Pandolfini's Mailbag: Speed Chess -- The Good
Topic for May/June: The Endgame
(Please start submitting questions concerning the above topic for the next column. Questions different from the above theme should be submitted to other Chess.com departments.)
The Good and the Bad of Speed Chess?
It turns out a number of this month’s questions overlap or touch upon pretty much the same concerns. So I thought I’d conflate the similar queries to a big general question and try to answer that up front.
Question 1: Simply put, is speed chess good or is it bad?
Answer 1: Some people have paradoxically joined both camps. They say it’s good here, and they say it’s bad there. Or they say it’s bad and then play it all night long. Good or bad (or both), day or night, people supposedly in the know have always disagreed on the matter. In the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” my persona (Ben Kingsley) seems to come down hard against speed chess, whereas the antipodal Lawrence Fishburne character (a blend of actual chess master Vinnie Livermore and another hustler, who shall go nameless) seems to thrive on speed play.
Ben Kingsley by Gage Skidmore via Wikipedia
Quite patently, the right answer, if there is one, may reduce to this: that speed chess can be both good and bad, depending on circumstances, the purpose for which it’s played, the individual involved, and so on.
While trying to consider different sides of the question, I did not rely just on my own take. I also asked around the chess community, checked out the Internet, and sampled various publications. With regard to pros and cons, some ramifications are obvious. Others are suspect, but I decided to list much of it for the sake of inclusiveness. As for the enumeration itself, perhaps for clarity, and for ease of access, I’ve opted to look at the attributes and apprehensions in separate columns, even though several of the items could be included almost oxymoronically in the same paragraph.
Anyhow, let’s start with the positive, at least trying to explain reasons many people offer in favor of speed chess. Again, don’t be surprised if a few of the entries on the first list ostensibly conflict with reasons on the second list. As absurd as it seems, some statements in favor of speed chess, with a little twist, could almost be reframed as an argument against it.
By way of further proviso, I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with all or any of the following. Some of these representative characteristics would appear on many similar lists, to be sure, others would not. But then you’ll have to be your own judge, just like real life.
The Good Things About Speed Chess?
1. It can be fun: What better reason to do anything than that it delivers pure joy, that it gives pleasure? Generally, speed games are not played with much at stake. If you lose, so what? It’s understood that the quality of play might not be stellar. If you play it like an orangutan, who cares? To be sure, mistakes and poor results can be rationalized away by the fast time and ultra-relaxed conditions. To that end, unless it’s a speed tournament, with prizes and prestige at risk, since both your demeanor and approach are freer, you can play without the fear of nettling implication. That’s how most of us would like to picture the act of play, as truly free play. Accordingly, your mantra can be: Big deal if I lose. It’s speed chess! So let’s have some fun. And let’s not forget the spectators. They should have fun too.
2. It promotes conviviality: Essentially, speed chess games are supposed to be friendlier, though not necessarily if they occur in the context of a tournament or if your friends are really your enemies. (Purportedly, Aristotle once began a talk by saying “My friends, there are no friends.”) So, for the most part, participants can relax and even talk to their opponents. (But do you really want to?) After all, speed chess, like the skittles of club, park, and ordinary casual fare, typically kindles the spark of friendly oral exchange, as it warms the heart. Hey, it’s a real chance to get to know your opponents. You can even bring up topical happenings outside of chess. For example, you can mention the weather.
3. It enables you to play more chess: Instead of playing a four-hour game, you can play 20 or more games in four hours. And if you don’t want to continue a particular speed contest, you can simply resign and play another game without much moment. All told, you’ll see more chess. You’ll see more devilishly deceptive traps in the openings. You’ll see more ingeniously sprung mating attacks in the midgame. You’ll see more precisely crafted simplifications in the endgame. So many kaleidoscopic constructs will pass by so fast in the mind (yes, even at speeds approaching that of light) that you won’t know what to do with them. Okay, so most of us wouldn’t do anything with them. Nevertheless, think about the manifold increase in sheer pleasure. Are you thinking about it? Now stop thinking about it. Having finally brought thinking to a soundless halt, perhaps you can mix it up, settling down for a quiet but noisy interlude of speed chess.
