How blitz and bullet rotted my brain (don't let it rot yours)

Try soaking your head in cold water.

I stick my head in lava....

I saw that you are doing tactics here also, 2865, strong. I am trying to think longer in the exercises and got 100 points yesterday and 100 points today. Somehow I lost the habit to think in tactics and lost also my self-confidence. Any advice to get so strong in tactics? I mean, if I train 30 minutes everyday for a year can I expect something like 1900 in tactics, or things are more complicated than this.

That will make it rot all the more.

Hi

But I've increased in rating when playing blitz...

Quotes about blitz from chess giants

''Playing rapid chess, one can lose the habit of concentrating for several hours in serious chess. That is why, if a player has big aims, he should limit his rapid play in favor of serious chess. ''

Vladimir Kramnik

''He who analyses blitz is stupid.''

Rashid Nezhmetdinov

'' Blitz chess kills your ideas''

Bobby Fischer

But the funniest of all,to my mind, is this :

''Yes, I played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929 ''

Mikhail Botvinik

Blitz is an addiction and is catastrophic to a chess player. Your experiences are exactly the same as mine. Only beautiful,creative chess is not a waste of our precious time on earth and this requires some serious thinking.

TRUE. You are 100 percent correct 

Thanks for a great thread.

I've been wondering if I should be playing blitz as a way of teaching myself to recognize patterns faster, but, as an Advanced Certificated teacher, it doesn't seem like that's the way to go because there's not enough time to recognize the patterns by name (knowing the name of a pattern is important in recall).

Personally, as a club-level player, I'm bad at recognizing patterns and to improve I have been working tactics problems every day -spending the time to study which tactical motifs were in the solution - and playing several daily games to give me time to study positions and look for various tactics patterns as well as positional imbalances.  I'm also looking at which tactics problems I have a lower rate of solving.  For example, I have a tactics rating of 1752 at chesstempo, solved 65% of the problems I've tried and here are the 2017 tactical motifs for which I've scored a 1650 or less.

Of those with a lot of problems, the one that sticks out to me is I'm missing a lot of hanging piece problems - which says something about why I make too many blunders. So I've been studying Dan Heisman and other works about the mental processes in chess. I had been away from chess for years and got serious in January and my performance has improved as 2017 has progressed:

Since I have been playing blitz non-stop, my performance has shot up...

Also, since I play so much blitz, I see tactics and am able to play more openings.

My strategic ability has not improved or decreased, it merely is the same... 

Here are several specific things I do that you may find helpful:

- I never worry about the time it takes to solve a problem. I think as long as it takes and don't make a move until I believe I've solved it.

- I always put in the effort to figure out why my proposed solution was wrong, when I get it wrong. TT is a bare-bones tool. It only plays out one line and never plays out the refutation when your proposed try is wrong. The hidden blessing of this is that it puts the onus on you figure out what you missed. This is a very important part of using TT to improve your tactics, at least as important as figuring out the correct solution.

I never let the results or rating changes affect me emotionally. It's nice to gain rating points, but if I'm getting problems wrong and losing rating, I don't worry about it. Rating is not the point. And I certainly never complain that TT is "unfair", whether in telling me I'm wrong when I'm sure my proposed move works or in how in changes my rating,

Very good advice. I've never really put in the effort to figure out why my wrong try was wrong when solving tactics puzzles. Sometimes it's evident upon finding the correct solution. But sometimes it's less evident until that line is investigated further, and that investigation could be valuable. The thing is though, often times you get the answer wrong, not because there's anything wrong with your idea or line of thinking, but simply because there's something better present in the position, and in that event it becomes a little frustrating to spend time searching for the fault in your particular line when no such fault exists, except for the precense of a better line that you didn't see.

