I want to improve should I quit playing blitz?

Hi all,

I've basically been stuck around the same rating more or less since a few months after I started playing since I've never really made an effort to study or improve.  I've decided now to devote some more consistent effort to study and play longer time controls over the next year.  My question is, should I continue to play blitz during this time period or should I give it up entirely?

In my opinion Blitz play is a waste of timeas it fosters inexact play. Will your game improve if you have more time to consider a position? Yes. If you want to play blitz then play only for the entertainment valve. Spend the much greater portion of your time in study and long duration play.

Forget blitz.I have just managed a 100pt rating increase just by changing coffee from instant to plunger. And my response to d4 from d5 to Nf6.

But I still only play blitz

Yes that is one side of the argument.  The other is that playing alot of blitz improves pattern recognition and tactics - in my experience I don't feel that this is true although I wonder what some other people might think...

@astronomer, I quit drinking coffee a few months back so my blitz abilities have suffered haha, that and a poor internet connection doesn't help!

You play a lot more games in Blitz in the same amount of time.  That has down-sides for quality of course, but also upsides in that you see a lot more positions or you achieve the repetition of some positions or tactics that helps you remember them.

You can play as brilliantly as you will in one single long game, but you will still only see a limited number of positions and tactics exhibited in one game.

There's your mistake. Caffeine and nicotine power your brain. I really should try that nicotine chewing gum.

This is the other side of the argument that I've often heard...in my own experience I feel that is is not the case - a couple of years ago I binged on blitz and bullet for several months and my play did not improve one iota, however I'm just not sure if its necessary to completely stop play shorter time controls at least for a few months whilst I study.

My play improved notably during the christmas period when I was playing a lot of Blitz and gained ~150 points to reach my highest Blitz rating (since it settled down with the Glicko) after reading up far more on chess than I have previously.

It may just be a coincidence as I am not putting any pressure on myself to learn so much of it washed over me without sinking in, especially openings which I just never remember more than a handful of moves in.

Over the last couple of weeks I have lost > 100 of those Blitz points again though and it's a lot easier to lose them than gain them!

What I notice more than anything in Blitz (and esp. Bullet where I have also lost > 120 points in recent weeks through 2 bad sessions) though is that I play "on tilt" (to use a poker expression) too often and keep playing when I get in an irritated mood from hanging a piece or losing a won position on time.  Those are the times my Blitz/Bullet rating tumbles.

When I play Online chess though that doesn't really happen so my Blitz/Bullet is not obviously affecting my longer play.

What does affect longer play is simply the fact that with ~30 games on the go at once there are times in my life when I just really can't be bothered so I play quick moves just to meet the time control without putting much thought in.  In the nature of correspondance games I have had active games every day since I joined chess.com so obviously some days I'm just not in a chess mood, but still have to play moves.

Blitz is instant coffee. If you want quality play, you need fresh ground French press.

Still play blitz by all means, however I would also suggest you play other time controls as well. If you play for 1 hour a day play 30 minutes of blitz and then a 15 minute game. gradually get longer and longer. Study tactics, play plenty of games, and you rating should improve a lot. Eventually you'll reach a point where you can't improve that way, but still then you move to positional chess. Right now i'd say experience and tactics are the best thing for you. 

You've only played 39 blitz games - wtf you talking about?

I only play blitz and it only seems to improve my play. Don't play if tired, that's when your rating really dips. I dont see any problem with playing blitz.

Playing a lot of blitz will not improve your slow/classic game but improving your slow/classic game will , and it will also improve your blitz . 

Before I signed up here I played on other servers.  For blitz/rapid alone chess.com is probably not as good as some other servers but it is much better in terms of overall resources.

I thought that this was probably the case - ok I'm going to try and resist the temptation to play blitz over the next few months and see how it goes haha.

In my opinion it doesn't matter what time control you are playing. It can be even bullet but you need to play good quality games. If you make blunders and don't understand position then you need to increase time. Personally i prefer 10 minutes rapid game. I agree that longer games are good because we can learn the game deep.

Absolute rubbish. I've played thousands of blitz 10 minute games but only like 6 standard games and I just beat a guy, in a standard match, twice, who has a thousand standard games and over a 100 points better than my blitz rating.

The proof is in the pudding. I've improved at blitz and my standard rating is matching or even surpassing my blitz rating.

Obviously I dont just learn from my blitz games, I also do tactics, watch high level players on youtube and read books. But if you're saying you wont improve at standard chess if you play blitz... I respectfully disagree.

Confused here. You stated that you "also" do tactics and watch high level players and read books.  

The OP stated clearly that he doesn't do any of the things you did besides just play blitz.

So in the spirit of debate,  your rebuttal of what Reb stated doesn't make too much sense to me.

Just playing blitz does nothing for your chess. It's hard to argue with that.

The "in addition to Blitz, I also do" part is probably going to help.

I'm just a beginner, having found chess.com just a few months ago - I never really played chess before this. My ratings arent very high. Recently I started playing live standard, and have taken an interest in position-related thinking, strategy, etc, rather than just looking for tactics and relying on intuition. I find that the people I beat in live standard often have blits ratings much higher than mine (like 200-300+ points).

I also started using the tactics trainer differently.. Instead of thinking just one or two moves ahead and using intuition, I try to solve the whole thing before making a move. My tactics rating and my already meager blitz rating went down when I did this, but my live standard play is getting better.

Here,s what I think - I don't have the pattern recognition or static memory ability to play blitz -  It's a lot of fun, but (for me) not real chess, because I really need the time to properly visualize the game at each turn. I think it's not the same for everyone. I think that certainly, people who have awesome blitz ratings ARE playing "real chess" - they can visualize alot more and much further ahead than I can in the few seconds that they take to move... Of course, that's just not the case for me or my opponents in Blitz games.

The blunders we make in blitz are liken to getting a breakaway in hockey, shooting, and then realizing you forgot to bring the puck! 

Moderation.  You dont need to quit playing blitz, but limit how much you play, if oyu truley want to improve.  I play blitz about 1 hour a day.  Another thing that is very important!  DO NOT keep playing just because you lost a few games in a row.  Set a time limit and stick to it.