Sure you can very slowly get better playing very fast chess but you can quickly get better playing slow chess!
Of course it's always easier if we ignore all those people who start out playing a slow game then, after spending an hour of their life losing just lose interest in chess completely!
Forget bullet, it's a joke.
Whenever someone makes a disproportionally bold and dismissive statement such as this one, you can almost always be certain that they themselves are equally unskilled in the area they are disparaging.🙄
You can learn from all aspects of chess which include all time controls.
In my experience, as you get stronger and more comfortable playing, you'll naturally gravitate towards Blitz time controls, as can be observed with the majority of advanced players on this platform.
I don't know about all others but I switched to 3 minutes (from 10 and 5+2 as in real life) to lower the chances of facing an engine.
I suppose that for most non-competitive players (as in real life classic chess tournaments) blitz and bullet is as serious as it gets, but I haven't heard a single titled player saying that he played fast chess for anything other than for fun and relax.
I don't know about all others but I switched to 3 minutes (from 10 and 5+2 as in real life) to lower the chances of facing an engine.
I suppose that for most non-competitive players (as in real life classic chess tournaments) blitz and bullet is as serious as it gets, but I haven't heard a single titled player saying that he played fast chess for anything other than for fun and relax.
Unless tournaments are concerned, the majority of advanced players will eventually transition to Blitz & Bullet, especially online.
When you are comfortable in your openings and theory, there comes a time that longer time controls will start to bore you in these types of scenarios. Just look at the sheer amount of Blitz games being played by GMs/IMs and very high rated players on a daily basis.
It's usually beginners who prefer them as they still need to hone their skills a bit.
I don't know about all others but I switched to 3 minutes (from 10 and 5+2 as in real life) to lower the chances of facing an engine.
I suppose that for most non-competitive players (as in real life classic chess tournaments) blitz and bullet is as serious as it gets, but I haven't heard a single titled player saying that he played fast chess for anything other than for fun and relax.
Emphasis on fun and relax...and pricing. But I would add blitz does have a value because it can get down to low time on OTB.
Yeet
i definitely got better at blitz chess the more i played blitz. dont know about long chess. havent played in so good-riddance long that....nvm.
i definitely got better at blitz chess the more i played blitz. dont know about long chess. havent played in so good-riddance long that....nvm.
You got stronger until you eventually transitioned to Blitz, it was the same for me and the majority of advanced players. When did you start with Blitz?
I don't know about all others but I switched to 3 minutes (from 10 and 5+2 as in real life) to lower the chances of facing an engine.
I suppose that for most non-competitive players (as in real life classic chess tournaments) blitz and bullet is as serious as it gets, but I haven't heard a single titled player saying that he played fast chess for anything other than for fun and relax.
Unless tournaments are concerned, the majority of advanced players will eventually transition to Blitz & Bullet, especially online.
When you are comfortable in your openings and theory, there comes a time that longer time controls will start to bore you in these types of scenarios. Just look at the sheer amount of Blitz games being played by GMs/IMs and very high rated players on a daily basis.
It's usually beginners who prefer them as they still need to hone their skills a bit.
Titled and committed players don't transition from classic to fast chess or the way around, but use some of their time to relax and have some fun, same as going from the office to a pub.
Although some may have found a way to make "a living" by betting money in fast games, for a pro or a want-to-be pro is not a good choice because what's learned or practiced has limited use in classic games, and in most cases, they aren't paid when playing online.
@nighteyes1234: Keeping a keen eye for tactics and strong nerves when no time in the clock is useful indeed, but serious players don't play lots of fast games to be prepared but instead play more classic games putting emphasis on their time management in order to avoid getting in time troubles, which is regarded as poor sport form.
It may seem contradictory that someone who can play 60 moves in 1 minute gets in time troubles when having 60. In fast chess, not everything is examined in detail because there's no time to do it, while in classic a competent trained master will accurately tell the difference between a line that wins, a line that draws and the other dozen that lose. Thus those who have spent too much time "having fun" with fast chess will find themselves being punished often due to superficial play, causing them to doubt their own analysis and spending more time on the clock because of lack of mental discipline or "to be sure".
It may seem contradictory that someone who can play 60 moves in 1 minute gets in time troubles when having 60. In fast chess, not everything is examined in detail because there's no time to do it, while in classic a competent trained master will accurately tell the difference between a line that wins, a line that draws and the other dozen that lose. Thus those who have spent too much time "having fun" with fast chess will find themselves being punished often due to superficial play, causing them to doubt their own analysis and spending more time on the clock because of lack of mental discipline or "to be sure".
Exactly.
Years of speed chess (3 and 1 minute games) made me very slow OTB. I constantly get into time trouble OTB.
I think the pros I've taken from playing blitz are.
1) seeing how to handle weird moves in my favourite openings. getting destroyed by someone playing g5 in a ruy lopez can prove handy if you go back and look at how you can punish moves that are known to be bad.
2) meaningful tactics practice. All tactical problems are appearing in openings I play, so at least in future games I have an idea that a knight sac will be good or something like that.
3) improved speed at seeing tactics. Not because the speed is helpful in long games, but because finding the right move is exhausting if it takes you 5 minutes of thinking every move. playing blitz makes me able to find the easier moves faster and I don't feel like I'm falling apart worrying about every move.
4) deal with winning and losing, play the interesting sacrifice, there'll be another game in 10 minutes. it's not big deal. when I played slow chess I worried too much.
Yes though, there have been bad things about it too. Too often a succesful attack in blitz is not going to cut it in classical, so you get a bit lazy about building a winning position and a bit more "ah, I have 3 pieces near the king, that'll do, lets shove this bishop here and see what he does... oh bollocks.".
I'm not blaming all my bad moves on blitz mind, I am also a bad player so I think that probably comes into it.
Also, I probably waste too much time playing, and getting familiar with, gambits which prove useless in OTB chess.
For a current research project, I'm studying how different chess players use their training time. If you are an active OTB player with a FIDE rating above 1000 (or a national federation equivalent), then you are invited to take the survey linked below. The survey will take no more than 10 minutes. Thank you!
Link to Survey