How do you prepare for a RAPID event ?

Tommorrow I will be playing in a team rapid tournament with G/30min NO INCREMENT and this worries me quite a bit cause even though Im not highest rated ill still be playing 1st board cause of some recent achievements my coach finds good enough for first board but the thing is in tournaments I always move very SLOW usually putting me in time trouble and these are usually 45min plus some 

How about some G/20?

And tactics exams are always good.

thanks even the caffine intake sounds like good advice.

I have the same problem.  I just tell myself before the game that this is a short time control and I'm going to have to trust my instinct many times without getting to fully analyze positions.  Maintain the position with OK moves and save your time for those 1 or 2 critical positions.

As always pace yourself.  40 moves in 30 minutes, so I want at least 15 minutes left at move 20.  Maybe tell yourself you want to make it to move 10 in 5-10 minutes.

If it's tomorrow it's a bit late...

So to prepare yourself :

-for the long term : ...by playing rapid games.

-for tomorrow : (1) standard stuff (that you can use in any time control) : use reasoning shortcuts to think on your opponent's time. For instance, if you calculate that all moves except one lead to a loss (eg for forced recaptures), play the remaining move and think to the continuation while your opponent uses his time. If it loses, you were lost anyways. When they are many lines, try to calculate the simplest ones first (of course it'a hard to guess the simplest ones before calculating !). Avoid at all costs re-calculating a line you already looked at.

(2) the time decision : when you think you are spending too much time on a move, play whatever you calculated as best so far - even if this is still unclear because you did not check everything etc. You will need practice of rapid play to know what 'spending too much time' means...

In any case, do not be afraid to spend 5, 10 or even 15 min on a move if it is critical, but not even 20 seconds on others. You should use 90% of your time on 10% of the moves (roughly - I am open to critic from other rapid players, but that's the way I do it).

EDIT : and do not fall in the other extreme of "machine-gun" moving to time-pressure the opponent (you are unlikely to do that if you are used to longer time controls, but still) : if by trying to spare time in the opening you end up in a bad position, and then trying to spare time in the middlegame you enter an endgame one piece down, your additional time will be useless. IF your opponent has already spent too much time for achieving an equal position AND you are sure that just 'playing reasonable moves' can hold your position, only then you can try to play the clock (ie playing suboptimal moves but fast) - but that's the only case you can do that.

you could try allocating yourself something like 1 minute per move
average chess game goes for 25 moves or something, so you should be fine.
Spend less time on forced moves and use this time on the more complicated positions.

I like your idea of small time goals wafflemaster and yours as well Irontiger thanks guys.

I always play this way or try to do similar when I play quicker caseul time control games and sometimes its helpful I think it works less though cause like Irontiger said I end up in slighlty worse or bad opening or middlegame positions

The problem is not when you end up in slightly worse positions with equal clocks. The problem is when you end up in garbage positions with much more time, or in only marginally superior positions with much less time.

Trying to allocate 'XX sec/move' is a trap IMO, because you need fifty times more time for some moves than for some others, even the non-forced ones. And that is not an hyperbol, I really mean 50 times more time !

In 30 min/ player, the typical move is 30s for me, but once and then, you need to think much more. Of course it depends also about how well you are prepared in the opening, and how confident you are about winning some endgames !

[Comment deleted.  Posted in wrong topic lol...]

WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE PRICE OF TEA IN--

Oh, nevermind!

fair enough, i probably have it easier in rapid than other people, since i can blitz out my openings easily, theres only a couple of lines where ill need to analyse early on in the first mybe 12 moves.

so far I played 4 15min games and wht I've noticed is that when trying to put my opponent away I missed obvious stuff and if the position is closed I waste time just trying to come up with a plan. I used the suggest of reaching move 10 before using up 3-5min and playing normally when ahead equal or only 1 minute behind.

P.S. I also found out my internet connection sucks lol It went out a couple times during the games

Be happy, Do not be Frutracted!! Do your best in each move...And Do not forget that ALL SECRIFICE IS RIGHT IN SHORT TIME!!!

Make it to move ten in 5 minutes flat.