Hi folks

I am new to chess or old to it but starting again. I am playing blitz chess all the time and I reckon I am getting worse?  I make good positions but......time gets me. What are the benefits of speed chess of any kind?

I am not sure there are any. It's fun for sure. But does it help you in terms of the longer variants of the game? I doubt it.

there are none but it sure is fun!

some may say that it impoves your speed of seein tactics but im not sure

I agree with both comments, possibly more accurate than opponent at the time but not necessarily best move or deeper strategic thinking (obvious sacrifice of speed chess I think)  mmmmm thanks for the comments

learning opening moves/themes?

Other then that not much.  The only thing I can think of that's worse is studying opening lines by rote.

My chess coach prohibited anybody on the team from playing blitz during chess club. If you think of chess as requiring many skills, it really doesn't develop many of those skills at all.

that is what I feel also, a nice opening book is by Keene where the reasons for each opening explained and strategies rather than learning by rote (boring and pointless and you get found out by move 5 ish anyway). 

I have never liked speed chess, I see it as involving a fair amount of luck as you cannot really play the best moves that your mind could find playing sensible time controls so a lot of moves will be luck (either your opponent not having time to see one of your bad moves or you simply pick the best move by chance).

I also think it does not help your game hardly at all, chess is a game to study and to take time to enjoy it imo, the rare times i have played blitz against the computer here i havent really enjoyed and have often quit after i hang a piece, not out of annoyance, just simply out of not caring and not getting into it.

In short, its not for me, i dont think its harmful to your proper game, but i dont think it is of any benefit either.

being able to move under pressure is certainly a skill, and also how fast you can formulate your mind. 

mmm I think he is refering to bullet chess? Blitz is just fine 5m is an eternity for so many players! Some advantages:

they allow us to train in a reall board with real people

you get to try different plans and openings, your tatical skill gets sharper

you start taking less time to decide on a piece to move that can help you solve time troubles

Its fun so will increase your interest in the game

I don't really see a down side in blitz, as for bullet its different because we will make bad moves on purpose, just to make our opponent think and loose on time, but it all depends on the approach you take on chess, if you go into bigger chess servers, youl see top gms like nakamura, Short, etc playing bullet all the time and they are a lil bit above 2000 so it can't really be that bad for us

Anand the fastest brain in the world and world champ must mean something :) Kansky is an amazing strategist but he is too damn slow I would beat him 1 rook down in bullet chess!

for those wondering...

stultify

stul·ti·fy

[Late Latin stultificre, to make foolish : Latin stultus, foolish; see stel- in Indo-European roots + Latin -ficre, -fy.]

stulti·fi·cation (-f-kshn) n.

stulti·fier n.

Best thing for speed chess on this site in my opinion is there aren't cheaters using engines to make moves.  I'll play some people in even 2(5) blitz who know 18 or 19 moves of chess opening theory, but when they play a 1 min, they forget it all :)?  HUMMMM interesting how that happens

Blitz is good to train openings, as long as you look at your games afterwards. It also helps to train speed skills that you'll need in time trouble in long matches.

But that's about it. Doing it too much is bad for your concentration and bad for your calculation skills (since there's no time for deep calculation, you get used to skipping it).

So if you want to improve, play some blitz, but not too much.

And I mean 5 minute chess - imo 1 minute isn't chess :-)