thoughts on blitz-bullet chess

Many top professional chess players do not take rapid, blitz and bullet chess as seriously as they do chess with standard time controls. Some dismissive quotes from top chess players on the topic of it are the following:

• "Playing rapid chess, one can lose the habit of concentrating for several hours in serious chess. That is why, if a player has big aims, he should limit his rapidplay in favour of serious chess." – Vladimir Kramnik^[26]
• "Like dogs who sniff each other when meeting, chess players have a ritual at first acquaintance: they sit down to play speed chess." – Anatoly Karpov^[26]
• "Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929." – Mikhail Botvinnik^[26]
• "He who analyses blitz is stupid." – Rashid Nezhmetdinov^[26]
• "Blitz chess kills your ideas." – Bobby Fischer^[26]
• "To be honest, I consider [bullet chess] a bit moronic, and therefore I never play it." – Vladimir Kramnik^[27]
• "[B]litz – it's just a pleasure." – Vladimir Kramnik^[28]
• "I play way too much blitz chess. It rots the brain just as surely as alcohol." – Nigel Short^[29]

It rots my brain for sure...lol

"He who analyses blitz is stupid."

That one is funny, because it seems like most chess games featured in the Analysis Forum are blitz and bullet games

At our level (below Master) we are only playing for fun anyway, so play whatever time control you like the best.

Analyzing blitz games, other than pointing out the obvious, does seem rather pointless. The strategy of Blitz, where time is just as important as postion or material,  isn't to find the best moves but moves that cause your opponent difficulties.  Even objectively bad moves can be good moves in Blitz.  Plus, with seconds to think, moves can only be so deep and not worthy of heavy scrutiny.  I play Blitz almost exclusively. After a game, I glance through it to see where I might have played better, but I never analyze a game.  On the other hand, Blitz games can be a lot of fun to play through at face value.

@batgirl:You always put your blitz games in the Game Showcase forum, and they still get analyzed, sometimes in depth!

...which is foolish.  I put them there for fun.

Never just fun. Blitz is serious business.