Kyu reveals you: how to think fast in blitz chess!

Hey friends! I am writing this article especially for a friend who asked me this. I hope it will benefit to some of you! (well, I reached 2,000 in blitz, so I belive my advices should not be completely absurd) If a titled player is reading this, I already know he will run away quickly, and I would understand. But I think this article will help a lot of players rated under 2,000.

Well, what will I say in this blog? I will explain you the main idea of blitz chess. Then, we will continue with how to see the possible good moves on the board. And finally, I will reveal you the way to increase your rating quickly! (please do not skip directly to the end of the article)
I already know that I won't follow exactly this summary, and that I will write everything what's passing me throught the mind, but let's go!

1-The Main Idea Of Blitz Chess

Blitz chess is most usually played with a time control of 3 minutes per player, but you can naturally play it much more slowly, like for example 5min per player, or add an incrementation of a few seconds per move. Whatever your time control is, as long it is called blitz, the idea will stay the same!
First, time on the clock. Indeed, if you see that you have in most of your games 30s left, while your opponent has 2min, there's a problem... if your opponent plays slow, do not play slow too! Take advantage of his slowless and create a difficult position that will ask him to calculate extremely quickly a huge quantity of lines. Moreover, playing fast does not mean playing less good! Find your playing style (agressive/defensive/positional) and play exclusively like that. If you are a positional player, play the moves to get the positional advantage, but don't try attacking the king! Resist to this tentation and keep calm facing your screen. Remember you need to play good moves and to play them fast!

2-How To See The Possible Good Moves On The Board

Alright, you need to play correct moves to get a position that you can play fast!
First, about the opening, you need to learn the main lines. Do not try learning all the possible moves of your opponent per heart, because on a low level, they will directly blunder, and at an higher level, we do not play full theoric. These main lines are principially based on 3 ideas: controlling the center with at least 1 pawn and a knight, then, develop your pieces on good squares (no knights on the board, bishops on c4(c5) and f4(f5) and do not move the queen since the beginning of the game, except it is the Scandinavian Opening) and I remember you that good squares are squares where the piece that is standing on can control several squares of the board, including the center squares of the board, and finally, probably the most important, because else you get checkmated, protect your king by castling, puting a knight near to the king and a bishop to protect the squares where the opponent's queen can possible penetrate.
Secondly, in the middlegame, as said before, find your playing style. In the middlegame, keep protecting your king solidly with your pieces. Put the knight near to the center to avoid attacks from the opponent's queen and place your bishops on good diagonals. If possible, keep the bishop pair (so, do not trade it for a knight after pinging it on the queen or on the king) and try trading one of your knights for a bishop of your opponent to stop him of keeping the bishop pair. My advice is to play when you have developed all your pieces, moves like h3/a3/h6/a6 to put the one of your bishop on a7/h7/a2/h2 or to have at least 1 bishop in fianchetto. Well, it's my opinion, but do not put the queen to near of your king if you are not very confident with knight moves, because else, you will lose it in a fork. Don't forget that possibilities to sacrifice the bishop on h7 or f7 is always an idea and try calcultaing it and to watch positions where this type of tactic is possible. To find the best moves as quick as possible, there's nothing more efficient than to train with bullet chess (time control: 1min per player). Indeed, playing extremely fast helps concentrating only on the most important on the board and to think about protecting the king as quick as possible.
Thirdly, for the endgame, you will have mostly to learn playing with bishops and knights, but we will start with rook, queen and king moves. For the king, you need to remember to keep it defended to avoid forks and pins. When there is no pieces left on the board, except the pawns and the king (and sometime 1 knight/bishop), do remember that it is extremely important to get the opposition with the king (if you ignore what it means, to "take the opposition", please refer to chess.com lessons about the king). The rook endgames are mostly draw (still when you have 1 or 2 pawns more sometimes!) and you will have to protect the basis of your pawn groups/structure. The basis is the pawn(s) that protect(s) all the other pawns. If there is a passed pawn, then, put the rook on a square where it will always protect this pawns from behind and won't block it when you wish to push it. For queen endgames, well, you need to try not puting the queen and the king on the same diagonal, colon or line. When you have bishops, please, please, please do not try winning it, except if your opponent has his pawns on squares that are from the same color as the squares of your bishop. Else, play it on time if you wish, but keep all your pawns protected and don't try any attack that will fail immediately. For the knights, it's completely different. Indeed, you will have to find squares where it could attack 2 pawns at the same time, and do your best to control it and then, to place your knight in 1/2/3/4 moves and win material. 1 pawn more means in this type of endgame the win (usually). Pawn push is very complicate and there is not really a formule to push them correctly and to win the game. You will need again to watch many GM games endgames!

3-The Way To Increase Your Rating Quickly

That's probably the question that I most get in real life and on Internet! "How can I reach 1,500?" / "How do I win 100 points in a few days?".
Well, I mostly answer that you need training, without explaining a lot about it. You're lucky, dear reader who has probably skipped directly to this 3rd part of the article, instead of reading it completely! I'm gonna explain it you now. My trick to reach a high level quickly is to resist to the tentation of playing 50/100/200(??) games per day that are all rated. Playing more rated games does not mean winning more rating points! In opposition, your brain needs time to remember all you played! More you play, more you will lose points without understanding why! But it's essential to play many games everyday. So, please play only a few rated games to win everyday something like 10/15 or many 20 points, and then, play unrated. Do not hesitate! I am the proof for that! I have an excellent 2,000 level. But I played much too much and after raising from 1,900, I directly fall back to 1,800. So, I decided playing less than 10 games per day that are rated. I was 1,840. I raised in a few days to 2,000. Impressive, right?

Conclusion

Well, how do I can conclude such an article? Let me our comments about my work here on chess.com, in this article if you have any question or would you like to tell me your opinion about blitz chess! If you have yourself an advice for blitz players, write it in the comments, and, the most important: continue playing blitz chess, still if you think you are not good enough! Because everyone is great! You just need to find your playing style and to believe in yourself to reach an high level!!
Good luck and have a lot of fun in playing chess!