The Five Dirtiest Tricks In Bullet Chess
They say that chess is the game of kings, an honorable pastime for people who want to lose themselves in thought. Bullet chess, however, played at a pace of one minute per side for the whole game, is anything but honorable. Bullet isn't a game of carrying deep plans to their logical conclusion; it's a game of nasty traps to catch the opponent off guard and turn things in your favor.
Here are the five dirtiest tricks in bullet chess. They might not win you friends, but they can win you games!
The Lefong
FM Lefong Hua is the founder of this sneaky bullet trick. It's an opening sacrifice, hoping to catch an opponent premoving, or just not paying enough attention in the opening.
Who would fall for such a silly trick? Well, even GM Magnus Carlsen wasn't immune in this game against bullet star GM Andrew Tang.
Of course, it doesn't always work. GM Hikaru Nakamura is always on the lookout for this type of foolishness.
The Rosen Trap
Here we have another sneaky idea named after its originator, this time, IM Eric Rosen. The Rosen trap is a drawing technique for the most desperate situations, when you're behind by a massive amount of material. Often the stronger side in these situations will exchange or even sacrifice a queen to eliminate the opposition's final piece. Rosen realized that you can take advantage of this urge and set up a stalemate by allowing a capture on a square a knight move from the corner... and then not recapturing!
Let's see how Rosen stole that half point.
After Rosen popularized his trick, other players began to try the idea. GM Daniel Naroditsky was one of the strongest bullet players in the world and taught a course on bullet strategy called How To Be Lucky In Chess. It's no surprise that he included Rosen traps in his toolkit.
Sneaky Pawn Breaks
As we saw in Paehtz-Rosen example, bullet games often end in premove time scrambles. It might seem like these ultra-quick sequences are decided by luck, but there's significant strategy involved. Consider the following position from a bullet endgame.
The position was totally drawn with normal play, but bullet endgames typically involve many premoves, and the side with possible pawn breaks is the one that can pick the opportune moment to surprise their opponent. The side without the breaks must either risk allowing one, or must avoid premoves to make sure that they are ready to capture a pawn. In the closing seconds of a game, that's not a tenable choice.
Dirty Flagging Tricks
Dirty flag means to win on time in a position where you would never realistically win on the board. Typically this occurs in a time scramble where both sides are premoving at least some of their moves. Often the way to win in the closing seconds is to prevent the opponent from premoving. The only way to do that is to make the opponent's intended move illegal. Let's see how the masters do it.
Notice that Nakamura had an equal ending, but allowed the opponent to reach a winning position,just to keep the clocks running. Finally, he sacrificed his rook to pin Black's queen and run out the opponent's final 1.5 seconds to win the game.
In the next game, GM Alireza Firouzja gave away his rook to block Carlsen's intended moves at the end of the game. In the closing seconds material doesn't matter: The clock is king!
In Between Moves
When players are moving quickly, they'll often be planning their moves in advance of the opponent's move and will anticipate the most likely continuation. Advanced bullet players will take advantage of that, and throw in the occasional surprise. This opening is a good example.
4.Bg5 is a perfect move for bullet. Many players with the black pieces will anticipate 4.Nxd4, which is far more common, and play their intended response to that move. There's a good chance that will leave the black queen free for the taking on d8. Even if Black is ready and finds a good response to Bg5, the game is still about even—White hasn't risked much in trying to spring the surprise. For instance, in the time scramble below, Black has just captured a pawn on a5, but White doesn't need to take back right away. An experienced bullet player might insert a threat to the black rook instead.
And just like that, White wins the game!
What is your favorite trick in bullet chess? Let us know in the comments!
NM Jeremy Kane is the Instructional Content Manager for Chess.com, and the author of several courses in the Starting Out series, Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Trompowsky, and Tarrasch.
