5 basic steps to become good at bullet

Muted by auto triggers and in spite of being very busy already unmuted by support. Have to say I'm impressed by the speed.

Anyway, most tips by 1000 rated players and 3000 rated players are more or less equally garbage

Chess is 99% (or something large) unconscious pattern recognition. If I ask you what 2 + 2 is you don't actually do math. You also don't count on your fingers. You just know the answer is 4 because it's in your long term memory. That's how most chess moves work. It's not calculation, it's not "chess" in the sense that you're divining it through some chess-specific skills, it's just long term knowledge making good moves "pop" into your head the same way the number 4 pops in what someone says "what's 2 + 2"

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But ok, a few practical tips are play a solid opening that you know well as fast as you can. Solid doesn't mean boring, it can be a gambit, but in that case be sure you know the lines well enough to play very quickly.

Play the middlegame a bit slower than that, and then at some point after you're below 10 seconds go into pure premove mode. That doesn't necessarily mean stack 8 premoves (as you can do on chess.com) but it does mean try to make all your moves a premove.

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And another general tip... you gain time when you can force your opponent out of that 2+2 mode. When you force them to start thinking, that's when they lose time. This happens in many ways, for example when you have a legitimate checkmating attack they have to slow down to calculate.

A more subtle example, especially at lower ratings, is trades. Lower rated players love to trade to feel comfortable... so if you can get into a habit of pushing yourself to avoid initiating captures then you can increase the pressure on your peers. I don't mean never initiate a capture, but I mean push yourself outside of your comfort zone. If you're one of these beginners who plays 100% of captures then challenge yourself to skip 1 or 2 a game. Let your opponent be the first to capture and you'll only recapture. The more comfortable you are with tense positions the more your opponent's clock will tend to bleed.

Thanks llama!! I can feel the 200 point increase already. Comfort zone..syonara. 

My other car is a Porsche and my other account is rated at 3500. I swear. 

His tips are far better than yours. Premoves only for captures???

It is an ultra safe practice. His tips are far better than mine and sounding like he's been playing at a level higher than me for a long time. How old do llama become? 140 years, I heard. He could be a very old llama. 

You missed the most important one:

Have a good internet connection

Offense takes more time than defense. 

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Disagree.

It just depends. If you have an initiative, or the attack is standard, then it can be a lot easier to play the attack.

If the attack is a messy sacrifice with no clear pattern (that you know of anyway) then it can be easier for the defense.

Extreme familiarity with the positions you regularly play, prioritising the initiative over everything else, and thumb/mouse speed. Those are the keys to bullet. 

OOF!! Messy sacrifice describes TOO MANY of my attacks. Lol

These are good points, thanks! 

I was thinking about these responses and the subject and wrote this: 

If the attack is too slow it is not a good attack. This would apply to (chess) games in which time is of the essence or combat sports, maybe. 

ok