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Beginner - 1200 - Blitz Panic - Advice?

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Avemanyeg

Hey!

Looking for a bit of advice. Im a beginner in Chess. Played a couple of games as a kid but, like many, I  recently really gotten into it during the pandemic.  I've played just over a 100 daily games. My rating is about 1200. That rating definitely does not translate over to my blitz games. Put a clock on me and a set of panic sets in and I look like a guy who has never played the game before. So what I use blitz for is to practice my openings, as soon as we're through the first 5 or 7 moves, my opponent destroys me and we all move on with our day.

So.. ive put my blitz career on hold based on the old adage - blitz is not recommended for beginners.  My question is this: I would love to make the transition to Blitz.

How do I do it? Is there a suggested rating level before you even consider it?

I should also add, in my daily games, I use the analyzer to help with complex calculations in a game. Should I avoid using the analyzer? Is clock panic a normal thing with beginners or do I need a good psychologist?  Any advice to help improve is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

baddogno

Try some more rapid games.  No, you can't analyze like in a daily game, but the clock isn't as much as a factor.  Gradually try some more blitz once the rapid games become routine.  Clock panic is normal for a lot of folks.  That's no proof you don't need a good psychologist though...wink.png

Avemanyeg
Haha thanks baddogno. Good advice, i'll try some rapid games. 
 
baddogno wrote:

Try some more rapid games.  No, you can't analyze like in a daily game, but the clock isn't as much as a factor.  Gradually try some more blitz once the rapid games become routine.  Clock panic is normal for a lot of folks.  That's no proof you don't need a good psychologist though...

 

Chuck639

After you get the hang of rapid, I would recommend crossing over to blitz with 5/5. It plays very similar to rapid and once you developed the mechanics, 3/2 or 3/0 are in the cards.

Bullet, man it’s just insane how fast people can bust out moves on. If you want to fool around and work on openings or new defences, 2/1 is a good choice.

I used 2/1 to learn my openings and defences. Then 5/5 to develop my middle game and the 5 second increments are a life saver for the end game if it gets that far.

If you don’t mind sacrificing your blitz and bullet ratings for learning and experience, nothing wrong but! If you are focused on improving, then stick to rapid. Blitz and bullet will hinder your improvement as it was to me. I am making up lost time by doing puzzles and tactics that are crucial for rapid but can easily missed in blitz and bullet due to the time constraints.

JosephReidNZ

Do the best that you can do, and remember it is just a game. 

Deranged

I'd say once you get to about 1500 rapid is the point where you can gradually begin transitioning to blitz. Start with longer blitz games like 5|5 before you dive in to the intense 3|0 blitz games though.

Also, learning to premove is an essential skill in blitz games, so enable premoves and practice using them if you're not already familiar with them.

tygxc

"My rating is about 1200"
++ Then blitz is not yet for you.

"Put a clock on me and a set of panic sets in"
++ Do not look at the clock, just play at the appropriate pace.

"as soon as we're through the first 5 or 7 moves, my opponent destroys me"
++ this is a sign of blundering and or tactical weakness. Work on those.

"blitz is not recommended for beginners" ++ true

"I would love to make the transition to Blitz." ++ Why?

"Is there a suggested rating level before you even consider it?" ++ 2000

"Should I avoid using the analyzer?" ++ No

"Is clock panic a normal thing with beginners" ++ Yes

anhbao123

The skill daily is far from blitz, I'm 2000 rapid but I can't get my blitz or bullet to 1400 (yet)

RobertJames_Fisher

Yes, have fun, experiment! It is a game.

 

Its funny i look at it this way, when you play blitz or rapid, it truly shows if you have learned openings and have them down by heart, knowing if your opponent does x and you do Y.  I find it helpful to realized that I don't have some openings memorized by heart

uubuuh

Hi Avemanyeg, I think tygxc gave you actual good answers.  With that clearly said, I have a suggestion which won't be helpful for your chess game, but since you asked...  try going the other way and just play a bunch of 1 minute games.  Just to get the hang of moving fast and not thinking, make sure you can mouse fast enough.  Turn on pre-move and auto-promote in the settings of course.  See if you can create enough chaos to flag your opponent sometimes.  You'll need to know enough to protect f2/f7 squares.  You may not have time to castle and it may not matter, but if you have a way you like to castle early, do it.  If your opponent's knight crosses early into your territory, look for a second or two, it may be hanging or more likely may fork you on the next move, so deal.  If you make it to any kind of "endgame" just premove pawns, shuffle pieces, bring out the king - premove bars illegal moves so just watch for the red color.  Your opponent will be in the same situation.  It's fun, it's not "chess", but it is a game of sorts, like an old-school video game.  Then you can play some 2+1 bullet in relative leisure, or 3 or 5 minute blitz with no panic at all.

FitnessBen

Dear Avemanyeg,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach and International Master, so I have seen it and tried it all.
There are so many ways to get better and I know it can be overwhelming.
You can learn from free videos on youtube, there are books at your disposal that can all help, but they are not tailored to your needs.

One of the most important things you can do is to analyze your games! You must learn from your mistakes! That is a priority. You can't really move on to a new, different topic and learn new ideas if you still make the same mistakes over and over again!

This is where a chess coach comes into the picture. A good coach can show you how to study,  what to study, and give you the material YOU need. Naturally, it takes time to use everything in practice, but you will succeed if you are relentless and persistent!happy.png
You should learn the main principles in every area of the game (opening, middlegame, endgame).  Don't focus on only one part! You should improve your tactical vision as well as it is part of all areas!  
This how I built my training program for my students. We discuss more than one topic during a lesson so it's always interesting and they can improve constantly. I give homework too and the right tools to make practicing enjoyable and effective!happy.png
Don't worry about your rating and the ups and downs! Just keep on playing and practicing!

I hope this helps.happy.png  I wish you good games and 100+ extra ratingshappy.png

Avemanyeg

Man, the one thing Ive learned is that the chess community is pretty awesome and helpful. Thanks for the great advice and encouragement everyone.  Each response was helpful.  I will for sure enable premoves and play with that.  Also love the dont look at the clock tip

Guonathonking

Hi

AdhvaithAjay

I played rapid exclusively until about 1700 when I tried playing blitz. I immediately hopped into 3+0 games and forced myself to move fast. My rating was in the dumps for a while, stuck at 1100 but now I can move much faster than before and I try to calculate faster too.

ChessMasteryOfficial

Start with a time control like 10|0 or 10|5 to ease the transition to faster games.

O-O

This is an older forum but incase anyone else see's this my advice would be comparable to #15, like ease down into blitz starting with like 5 minute blitz, than 3 minutes with an increment and than my personal favorite time control 3+0. There are many ways to go about trying to become a better blitz player. Puzzle rush is very helpful and will help you think on your feet more, knowing if you want a better score you got to move faster but accuracy is also important as if you get 3 wrong you lose. Also make sure to process what's going on throughout the game don't blitz out absolutely everything because unless you're at top level your opponents most of the time will have sloppy play due to them trying to make a move so fast and if you move to fast you could have missed a chance to capitalize on a mistake they may have made.

BigChessplayer665
anhbao123 wrote:

The skill daily is far from blitz, I'm 2000 rapid but I can't get my blitz or bullet to 1400 (yet)

you should be around 1600 blitz if your at least 2000 rapid it might not necessarily be skill it could be time pressure stress ect plus you need a different style for blitz you prob have not figured that out yet

mikewier

The fastest way to improve is to learn basic principles re the opening, middlegame, and ending.

Dont play blitz until these principles become automatic for you.

it is much easier and faster to learn these principles from books, videos, etc. than from rapid games against others at your level.