As a complete novice I can only say Blitz has helped me allot to improve on the really stupid blunders really quickly.  The moves become instinctive and the patterns more easily recognised.  I like the fact guys occasionally miss my blunders (or don't take advantage of them and it gives me a breather) also I am learning at an exponential rate.  I have had ~750 games in a couple of months more or less - it would have taken me years to play as many games in traditional chess.  So I think it very much comes down to your level.  For me it really helps, but I imagine for high rated players I am not sure what value it can give other than thinking fast - rather than thinking things through properly.

Its a bit like Test Match Cricket (traditional chess) v ODI's (Blitz) / 20/20 (Bullet) - only the most talented can be good at all 3 or enjoy all the formats.

Exactly! I have always said that players below 1300 should stay away from any game that is longer than 10 min per side. Because it will only waste your time. You can learn faster by playing lots of blitz games. I am speaking from my experience. My rating rose from 700 to 1700 in 3 yrs by playing lots of blitz games. But people follow the advice of some IM or GM who tells them to play long games. This only wastes their time and they don't really improve. Most IMs and GMs have no idea on how to improve a chess student from 700 to 1700. Because they can't understand or relate to player in that rating range. Their advice ends up being counterproductive.

At lower levels(up to 1800), the main problem for players is blunders. Blunders are caused by deficiencies in board vision. And simple calculation mistakes. Blitz is useful in training board vision, simple tactical calculation, pattern recognition, opening experience, time management, end game and game pressure. In short, you get to train the full spectrum in a short time. And you can do this many times by playing lots of blitz games.

I disagree will all of these.

You can't based your improvement alone on your blitz rating here. Do you play over the board tournament? What works on blitz might not work at longer time control. Mistakes that you can get away at blitz will be punished at longer time control.

Players at below 1300 rating playing games longer than 10 minutes is not a waste of time and is actually helpfull as longer time control allows them to develop their ability to calculate longer variations and explore more what they learned from books or their game experience. A beginner playing blitz only can make them develop bad habits and superficial thinking. They might develop bad habit like laziness.  Bad habits are hard to remove.

You can't say that most  IMs and GMs have no idea on how to improve a chess student from 700 to 1700 becuase at one point these IMs and GMs are also beginners. So what they are telling comes from their own experience. I have seen many beginners players here playing countless blitz games for many years, but not improving at all.

Totally agree with you. Studying a single,serious game of chess by great players of the past with good annotations can teach you about pawn structures,tactical and strategic ideas and far more than a 1000 meaningless blitz games.Chess is a serious game it requires analytical thinking which in itself requires a lot of time.

The vast majority of players who are novices and play a lot of blitz games, have very low FIDE ELO rating and are poor players.

Here's your brain.  Here's your brain on blitz and bullet.

Congrats FM chuddog for your 5/5 clean sweep of your 2200+ to 2400+ opponents, achieving your highest ever rating >2450 USCF!

Glad your preparation strategy paid off.

Thanks for the advice & posting the annotated match, good creative tactical moves!

1 move that you didn't mention was 29. Qxd5 where 29. Rxd5 seemed the better choice (analysis confirms this), but this didn't stop you from winning just 2 moves later, happy days 

These players who are claiming their grading have shot up in blitz play are no doubt talking about blitz gradings. Blitz gradings I think are not the same as normal play gradings. I have two gradings and my blitz grading is very much lower than my "over the board" time control e.g. about 30 moves to the hour grading. These are actual grades recognised by the chess authorities. If I played more blitz chess my blitz grading might increase, but my normal time control grading would not change because I was not playing games in that time control it would at least stay the same, but I know intuitively that it would actually go down,in the case of then returning to the long game. The reason for this is that most games that are lost are lost because of blunders which are more likely exploited by opponents in long time controls. Playing quicker encourages blunders,because fewer combinations are considered, or analysed properly, which another poster on this site has already stated. Going from quick play back to long play then carries over the propensity to move quicker and carrying the blunders back into the long game. If you think you are wasting your time by taking longer over moves in chess, might I suggest you are wasting you time playing chess at all!

The journey is as wonderful as reaching the destination.  Fast games are only for reaching an outcome, nothing more.  Great article.