Why am I getting destroyed in 5 min

If that's directed at me I agree.  If anything it's less of a display of what you know, because it's just how fast you can display it (so you can't use everything you know).

I was just agreeing that if you can't do much in the first place, then you definitely can't expect to do it quickly

Hi Waffles, It was not directed at anybody. If it was I would have adressed the person. But I agree with what you say. Your argument on "less time to display your ability" cuts wood.

What I do not really agree with is the attitude that I sometimes see about blitz being an inferior pass-time and not real chess. If Carlsen would play blitz on this site, his games in one minute would probably be of better quality than most of the slow games that good players play here.

People that are really good at chess, are often incredibly good at blitz.

It is just a different game. But one that has all my respect, because I know how well certain people play it.  

So you want to get better at 5 minutes? Play many long game first. And study chess a lot. I never play chess that much until recently, but when I was young I did study chess a lot, but play few game with friends(they are not that good). Then last, last year, I tried blitz in FICS, I easily get to 1400.

Don't worry too much about winning or losing--just focus on learning something from every game you play.

If you learn one thing from each game (whether you win or not), you will be setting up the foundation for your improvement.

Every loss=learning. If you're losing a lot it means you're making mistakes. Don't get frustrated, see this as an opportunity. Find the mistakes and find the better moves that you should have made instead. This is how you get better as a player.

*Thumbs up*

When you train tactics, focus on finding the checks, captures and threats. You should be able to see checks, captures and simple threats(like mate and loss of material) within 5-10 seconds depending on the position. So this is what you should train. When you can do this you will very fast become around 1300+ rating. After that more complex threats should be trained.. this is when strategy, opening, calculating, endgame knowledge should be trained to be able to see those threats in your game. Good luck1

My question is: why you want to improve specifically in the 5 minute games?

If you want to improve your chess ( no matter what time) you have to familiarize with the opening, variant, the strategy behind them. Only then you can move fast "without thinking" ( relativelly).

If you want to improve you have to play slow. The slower the better. Once you reached a lot of time a position in an opening, and you know what you did ( and why you did that) in the past, then you obviously can move faster those moves.

My personal hint its to play turn based games. Tey allow you not only to think, but also to open a book and check opening databases. So if you are in an unknown position you can stop, Study, understand and then move with good undestanding of the tantics of that position. That way the next time you play a fast game there are chances you remember what you did, but if you havent studied, what are the chanches that you are sure about what to do?

So my 2 cents are: "play less fast games, and play more turn based games".

The question is about improving in fast games, when you feel that you play OK in slow games and not OK in fast games. I understand this.

So suppose you play well in slow games, but not in fast games, what do you do to improve in fast games? Certainly not play less fast games. On the contrary, play more fast games. Push your speed up.

In my opinion it is mainly a question of tactics and fast calculation. I think that the positional elements do not require much processing power. When you grasp the positional elements in slow games, you probably grasp them also in fast games.

What you have to do is tactical trainer, tactical videos, and play faster. Give priority to speed in your games. Dare to follow your instincts.. Make sure that you do never lose on time, only on move quality and continue to increase your move quality under time pressure. Chess tempo is also a great tool.

Indeed, very good advice from @Pellick, above.

Also consider playing Blitz with the explicit goal of exchanging all your pieces in order to reach a "level endgame."  Whenever you achieve such an outcome against a stronger opponent, consider it a "near victory" for yourself.

Your playing strength will likely improve proportionaly, and along the way (pari pasu).  Simple.

P.S. Add a 5 second bonus time (or increment) to whatever game speed you choose.  That will help you to reach the end of the game "on the board," instead of "on the clock."

Anatoly Karpov says people play too much blitz games. Longer games matter. (often 90 min. and 30 sec for every move)

Possible, but the question is how to get better at it.

I'm not sure about advocating immediate exchanges.  I think that will lead to bad habits (and if their opponents are stronger they'll just lose the endgames over and over anyway).

I 2nd that for sure.  At first getting to an endgame a point or piece or up against a better player gave me a sense of accomplishment.  But lately my repeated losses in the endgame in this scenerio are really pissing me off.  

Solve alot of chess puzzles.

oh okay.. thanks

doctorjimmy wrote:

Also, you can play 5+2 time controls, since it's in the same rating group as 5 min.

Thank you, I went from 5 to 5/5, and already can see the difference.