4. It assists practice and training: Speed chess sessions are wonderful for affording opportunities to prepare. If you haven’t played for a while, speed chess is not a bad way to reintroduce yourself to competition. Moreover, for the purpose of practice, you can explore all sorts of delightful notions. Case in point, you can experiment with openings. Let’s see if anyone actually falls for that “clever trap.” You can pursue different plans. Let’s find out, as envisioned, if that knight maneuver actually gets the knight to a5. Better yet, once there, at a5, let’s see if the knight does some good, if not for your game, possibly for humanity. You can even try to change your style, since how distinctive is your style anyway? With all this probing and investigation, while teetering on the very edge of eye-opening research, maybe you’ll lose a chess game or two, or three or four. So what? It’s only speed chess.
Of course, it’s harder to feel that way, and to take such chances, in real OTB chess, where your rating and stature might take a hit. But for training purposes, speed chess can be the great venue for trial and experimentation its proponents say it is. Here’s an idea. Let’s say published theory takes an opening only so far. You can play 50 or 100 games from the end of a line to generate move possibilities and to extend the line further. Here’s another idea. In today’s competitive world, many serious tournaments are decided by rapid chess tie-breakers. So playing lots of speed chess will station you beautifully to win those tournament-deciding games. What’s more, even serious chess play is being sped up these days. By utilizing blitz as a training weapon, you’re probably acclimating yourself better for the faster time controls of today’s standard chess. I think that’s the end of my ideas for this paragraph.
5. It improves linear thinking: Speed chess ostensibly relies on tactics. The targeted attacks, parries and such of blitz primarily are straight-pronged and to the point. That’s great for nourishing your sense for directness and relevancy. With all those express ideas flowing by, step by step, from game to game, even if at high speed, you’re likely to upgrade your tactics in general. You’ll certainly feel more at home in the tactical arena, fast or slow. So let’s accept the contention that playing regular speed chess does in fact heighten the oneness and twoness of your attacking skills. In sync with that, it should also make you more aggressive and perhaps more capable of calculating variations in your mind. But whatever you do, don’t let it go to your head.
6. It reinforces endgame basics: What endgame ideas can you learn from speed chess? You can learn about good general placements for the pieces. For instance, that rooks belong behind passed pawns. You can learn about the worth of cutoffs, that rooks and queens can slice the board up, down and across incisively. You can learn about controlling specific lines to stifle and invade. You can learn about the importance of the tempo, when and how to activate the king, the value of a passed pawn (passed pawns must be pushed) and how to exercise pawn majorities for the intention of creating dangerous passed pawns. I could catalog more, a la James Joyce or Henry Miller, with a list that goes on to perpetuity, but out of deference to the reader, I‘ll bring these thoughts to temporary closure. The above endgame generalities predominate in blitz. With time ebbing away, one must quickly perceive fundamental wins, draws, and other usefully controlling postings and formations. But having mental snapshots of key endgame positions doesn’t just work in speed play. Those blueprints will also find their way into your more deliberate efforts. Indubitably, they will facilitate the selection and formation of logical plans. A speed player must radar ideal setups promptly, whether in the late opening, middlegame, or endgame, since lack of time requires a good deal of summary decision-making. So we can say speed chess proffers pertinent practice for endgame and planning prep.
7. It compels focus: Lose your concentration in speed chess and you’ve lost a piece, maybe the game. So you’re obliged to maintain attention if you want to stay on top of things. With a temporal sword of Damocles over your head, speed chess requires efficiency in movement and computation. You have so little time, however, how much can you actually see? But there’s the rub, if not the flub. By staying intensely focused, you might not see more. But you might see better! That is, to unearth certain profound plans and concepts (you know, your typical thoughts), speed lovers state that it’s not necessarily desirable to think for longer periods of time. Rather it may be more fruitful to think penetratingly for shorter, manageable spans, in order to maintain unbroken attentiveness. They claim that unless a definite threshold of concentrated laser-beam-thinking is achieved, some particular ideas might not become perceptible at all. Right or wrong, it’s an interesting argument.
