Improving performance under time pressure

How to get better at performing under time pressure?

To be clear: this is different from time management, which is all about managing your clock so that you don't get into time trouble in the first place.

Rather, my question is all about how to play better when the clock is already low.

This skill is very important and often overlooked. When playing a tough game against an opponent of the same level, it is common for both players to use all the time on their clocks, but for the game to still be in the balance. In such situations, the game will be decided by which player is able to play better under time pressure.

For context, I'm around 2000 on chess-com rapid, but 1500 in blitz / bullet.

I play in classical OTB tournaments about every 3 months. I have had coaching. I devote time to studying chess almost daily. In all, I'm a serious intermediate/advanced chess player.

However, I perform terribly under time pressure. Missing simple one-move tactics that (almost) never happen when I have the luxury of more time.

Of course, everyone performs worse with low time, but I feel my case is particularly acute.

One example from a recent OTB tournament. I was down to under 5 minutes.

Another example from the same tournament.

I want to spend some time working on this weakness, but I don't know what to do.

My feeling is that the "usual" chess improvement tips, such as:

• improving positional understanding via studying master games or reading strategy books, or;
• working on calculation skills via solving challenging tactics puzzles

...are not the answer. Instead, I need to become faster / more intuitive / more resistant to making blunders even when I don't have much time.

I already play 30 minutes of blitz every day, to attempt to improve my pace.

What else can be tried?

I would most of all welcome tips from:

• chess coaches who have experience helping students who have a similar problem, or;
• those who have overcome this problem themselves. What they did, and what their results were.

Many thanks!

im not sure. i have the same problem

You need to play more faster time control games bullet and blitz chess

if u writer im gonna kill my self u dont know anything about chess so cowerd and weak to disable chat and never rematch look at the last game i cooked u but u scared plz dont write book i will kill my self that is bad for chess that u play chess

puzzle rush is your friend for pattern recognition under time pressure -- try to beat my 40/50 pbs for 3 min/5 min rushes... 🥷

puzzle battle is another strong option to train you to consistenly find the best moves under pressure, although survival puzzle rush is my favorite tool for 'strength training', since there is no time limit & they become obscenely difficult when the puzzles hit the 3000-4000 rating range -- try to beat my 74 pb here.

Here are some suggestions for playing in time pressure.

Resist the natural urge to simplify the position by exchanging pieces.

Keep your pieces protected. Avoid leaving anything unguarded.

If playing with an increment, you can repeat a position 2 times to gain time.

When you still have time, take an inventory of the strategic features of the position. Consider the following:

which of your pieces are stronger than your opponent’s? Don’t exchange your strong piece.

Remind yourself which squares are holes in their position. Try to maintain control of and occupy these squares.

Remind yourself which pawns are strong and which are weak.

Can you create an outside passed pawn?

Fix The pawn structure so that your pawns are not on the same color as your bishop.

Take note of whether the remaining bishops are the same color as the queening square of the rook pawns.

Strong players do these automatically in time pressure. These general considerations will win many more games than trying to calculate faster.