You're way better than me, so this is just some wisdom I picked up in another thread. If you use blitz as a learning tool, then it can be valuable. At your level where you're probably sorting out your opening repetoire, blitz could be great for "acellerated growth" in a particular opening. The danger, I'm told, is that blitz can be addictive in which caseit would be counterproductive. My 2 patzer cents.
+ and - of playing blitz for a person who is still learning the game
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Blitz, done right, can be a great learning tool.
Say you're learning the French opening - then playing a couple dozen french games at 5 min can really help you nail down basic ideas, and when paired with a few OTB games that you deeply analyze and playing through a few dozen GM games in the line, it will take you far.
And fun is fun -- not everything one does needs to be aimed towards some goal.
That said, blitz at the expense of long time control games, analyzing one's own play, and studying key weaknesses in one's game can hurt.
So it depends -- are you playing blitz to avoid doing hard work on learning something new? Or are you having fun while still keeping a reasonable amount of time for serious study on the schedule?
If the latter, it can't possibly be bad. If the former, it can't possibly be good.
From what I have seen and in talks with several experts/masters in my area that i play frequently, blitz chess (- G15) is great for practicing openings and tactical/positional play yet has little overall effect in most other aspects of play (long range tactical planning tends to fall by the wayside in extremely fast time controls). To most of the players I have talked to, they play it for fun.
One of my friends for example, plays 3 and 5 minute chess almost exclusively. What we have noticed in his play is that in the fast game, he is able to find great defensive replies and amazingly brilliant combinations over the board at these faster controls. Given this, you would think his long games (standard and/or rapid controls) would be incredible right?
Actually, his longer games suffer and are a much poorer quality. in some, he would resign because his opponent took too long to move. Not from ADD/ADHD, just from boredom. In a way, excessive blitz play actually seems to impair some players longer games.
While this is not always the case (as I have seen some great 1 minute OTB games played by one of Oregon's former state champions), it would appear that "man shall not live by blitz alone."
IMHO, I think that a balance of all different types of time controls would seem to develop an overall quality far better than playing purely blitz. I mean, there, you literally are playing for making the second to last mistake in a game of multiple errors at times.
Still, in learning to recognize traps in openings and tactical play, I think Blitz is great for that (though PBR goes better with everything else).
IMO more or less a waste of time. Like becky said, you use a different set of tools when playing blitz. The only thing you could say that's beneficial of it, is you can get better at playing under time pressure (i.e. you know how to switch modes or tool sets so to speak when you have to).
It's a fairly simple case of what you practice is what you learn and what you'll get better at. Can you think of any other skill that if you practice it 10x as fast as you plan to preform it that it helps? Or will you end up practicing mistakes due to the speed? IMO it's an obvious answer ;)
When I say learning,I mean 1600 - 1700 ELLO and wants to get to,lets say 2000 E. and have a decent understanding of the game. Is a blitz night in a local club or here benefit or just ,more or less ,waste of time. In my club there are diametrically opposite opinions, from Its great for learning to Its killing young players. And,I know blitz is great pass time but how does it exactly effect on learning process?