I am terrible at time management, so I kind of need to play some blitz for the express purpose of having the skill developed when my clock gets low at a standard game. It is kind of fun, ok it's very fun to play blitz if unrated, but I get destroyed when I have to play quickly. I know this, it's part of my self evaluation. I say blitz has a purpose, because everyone gets low on time now and then. It's purpose is definitely not to get better at longer time control games, say 15/0 or longer. I should think that's obvious, though. As long as you aren't playing blitz thinking it's going to help you calculate and visualize the board 10 moves ahead, I'd say you're ok.
Is blitz counter-productive?
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Blitz can develop some skills that long-term games cannot; however, too much blitz may slightly alter one's tournament gameplay, but one shouldn't take it too seriously. I love blitz, after all!
I believe that too much blitz or blitzing while you are in the early stages of learning chess is counterproductive.
My reasoning is that in blitz you get to make a lot of shallow moves and are likely to get away with it if you are playing someone your level. You do not learn to do the deeper moves and thus do not learn to see them or combinations. You are less likely to understand why you lost or won.
Maybe too much blitz also develops bad habits for better players. Now I am a noob just picking up the game, doing a lot of puzzles. I noticed that I am bad at blitz but enjoy longer games, which also teach me more. I almost always run into time trouble in 3-10 minute games. I just spend too much time checking whether my move is safe or whether there is a better option. Which is the point of chess, imho.
Now I was playing a colleague at the office whose FIDE rating is around 1700. I am unrated. He plays bullet a lot. We play a 10 minute game, I lose on time. We continue the game after the clock has run out. I got him in what our chess mentor describes as "a crushing position"? How can I get a 1700 player in such a position if he had not ruined his skills by playing games too fast? I played 1-3 minute games against him (even though there is no chance of winning for me at that speed) and I noticed he did not make any move which was cunning, just shallow exchanges etc. until I run out of time. That is the problem with blitz: you can just move faster just avoiding checkmate in the hopes of being quicker but without true wit.
Nothing wrong with blitz if you are experienced and want to have some fun or practice openings. Good players see combinations and can do postitional moves in no time. Lesser players cant and are unlikely to learn by playing blitz IMHO. Correct me if I am wrong.
If you are just a beginner, playing blitz is not good for your chess development.
joeydvivre wrote:
Yep, you are definitely a noob. the 1700 player got into the bad position on the board because he was winning on time and wanted to run out your clock. That's a win. This playing it out after the game was over is silly noob stuff. The game was over. He won. Good chess.
What's a guy with an 800 rating doing giving his opinion about how blitz helps learn chess? You haven't learned any chess yet. /joeydvivre wrote:
Ok, at first I have to say that you write in a very unfriendly way.Second, I don't believe that my current rating on blitz at chess.com tells you all about my chess knowledge.
Thirdly, If he had done that, it would not only be unsmart of him to get in bad positions just minding the time, it would also prove that blitz does not do the best for improving your chess performance.
Fourthly, I am entitled to have formed an opinion even though I may not be the strongest player.
Fifth, there is nothing wrong with playing out a game after the clock has run out. It can be enjoyable and instructive. I am obviously not denying my colleague his win. There is more to chess than just winning.
Lastly, I don't think that I have insulted any blitz player to an extend that deserves such an unfriendly answer.
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ParekhAbhishekN wrote:
Thank you friends for your answeres but my question is do playing too many blitz (and bullet) develops bad habits, (e.g. playing too fast , not looking for aleternative moves etc.) in player?
No, I think it doesn`t. When it comes to Live Chess here I usually play 2/1 (bullet - I am hopeless in 1/0 games which could be said about 2/1, too
), 5/0 (blitz), and 10/10 (standard). I believe both bullet and blitz helped me to play better standard chess for I got faster. Blitz is like the Tactics Trainer but you don`t have to find the best moves to "pass". :-))
I don`t believe anyone is going to play a 10/10 game like a 2/1 one only because he plays bullet a lot. I have noticed such a problem with 1/0 and 2/1 games. They are both fast but there is a huge difference. When I play 2/1 after many 1/0 ones I often lose with much time on my clock. And when I play 1/0 after many 2/1 I often lose on time.
joeydvivre wrote:
1) Your "my rating isn't indicative of my chess knowledge". I wonder what would be?
you are a) forgetting about the obvious option that I am not playing a lot here and be fail to understand the difference about chess theory and application. I believe I have an ok understanding of the theory, but lack the experience of applying it well, especially in fast games.
2) "it would be unsmart of him..." No it wouldn't. A very decent strategy to win at blitz is to make a mess of things so your opponent needs to consume his time figuring out the mess. The goal is to win the game, not create beautiful chess. It's blitz. Those are the rules.
Thanks for answering the question of the original poster. ("Thank you friends for your answeres but my question is do playing too many blitz (and bullet) develops bad habits, (e.g. playing too fast , not looking for aleternative moves etc.) in player?")
yes it does because you run don't train yourself to look for the best move since you are more likely to get away with it in blitz. Not saying that good blitz players wont be good players in long games.
6) "..deserves such an unfriendly answer" The only thing unfriendly about my answer is that I pointed out that you didn't get a 1700 player in a "crushing position" and that rained on your parade. And then I questioned why should be offering advice publicly on something you know nothing about. Sorry you don't like that but facts are facts.
It does not rain on my parade at all. I understand that my opponent won this way and wanted to make exactly the point you made, that it does not create beautiful chess, as you put it. It does not train the player to do so and thus is likely to form bad habits. I actually expected my colleague to get me into a bad position and me running out of time.
As far as productivity and counter-productivity are concerned, I you get from blitz what you put in.
If you play standard opening moves (or just random opening moves) and then just throw the pieces around, making "good-looking" moves instead of creating a plan and making positional considerations, and looking for tactical shots as they arise, then at the best you aren't recieving the full benefits of blitz. At the worst, your poor thought-process in blitz might translate to a poor thought-process in longer time-controls if you ALLOW it to. If you understand, though, that your more serious games should involve a more proper and in-depth thought-process, then there is no way that blitz can actually hurt your game.
I think that blitz gets a bad name because so many people use it to play chess for fun with little effort. People taking it seriously, though, can learn alot with it. Personally, I've used blitz to practice many different openings, which has exposed me to a good variety of positions, which at least at my level has helped me improve alot.
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Bullet is probably counterproductive (at least for low-rated players like myself), but I think blitz is sufficiently lengthy that most players can get in quite a bit of thought and careful play. Honestly, I probably play too much correspondence chess-now I have no idea how to manage my time!
Yeah, I hear that! I play many "online" correspondence games on this site with a three (3) to seven (7) day per move time control and correspondence games in real life with a sixty (60) to ninety (90) day time control for each twenty moves. I have since lost any semblance of discipline in using my time in OTB or computer chess. In fact, I have lost the majority of my "blitz" games on this site on time -- I am sure that any blitz game I play in which I can't checkmate my opponent in 25 moves or less will be a loss on time for me.
Due to my mostly playing correspondence chess I sometimes find myself unable to sit at a chess board and concentrate for an entire OTB game, and its even worse when playing "live" chess on this site. I have lost many a blitz game because after move ten or so I wander across the house, fix myself a drink, read a newspaper article, make a phone call, what have you -- then I come back and find that either my timer ran out or I have just like 30 seconds left to make all my moves..
In correspondence chess those pressures are not there.