8. It instills general principles: Here’s another benefit to playing speed chess. It makes you more reliant on principles and pragmatic generalizations. Naturally, you don’t want to depend on maxims and oversimplifications. They can ignite thought, but they can also dampen it. Good chess play requires looking at a position in toto. Anything could be relevant -- principles, precise moves, even the person sitting across from you. Nor should you rely on a single perspective. You can look all over the place. Did you ever see Kasparov analyzing? I mean, in photos? He’s been known to stare at the ceiling. If ever I get back into chess, I’ll have to give that a try. Anyway, sound chess requires that you be specific and exact. You may know what’s supposedly right. Yet, in a given situation, the principled “right move” may clash with what actually works. Still, you need to learn what the principles are before you can dismiss them. So how should principles be used? You should use them to activate the thinking process. That’s about it. After that, once you’ve recalled a memorable cliché, the real thinking must start. But speed chess does provide, albeit it superficially, opportunities to absorb the practical generalizations and situational paradigms of good chess.
9. It mentally toughens: Surely, playing game after game, on the verge of forfeiting in almost every outing, provides rehearsal at coping with stressful time conditions in regular over-the-board play. But handling pressure in speed chess is not merely about having to move quickly. It’s also about expeditiously, yet satisfactorily, defending demanding positions. During speed chess games one is constantly under the threat of attack. In seconds, you must spot the menace, weigh and prune options, and figure out which candidate move most thwarts your opponent while best fostering your own ambitions. Good speed players tend to be strong in defense and counterattack. And they can be really cool under fire. It may seem as if the pressure of speed chess thinking is akin to one aspect of OTB play in particular. I’m referring to the handling of time trouble. But speed practice may help with the management of time in general. If you waste time earlier in a standard game, if you’re not economical in your movement, you’re likely to get into unnecessary time pressure and mess up. Speed chess instills the need to remain vigilant at all times, in all forms of chess -- rapid, serious, frivolous, celestial...
10. It is loved by strong players: Just look at what some have said and written about the splendors of speed chess. “Never before, and never since, have I seen -- and I cannot even imagine, such an amazing rapidity of chess thinking that Capablanca possessed in 1913-14. In blitz games he gave all the St. Petersburg players odds of five minutes to one -- and he won,” said the great Alexander Alekhine.
I guess Alekhine thought good bullet chess was an extraordinary thing. True, Capablanca had only a minute, but was it a New York minute? Then there’s longtime New Yorker Reuben Fine. He was very proud of the fact he could hold his own in speed chess against the best. Not against Capablanca, of course, but he did feel superior to Alekhine. In his book “A Passion for Chess,” Fine alludes to his speed prowess with noticeable satisfaction. Having worked for him as an assistant for two years, I heard him say outrageous things about his blitz accomplishments quite regularly.
Then there’s Bobby Fischer. At 15, what did he do when first visiting Moscow? He went directly to the Central Chess Club (yes, he did pass go) and challenged all customers to speed games way into the night. On another occasion, Fischer apparently was willing to waste a plane ticket if Tal agreed to an overnight blitz session with him. My sense of it? Bobby must have been partial to speed chess. But please, don’t blame speed chess for all the ills of Bobby’s life. Some of his problems had nothing to do with speed chess.
Anyhow, I almost forgot Botvinnik. It seems he had a thing for blitz. The proof may be found in a line of his we’re still trying to decode. He spoke of his admiration for speed chess thusly: “Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929.” Decrypt that comment accurately and Botvinnik’s hidden point is clear: he really loved speed chess.
Check back next month for the reasons speed chess is bad.
Topic for May/June: The Endgame
(Please start submitting questions concerning the above topic for the next column.)
