Thoughts on Bullet Chess

Hey all, I've recently started playing loads of 1|0 time control chess on the Live servers here, and it's gotten really addicting. I had never played at these time controls before, but I think I've already gotten the hang of it.

In a weird way it's almost more interesting than regular Chess, because traps and trick moves seem to be an absolute must. It's downright mean in that respect, because it's almost like hustling... but I actually feel like it's helped me to have a keener eye at spotting good candidate moves almost instantly (even though many people believe that you can't learn anything from 1 minute time controls). I would recommend at least trying it out before you make the assumption (like I did!) that 1|0 games were not useful for learning.

Any other good or bad experiences with Bullet time controls?

No, I have played about 70 quick games. I play them when I feel like it or don't have time for a longer game. It can be fun, but it's incredibly mindless and when you make games that quick you only use about 25% of your knowledge and just blitz out moves. And say you're up a knight but you're down 10 sec, you're pretty much lost if it's not an endgame yet. At least in 5 0 you combine calculation and intuition to make unclear moves sometimes, but basically I think 1 0 takes that to such an extreme that it helps you so much less. I think you can get something out of blitz, but not quick and best is standard to long time controls. 1 0 is fun, but I don't see how it helped any aspect of my game. In a real game it is not that important to see something that quickly. You're doing deep calculations in real games. I don't know, it just didn't help me and I should mention that chess was suposed to be the opposite of reflexes. But yeah it can be fun and addicting sometimes, but always incredibly unclear. I don't know how chess network wins that consistently because if he loses just one he probably loses hundreds of points.

Interesting article on bullet chess :).

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2051443/bullet_chess_can_it_actually_help_your.html?cat=7

I think long helps your bullet (because it's your general knowledge in sped up form) but not the other way around.

i dont touch the stuff. Well not yet, maybe latter on in my chess adventure. But i suppose with that time situation its all instincts.

Bullet chess on this server is far different from bullet on other sites: the fact that you can only premove on your opponent's time, the intermittent lag, and disappearing pieces make "chess.com bullet" a whole different species.

bullet chess? not with the live chss now, so many people have problems. only people who can play safely and nicely can play bullet chess atm. but you can!HELP TEST LIVE CHESS 2 NAO! OR I WILL KILL YOU

www.chess.com/live
and report any bugs to kohai or somin. theres a thread... called "help test live 2" in caps.

It helps your openings for sure. 

It's the de-emphasis of chess skills that I don't care for.

You guys would be surprised.  There are SEVERAL GMs who have a 2600+ bullet rating.  While it may not do much for most of us, those GMs are definitely using chess skill to acheive a rating like that.  I have seen 1 0 games from grandmasters that make some of my BEST long games look tragically amateur. 

Seriously? What were the games? And again I think general skill makes your quick games of higher quality but not the other way around. I don't know how I could ever learn a new plan or combination from one of those games, and if it was it would be in ultra simple form except for the GM games.

i agree 100%.  it's all smoke and mirrors for me.  gimmicks...  tricks.  maybe more harm than good.

I find the faster the game the worse it is for my chess, and the slower my game the worse it is for my time management.  Currently time management is a problem for me because I play 3-days-per-move almost exclusively.

GM's are in a definite class. I am a pretty good blitz player--Dzindzi gave me 5-1 which sounds good AND i got to pick the square where he had to mate me i.e if I was not mated on that square I won--I lost both games we played this way (and this was for fun there was no money involved)--so GM"s can do a lot in 1 minute chess--personally I think 5 minute can produce some pretty good games but anything faster for me the clock over compensates for the chess.

That sounds pretty hard aansel; to outplay someone in 5 min to one and mate on the very square you choose? GM's are that good I guess.

They (GM's) are unreal how much they see and how quickly. GM Baburin was at my office playing through some games on Chessbase--the board and pieces were moving so fast not one of us could make sense of the game as he was going through them--we then challenged him on the game--he mentioned the opening, a missed tactic (and this was a GM v GM game) , the ending and what he though--then we played through the game and saw he was 100% correct. 

The level of chess knowledge and ability of GM's should not be under estimated--they really are at a super high level. I firmly believe that any GM on this site would beat all not titled players if they spent enough time on the games and took them seriously.

Actually I played twice--once I chose a center square and the the next time I chose something like b or c1  ( I was Black)--when he offered me this challenge (which was at his daughter's birthday party) I thought I would be OK at just 5:1 odds but it was impressive on how he systematically force me to exchange pieces--and was able to move my King to the required square--everyone (even me) applauded his exhibition.

I'm just insane enough to be doing this with a TRACKPAD.

Oh yes.

To me they are two different games, bullet and standard. I don't feel like one has to compliment or take away from the other.

Its similar to poker for me. In Texas Hold'em you can play limit or No-limit. They are both the same game just a few differances that end up changing everything so drastically that you have to approach the game with a whole new knowledge and skillset... So I wouldn't worry about hurting your "normal" game because you play at faster levels at times. They are different. Just learn how to apply each skillset as necessary.