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How to play Bullet

How to play Bullet

Avatar of PaulyD81
PaulyD81
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Bullet Chess is chess played really fast, you get 1 minute each to make your moves, and if time runs out you lose.

TIME

Time is very important, use it to your advantage. How do you do that?

  1. Premove in the opening - the faster you play in the opening the more time you have later. Play an opening that you are very familar with that allows you to play quickly.
  2. Only spend time on critical moves - In Bullet you are not trying to find good moves, you are trying to find an adequate moveas fast as possible. As soon as you see a move that probably isn't that bad... make it! The only time you should spend more than 3 seconds on a move is when there is a critical decissive moment.
  3. Make moves to gain time - For example you can sacrifice a minor piece and waste your opponents time trying to refute it after which point he will have 5 seconds to checkmate you in a complicated middle game with a 3 point advantage. This is not going to happen.

DIRTY TRICKS

You can get away with a lot of dirty tricks in bullet here are a few examples;

When your opponent fianchettos his bishop then you should counter fianchetto and let them hang their bishop when you move your knight like this;

Worst case scenario you exchange bishops and then they are out of theory thumbup
An even riskier trick would be against a premoving opponent to try taking their queen with an undefended bishop like this;

People also premove in the endgame so sometimes you will see rook sacrifices like this;

Whenever you see someone attempting premoving in the Endgame hit them with the rook sacrifice and reap the rewards.

UNCONVENTIONAL OPENINGS

This is your chance to use the Grob or Bongcloud and many other terrible opening simply because your opponent does not know the theory so will play slowly and badly as a result, you can use the consequent time advantage to stall or suffer a worse position for 30 moves and then flag them.

Another good opening to try is the Napoleon Opening 1. e4 ... 2. Qf3 ... followed by 3. Bc4 aiming for 4. Qxf7

TILT & MINDSET

If you want to do well you must stay calm, relaxed & emotionally detached. If you are tired, frustrated and repeatedly losing then you will play at a level that is about 200 rating points below what you are capable of, so if you lose more than 2 games in a row you should stop & take a break. 

You can try to tilt your opponents however with bad sportsmanship. Play bad openings and then win. If they don't resign after hanging chackmate in 1 then sit there and let the clock run down until just seconds before making the winning move. When they make a blunder send them a "well played" message or compliment them on their "fascinating move" as long as you are calmer than your opponent in the rematch you will have an advantage.

SOME OTHER EXAMPLES

Here's a sneaky quick winning trick with Qf3 supported with the knight;

Here's another quick win also using Qf3 this time supported with bishop on c4 (Napoleon Opening);

A 3rd example with Qf3 again supported with bishop, this time first to d3 then g6;

Here's another example with 2. Qf3 when opponent has 'some' awareness of mate threat but not enough;
Here's an example, with black, which demonstrates bad premoving by the opponent;
Here's another example game with Black;
Here's another Napoleon Opening example;
 

The final tip is the only way to really to improve at Bullet Chess is to IMPROVE AT CHESS! Good luck guys! happythumbup