Question for OTB tourney players

Considering giving up blitz completely to give that time to studying some before a tournament.  Only worry is this may make me rusty somehow.  I've never given up games for two months before so I'm not sure what to expect.

I would be spending time with analysis, puzzle solving, or reading, etc.

Be courageous! Blitz is evil. Put it away. The second day is the hardest. After that you've broken the habit.

Yeah I quit blitz about a month before my last tournament. I just played long games and did puzzles. You should tweak your openings too if they are important.

Nothing wrong with blitz ziryab I made it to 1900 otb strength before playing a single otb game blitz is good not evil

The thing about blitz and bullet is that if you sat down and created a study plan, they wouldn't really be a part. But they are fun.

I feel blitz  games are usefull for getting familiar with a lot of different variations of openings, because you can go through many lines in actual gameplay in a short amount of time. I'm not saying long games are bad for learning opening variations obviously, just that blitz games have their place

In Yasser Seirawan's book Chess Duels - My Games With the World Champions he talks about when he was Victor Korchnoi's second for a super tournament, every morning they would wake up and play blitz chess over breakfast

If you do just a little bit of blitz (maybe on average 10 minutes per day) I don't think it should hurt you or make much difference. And if it allows you to enjoy chess more or keep yourself warmed up it might be a good thing (even if it doesn't objectively improve your play). But if you play on average an hour per day or something, then yeah, a lot of that time could be spent on other aspects.

Thanks for the replies.

I don't play every day, but at least once a week at the club.  It seems a bit silly to me to ask, but I really was curious.  I've never played zero games of chess for so long.

I see people saying a little doesn't hurt, and break before a tourney can help clear the mind, ok thanks :)

I don't understand. Why don't you play standard games?

I'd like to work through a book instead of playing games.  Not that both would be bad, but giving other stuff preference over games.

Oh. I find it hard to go too long without a game of chess. Over the years I've made it a part of my life:)

I know what you mean!  We'll see how it goes lol.  Just wanted to make sure it's not a bad idea before I planned on it.

i would say no blitz for 2 weeks before a tourney

It's strange because I never alter what I do until at most a few days before a tournament (but I'm no GM!). Although I will make sure I go over important games, I don't feel inclined to, for example, play less blitz than usual. As long as I am in a good state of mind of what I'm going to do, reminding myself to be alert, play the board, etc, and get a good night's sleep I'm fine.

And hey, one time I really bombed in bullet for about an hour, then going to bed before a tournament, dropping pieces all over the place. But somehow the next day when I was given a reasonable amount of time I seemed to see everything. Doing bad at bullet is always a good sign :)

Yeah, I do that strategy sometimes. Although a lot of times I don't totally go through with it because I fear I haven't learned enough and still want to cram in more understanding with the time I have :) I guess I don't like feeling limited by what I have learned, and so even sometimes before a tournament I want to learn just a bit more.