How do I play bullet chess properly?

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Akuwe

I recently started playing bullet chess a few days ago, and I've played about 30 games over the course of those days, primarily 1 minute, and I've been doing pretty poorly, with a ~45% win rate and a 1200 rating. The clock stresses me out tremendously and I blunder almost 10x more than I do in Blitz

I realised to just setting the timer to 1 minute and winging it from there was a bad idea, so to people who primarily play bullet or are just solid bullet players in general, are there any special things I need to learn/know for specifically bullet chess?

RussBell

You are unlikely to get better at chess without a solid grounding in fundamental chess principles and guidelines, nor by playing exclusively speed chess (rapid, blitz, bullet). As for the latter, you would increase your chances of getting better at chess if you were to....

Play Longer Time Controls...For many at the beginner-novice level, speed chess tends to be primarily an exercise in moving pieces around faster than your opponent while avoiding checkmate, in hopes that his/her clock runs out sooner than yours. And/or hoping to notice and exploit your opponent’s blunders while hoping they don't notice yours. The reason for this is that in speed chess there is little time to think about what you should be doing.

It makes sense that taking more time to think about what you should be doing would promote improvement in your chess skills and results. One way to improve your chess is to play mostly longer time controls, including "daily" chess, so you have time to think about what you should be doing.

This is not to suggest that you should necessarily play exclusively slow or daily time controls, but they should be a significant percentage of your games, at least as much, if not more so than speed games which, while they may be fun, do almost nothing to promote an understanding of how to play the game well.

Here's what IM Jeremy Silman, well-known chess book author, has to say on the topic...
https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive

And Dan Heisman, well-known chess teacher and chess book author…
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627052239/http:/www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman16.pdf
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/dan-heisman-resources

and the experience of a FIDE Master...
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/how-blitz-and-bullet-rotted-my-brain-don-t-let-it-rot-yours

As for learning what you should be doing...

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyondhttps://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

Akuwe

Thank you, I have been practising with longer time controls recently.
I don't have the time to commit to daily games just yet, but I will try playing 10-15 minute rapid. I will try to balance between slower and faster games.
I appreciate the response and help <3

sehrgneis

Daily games don't take a huge time commitment, you just have the chance to think about things without time pressure. They are definitely good for developing board vision (I still manage to hang my queen though).

RussBell
sehrgneis wrote:

Daily games don't take a huge time commitment, you just have the chance to think about things without time pressure. They are definitely good for developing board vision (I still manage to hang my queen though).

Yes. Think about it. The point of a Daily game is that it can be played at a time control of one move per day or over multiple days, as you choose. Thus Daily games can take up much less time per day than a live game. That is, you can spend as much or as little time as you like thinking about that one move as long as it is made within the limits of the specific daily time control you have chosen (i.e, one day or multiple days per move, etc.).