bullet vs blitz and playing long games

Speed games are just for fun, and you get to show off you pattern recognition.

Plus I think "flow" has a lot to do with enjoying speed games... I know I've posted this a lot recently, but it's pretty interesting to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

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10 minute games are fine. For a while I was playing 10|10 with some friends every week. To each their own.

On the contrary, <BlurredLife> - a player who can't reach at least 1650 in Online Chess here (which is probably something like FIDE 1500) shouldn't play speed games at all. 

A speed game is a game in which you have to play so fast, that you have no time to visualize the board, see what is attacking what, consider several options for your next move, calculate some variations, understand what you want and what your opponent wants in the position. 

Everyone below 1650 in Online Chess would benefit greatly from playing exclusively game with the time control being 30 30 at least. 

You will train yourself to see and to calculate. 

You need to reach a certain level of proficiency before playing blitz makes any kind of sense. 

When I was younger (until age 17) I didn't even know that blitz chess existed. I played only without a clock. Later when resources became available for me to improve (books, a chess club, stronger players sharing their views of my games), I improved very quickly to the 1800 level. 

<Jengaias> there is a question though, and it is - can a player really derive FUN from a speed game, when he really doesn't see or understand what's going on?

Doesn't it, on the contrary, lead to a certain feeling of overwhelm for that player?

Weaker players do need more time to see and calculate things than we do. I really doubt, how much fun they have when playing too fast. 

They typically don't feel that they can stand behind the moves they made - and they're all the time under pressure by the clock. They can't yet play in that free and careless way that is typical of a "fun" state of mind. 

I observe also, from people I know offline, that people rated lower than about FIDE 1500 generally PREFER not to play blitz - for pretty much the same reasons as I mention here. 

Fun probably comes once you're at least somewhat proficient in the game. 

Actually it is like that:

Bullet is everything under 3 minutes 

Blitz is everything NOT BULLET under 15 minutes. 

In games with increment, you count 2/3 of the increment AS MINUTES to determine if it's blitz or bullet

Example: 2 1 is bullet because the 1 second increment counts as 2/3 of a minute - so 2 + 2/3 < 3

Example: 10 7 is blitz because the 7 second increment counts as 4 2/3 minutes - so 10 + 14 2/3 < 15

<Jengaias> what will I do? I will do nothing :-) 

I tend to shy away from arguments, especially on the internet. 

I say what I think, and explain the reasons for that. Other people can have other opinions of course. 

By the way - blitz MAY be good for improvement, in some dosage - but I don't believe that it's any good while you're rated lower than FIDE 1500 - one's board vision and "chess memory" aren't good enough, at that stage, in my opinion, to derive any benefit from speed play. 

Blitz/Bullet is what i play to pass th time.

OTB long time controls is what i play to learn, improve, and have fun.

At 1902 it's a nice pastime. Not so at 1085 (Blurredlife's current blitz rating here), I'm afraid. 

Blitz can be good to train the "sense of danger" and tactical awareness. Bullet is generally good for youtube only. 

After making a solid start to learning chess, playing blitz has proven both addictive and detrimental to my game. But, I have so little spare time that I keep going back to 5/5 blitz...

<Blurredlife> I meant to give you advice, not to offend you. Your reaction was totally out of place. I'm done with you. Thanks.