Bullet Game Strategy

hi prawns....i really play much differently although I still adhere to basic strategy and tactics, positional play, but you can use time to your advantage unlike long games. 

My tip would be to buy a better mouse where when you click on a square your piece actually moves to that square. Or if the mouse is not the problem, then practicing faster mouse moves would be in order I suppose. I've lost so many games in winning positions just because of time.

If you're not using the boomslang 2000:

You might want to consider a slower timer control.

Hm i am 1550ish for 1 0, where you can do sneaky things like irrational checks, just to disrupt your opponent's plan and premoves.  Many players will just push pawns, or move a bishop back and forth. In that case, develop your pieces to good squares, castle, and try pushing pawns towards his king.

Also, make sure you have auto-queen promote, so if you have 10 sec in a Q+K vs K, you can do it without wasting time clicking on the queen.

Premoving is  critical in bullet games.  The idea is to plan/see certain combinations ahead that are essentially inevitable or not dangerous and premove accordingly.  Saves precious seconds.  

@Loomis, you missed Nb3# one move earlier.

That's how bullet goes for me a lot of times. Because you never stop moving, sometimes you realize a good move at the same time you're moving.

Put in other terms, my search depth is often -1 ply as I'm still trying to figure out what my opponent just played.

Yes, it happens to me too.

I am rated in the 1600s on bullet but I play 2 1, not 1 0. On 2 1 you can't base your game on the clock, you need to make at least reasonably accurate moves, even though it helps to use gambits and play aggressively.

Yes, 2 1 is a much different game. What's interesting is that 1 0 is also a much different game, depending on the interface, lag, and depending on how the site has implemented premove, draw offers, and such.

Well, in 1 0 you cannot rely entirely on the clock. You must also make reasonalbe moves. Sure, in the end, if your opponent is lower on time than you, you can throw away pieces to destroy his premoves. 

I have a rating of about 2100 in 1min and 10sec+1 on another site, its a completely different game than normal chess and some are good at it and some not.

• I always quickly premove recaptures even if I think its unlikely as it is quite often played anyway because your opponent thinks you won't be expecting it. And if it isn't played it doesn't matter as you were thinking about more normal moves and so can reply as normal.
• You have to learn to go with the flow, if you start losing, even badly, you can't pause for a second, you just have to keep going as if nothing has happened and try to make it as difficult as possible for your opponent.
• Try to come up with a speciallized opening just for blitz, but one with good chances. eg As black I come across players that just play Nf3, g3, Bg2, 0-0 no matter what you do to gain time, but you can see that they are going to do this and so play quickly with something like h5-h4 and queenside castling etc. I have a few setups that I would never play in normal time limits but give good attacking chances in such quick time limits.
• Try to play openings that have possible pawn sacs for attacks, then you gain time when they are considering whether to take and if they do as long as your tactics are good you can get plenty more compensation with it than you would have in a normal game.
• Always concentrate on possible checks, even silly ones, they're the ones to gain time with. If they have less time at the end watch for checks and play them yourself as sacs as they have to do something about it whereas a random move can be met by another random premove. For example you are ahead on time with a few seconds left, deliberately hanging your queen can work but quite often they will be premoving anyway with their own crazy moves which will sidetrack you instead. So a rook sac with check is more likely to work as they won't have premoved it and will be confused as to why they're move hasn't worked, when they realize its check you have already followed up with another premove, usually a decent move is good then.
• Auto queen promote
• Always go for improvement rather than the direct path in endings. If you are a few pawns up in the ending you can't really calculate in time so just go slowly...quickly :) Premoves can be good in an ending where your move should be decent against any move your opponent makes, even crazy ones.
• Most importantly of all though, grow very thick skin and learn that you have to do things that would normally be very rude, playing on with just king and pawn against a whole army and winning on time, above mentioned tactics of crazy moves etc.

Wrappedinplastic, Thank you for one of the best posts I've read so far on this string. 

I already do a bunch of things you do.   I like to experiment with obscure openings since it throws my opponents off.   I anticipate combinations and move accordingly.

Also check when I can and take pieces quickly, just to get ahead on the clock.

It is  a much-different kind of game, but suits my busy life right now.   Offline, I enjoy games w/o time limits.  And my son is getting very good at challenging me.

auto-queen-promote... I didn't know they had it. :-) I must set that up. I usually avoid promoting because it takes too long :-)

go to learn opening and solve tactics .best advice

Mccarokann, thanks for the advice.  I am a veteran player but no longer have time to seriously study, analyze, and memorize openings and variations.  I did that as a teenager and loved longer games then.  Now, I enjoy bullet games. 

hartofgold, on real bullet chess, its not about moving fast. dont focus on premoving. actually play chess. Its helped me get my uscf bullet rating of 1900 (coughcoughbrag)

but online, look for premove traps. other than that, just play chess, find patterns uick, and only during ur opponets turn.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/bullet-help-premoving?lc=1#last_comment

fullmetal, good advice.  I'll work more on that. I do look for premove traps and set up in advance defensive/offesnive schemes so I can quickly as often as I can.