damage your game if you are under expert.

It's all about balance.  You can play blitz for fun, but remember it's main use is fun and not improvement.  Try to play a fair number of slower games too.

Also, make part of your chess time playing over master games.  You don't have to analyze them deeply, no more than 15 minutes per game unless it really interests you.  The point is to see the plans for both sides, how they avoid the mistakes you find yourself making.  Also use tactics trainer and puzzles to sharpen your tactical eye (this will help blitz too of course).

If you wanted to play competitive tennis, you wouldn't spend all your practice time just serving - because all other aspects of your game would suffer from neglect.  Same thing with chess.