A PROPER Blitz Game...

Hey all! I do enjoy blitz, even if I'm not quite as strong in it as I'm recently becoming in rapid. My mentality for it is so much healthier, and I'm much more likely to try bonkers stuff.

This game was fun; my mindset was simply "ignore material value, prioritize activity and don't let your opponent castle." 

As such, the opening sacrifice of the knight isn't sound (he can, in fact, simply end the sequence by recapturing my pawn with his bishop, and, while it looks a little unnatural to facilitate a pin etc, it gets him to safety). 

Two brilliant ROOOOOOOK sacrifices, though, make this an enjoyable watch. Enjoy my complete distaste for my material....

Thanks, mate!

@DoYouLikeCurry ... I dunno, Adam, I shuttered to see all the moves that, from my understanding, are simply wrong. "Enjoy my complete distaste for my material...." Sorry but with all due respect, I didn't. Why?

Our minds store what we feed it, right or wrong. I worry that those 'wrong' moves will become part of an acceptable pattern even if only subconsciously or via muscle memory. I don't have clinical background in this field so this is simple conjecture but to me, if my goals were 'perfect' games, I wouldn't risk feeding my brain anything off target.

I really DID enjoy the Rook sacrifices though and I appreciate everything you produce! Thank for again for taking your time to help us all learn and grow. I really appreciate you!

Nice! Very Alpha-Zero-esque - activity and mobility over material

Morphy would be proud.

@DoYouLikeCurry, in my own defense, I remember two stories ... George Hall and James Nesmith were both golfers who were captured during Vietnam war. As POWs, they both practiced their game by visualizing playing.

Rhetorical question then: Did they visualize ever missing? Why not? Just something to consider in your longer-range goals, dear friend.

That’s actually very interesting… also great game!

Your concern is appreciated, my friend. But don’t worry, I’m talking slightly hyperbolically - you don’t always have time to know 100% for sure whether a sacrifice is sound or not. The important thing is I could justify them all to myself, and in blitz that’s often enough!

I didn’t play any of them thinking “this probably doesn’t work but if he does this then it does” - that’s hope chess, which is a poor habit to get into. I played all the sacrifices at least semi-sure they were playable. Sometimes it’s okay to ignore the evaluation of moves as “mistakes” by game review, too. If I sacrifice a piece worth three points, and it gives an evaluation of like 0.8 in my opponent’s favour, that means I have 2.2 points of material worth of compensation purely by dint of the position itself! That’s often enough in blitz.

Just a friendly reminder that Blitz isn’t supposed to be played good.

Precisely. Which was my point. Nice to see you around - you've been playing some great games yourself like your Daily game yesterday!

Thanks! I noticed that my accuracy is pretty high. I guess the average is around… 91% maybe? I don’t even know why.

Accuracy can be quite deceiving. It depends upon your opponent and so many other factors, I get lost in trying to understand it all. I was talking about your game and not a score though. I really enjoyed it!

#12 Accuracy also sometimes randomly changes, I played a game where my computer said 87 and my phone 84.4

It is my understanding, and I'm a low-rate newb so take it for what it is ... but Stockfish's numbers continue to calculate and, during the split second between it's first display of scores and it's second display of scores when it begins the Review, the numbers will change as depth changes.

It's normal to see a Brilliant (as example) but by the time you drill in, it has disappeared. Others have explained it far better than I could.

I like your thinking, but I have a different viewpoint: sometimes it's good to play "off-target" in order to learn how to hit the target better, in the long run.

Post-game analysis is where true pattern learning comes from. Don't be afraid to take risks and be wrong, I say - you can always learn the "better" approach in your post-mortem reviews.

Venture into that winding forest path. Fall off the bike. Scrape your knee. Try a different path, next time.

To me, blitz is the perfect "safe space" to fling things against the wall and see what sticks. Because sometimes this is where those big "ah-HAH!" epiphany moments come from. As long as you're doing some objective analysis afterward, to keep things in perspective ...

@MaetsNori So playing Blitz is like what I do with Rated Puzzles or even Daily Game, where I repeatedly try different moves ("wanna give it another try") to see what will happen (because my memorization of calculations is poor). With Blitz, you and Adam are 'trying out' scenarios as a method of learning? If so, I can see that yes!! Thank you!

I remain (a bit) concerned though because the difference is adrenaline. Things experienced in intense moments (excitement, fear) implant memory more deeply. We can use this to our advantage or it can also hinder us (post-traumatic stress for example).

I tend to put my trust (about chess) more into the hands of @DoYouLikeCurry and yourself than in me so my concern has decreased but still remains. Probably that's why I'm still a low-rate, LOL!!

Some part of it for me, at least, is my mentality with chess has always been “get good first, then get fast”. Now there are those on the platform who’d use that to go “Adam, you’re not good yet, 2100 is mid”, but they’re idiots; to the vast majority of this platform, I’m decent at rapid chess. Get the fundamentals right and get comfortable in your openings etc playing rapid chess or slower, and only play blitz chess to get quick, really. 

I don’t really play bullet on chesscom (I do on lichess where I don’t care about my ratings as much, currently at 2000 bullet there) for this exact reason. I want my bullet games to look like decent chess is being played! I want my blitz chess to look like decent chess is being played. I want my rapid chess to look like decent chess is being played. 

So I learned how to do rapid first, because if I’m going to make bad moves slowly, you can be damn sure I’ll also make bad moves quickly!

"my mentality with chess has always been “get good first, then get fast”. Oh we've said this about coding for over 30 years ... first you write the code and then you make it fast. There are many *great players who also play fast. I worry for them as well.

I think if I ever get to your level, I'll check my beliefs again at that time. I work hard at remaining fluid and open. This will be one of those times. Bless ya.

ADDED * I mean players like Hikaru. You are great in MY thinking.

I am not sure which game you are talking about though.

@Ein-Schachspieler I guess it was awhile back now ... I remember feeling quite proud of my friend that game. Simply, you're on a great journey and doing really well.

@DoYouLikeCurry is a great inspiration and I learn from him every single day. The journey is the thing.