very nice post. I really think Blitz can improve your game, just because you can learn tactics and look for tactics in an practical game, so over the time you will see tactical motifs faster and your intuition will get better. Blitz is also good to practise your openings, because you can play very many games in a row with lots of different positions. So a nice way to study chess is to study first some books and then try to use what you learned afterwards in some blitz games. I did that myself and I am sure it can help everybody. Cheers, Till
Blitz/Rapid games and improve your chess
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Jul 1, 2014
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#3
Nice post. I stopped playing "prepared" lines and just go randomly with anything I feel like as long as I feel comfortable. The result - I passed 1500 mark on chess.com after years in 1300-1400 category and I ain't gonna stop.
Having played over 4500+ Blitz games I’ve come to the conclusion that while playing Blitz did not directly help my chess skills, it certainly did “keep me in shape” (kept me in thinking about chess). So why do I feel this way? I think it is because the nature of Blitz and long OTB games are different. Some people are impatient and prefer going on their instinct, while others prefer to pick the best move out there.
I think good Blitz players are good attackers – meaning people who play aggressive chess. I can imagine players like Mikhail Tal and Hikaru Nakamura being good blitzers because of their aggressive nature. As I mentioned before, Crazy sacrifices in Blitz sometimes pay off because the opponents can’t refute it in short time control.
Instead, I would suggest people to use chess.com’s Tactics Trainer. I think that it is better that chesstempo’s one because analysis board gives other [secondary] moves as well as the best move for each move in the sequence. Not to mention you can do TT on mobile phone. I’d say the $6 a month for Gold Membership (25 problems a day shall suffice) is well worth it if you have an important OTB tournament closeby and want to give your best shot in it.
Pros and Cons of Blitz
Pros:
1. Test out newly learned openings (rapid games also work here)
2. Have practice of time scramble situations which are sometimes useful for OTB
3. Because of the short time allotted per game, you can fit a lot of games in 1 setting –maybe even play 2 games against the same opponent using different colors.
4. People actually play on for endgames instead of resigning in a losing position because “Anything can happen in Blitz”. This is good because you get more practice.
Cons:
1. You will make less accurate moves as compared to longer games, so you won’t be playing at your fullest
2. Memorized traps, and to some extent openings (i.e. Lasker trap in Albin-Countergambit) that might catch people in Blitz won’t work OTB – therefore learning traps might be a waste of time.
3. Especially in games where there is no increment, people are just “woodpushers” i.e. trying to flag their opponent instead of trying to win. This is NOT what I call chess.
From the pros and cons I listed, I would like to summarize my own opinion. I think the real fun in Blitz start at 2000 OTB level because those people “know what they are doing”. They usually know how to convert a winning endgame. It is also around that level where opening knowledge actually matter –where the first 16 moves you memorized in the Sicilian Najdorf or King’s Indian Defense actually do come on board. People won’t use traps to get you anymore, simply because you won’t fall for it (ohh boy at 1500 Blitz look at how many games that start with Englund Gambit…). There are less high rated players compared to those stuck in the 1000s which makes it harder to find decent opponents so players would stay for a rematch and partake in good sportsmanship.
So for myself (at 1620 OTB rating), I will cut back on Blitz games and opening studies and focus on Tactics as well as long games until I am at least 1800.
Many of you noticed, the group leader Till has a rating of 2000 in fast time control chess. What does this mean? To me, it means he is fast at spotting tactics and has good intuition which is what I believe 2 things that are needed to be good at Blitz. Being bad at blitz does not necessarily mean you are a bad player – it only means you need more time to think.
Today, I would like to talk about playing fast games to improve your chess. First off, playing memorized lines in Blitz is pointless, because your opponent is likely to deviate from theory very early in the opening. In fact, I see more bullshit openings, rather than openings like Sicilian Najdorf or King’s Indian Defense.
A model Blitz game that illustrates my point. Play by both sides looks anti-positional, and game was decided by tactics.
Personally, I was stuck at 1300~1400 Blitz until I started playing weird openings like 1…b6 2…Bb7. With less time to think, my opponents couldn’t think up of ways to punish my off-beat openings and therefore I started to win games. So in short, openings do not matter in Blitz, its all about spotting tactics.
I also mentioned intuition- even though openings do not matter, it is better to play moves that help your position than random moves. It is still better to know your opening’s main ideas so you play your game with a plan. In General if your opponents play something offbeat, just follow opening principles (move King pawn or Queen pawn, knights before bishops, only move pieces once in opening unless attacked etc).
A good article that I looked at is this: http://www.chess.com/blog/NimzoRoy/chess-opening-principles
My opponent played something offbeat and I responded by trying to gain control of centre. I think I played reasonably until the unfortunate mouse slip that ruined a good game. A good mouse and internet connection is not always necessary but is always good to have when playing Blitz.
Losing streak – it is normal to deviate 100 rating pts in Blitz so don’t worry about your ratings – they are only rough indicator of where you are at.