Help with Blitz

14,000 one minute games, played until both players run down the clock, 2 minutes total, is roughly 466 hours or 11.6 work weeks at 40 hours per week. That's a lot of practice! Now, if you are still taking walks after your morning chess sessions, that's a lot of healthy exercise as well. This steady mental and physical activity will keep your mind as sharp as that of a youngster.

I don't even know what the point of a 1-min game is. 5-min is bad enough (and I have been horrid at it since the 1970s) and seems to measure how fast I can find a legal move before hitting a clock. The kids at the club all love it, but I pass as often as I can.

I received a helpful e-mail from Dan Heisman. He mentioned that criticality assessment is a very important part of time management, and directed me to some of his Novice Nooks on the subject.

He also mentioned that visualization is an important part of analysis, and asked if I was aware of Chess Visualization by Ian Anderson. I was not. The book is out of print at Amazon, but I was able to get it as an e-book at www.chessvisualization.com.

The exercises in this book are exactly what I need, since I can't see much past 3 to 4 moves in my head, and even performing that task is difficult, and slow. The exercises in the book go from 4 to 12+ ply. I can't imagine seeing a 12 move variation in my head.  Wow! 

I've watched Ziryab and others play bullet. I have also watched IM's and GM's play bullet over at ICC, many times. When I first saw bullet chess, I thought that maybe it was of a very low quality, but after running several games through Fritz or Houdini, I was amazed at the level of accuracy.

I have also made this observation. After a stretch of 3 minute games with the same opponent, the IM's and GM's like to finish the session, playing the same opponent, in bullet.

It's hard to find the same guys playing 5 0 on the internet. The time control of 3 0 seems to be the sweet spot. Funny thing, watching 3 0 games looks slow, especially after watching bullet. I guess it's like driving a car down a long straight freeway at 70 mph, then driving around town at 35 mph. It feels like a crawl.

Last, Garry Kasparov once said that his playing strength during blitz is only 100 elo below his slow play elo.

This past Tuesday, I watched an IM at our club play a "normal person" in a 1-min game. The IM tore him to pieces and mated him and had 25 seconds left on his clock!!! It was a miracle to behold, but I don't really feel a sense of inadequacy for not being able to replicate it.

Excellent post. Thank you.

"In blitz, I never calculate. Well, almost never. Everything is pattern recognition, thousands of patterns." - Ziryab

This quote goes along with what you have been saying, "Once you play enough slow games to know how to play a position, you can play well quickly since you are making many of your moves - and plans - from memory ("I know how to play this position!")." - Dan Heisman

A local chess club to go to with an IM? That's pretty cool. My town is really small, with the strongest players rated at Expert.

I would be thinking, how did the IM checkmate the normal guy in 35 seconds? From what I have been reading here and from Dan Heisman, it happened super fast because the IM was playing, maybe as much as 99% from memory.

So, the more patterns we can store in our brains, the less time spent on the mundane task of arithmetic, chess calculation.

If more of our time is free from this math task in a G60 game, just think of the extra time gained for doing the more interesting chess stuff, like coming up with a really slick plan?

I can't have aged that much these past few months... but blitz is really starting to feel like this, and it's a bit disappointing because I used to find speed chess to be a lot of fun :(

I don't know...1919 was a long time ago.

If your win/loss ratio has gotten worse, consider playing faster, i.e.,10 0 to 5 0, 5 0 to 3 0. This may adjust your rating downward, giving you a better win/loss ratio. Now, I've looked at stats where a person's rating gets better the faster he plays. Maybe his greatest strength is pattern recognition. My rating gets lower the faster I play, which I guess would suggest that my pattern recognition is one of my bigger weaknesses.

No one wants to lose every game. A lower rating will make you more competitive, and make blitz more fun. Winning more games could have a positive impact on your rating over time. My little bit of chess psychology.

My thinking has slowed significantly while on medications for lower back pain. I had to either keep losing too much at blitz, or try playing faster. After switching from 10 0 to 5 0, my rating dropped 200 points. I then added a 5 second increment so that I don't lose on time anymore. My win/loss ratio has improved, and more important for now, I am having fun again.

My Turn-based rating is the highest

In Turn-based chess, I can use the knowledge gained from the reading I've done on positional chess. I don't have the time to use this knowledge in fast games.

This is good stuff.

Honestly Musik, you gotta stop overthinking these things... 

During visualization training, I also like to stare at a pawn until it disappears. It's a wonderful morning meditation, a clearing of the mind. That would be the opposite of overthinking, since the object of the exercise is to empty one's mind.

Does this actually work?  With my luck I'd stare at my breakfast until it disappeared...

I can only so that with shiny things.

I am appalled that the posters are not taking this seriously! and so i would like to offer the obvious solution. It is proven that as a body increases in velocity- time dilates- which is percieved as slowing down and so i would recommend running on a treadmill or a a staionary bike going as fast as you can in front of your computer- this should create the perception of time slowing w/o physical movement- if this si not enough - you could try driving in your car as fast as you can( the closer to the speed of light the better) if you cant keep a good connection in your car a centrifuge machine would work nicely- good luck!

I'll try to help you with your morning chess meditations, because you simply can't look six to eight moves ahead and see a position clearly without this ability!  Which image is easier to make disappear, a fantastic four super hero or a queen? That is your morning assignment. Enjoy!

BTW - I watched this movie with my kids tonight. Marvel Comics and creator/writer Stan Lee rocks!

Absolutely brilliant! Has anyone tried playing Live Chess with their iPad or iPhone while exercising? I know that chess.com has an app for this. If anything, more oxygen would be going to the brain, improving analytical output.

Approaching the speed of light while playing blitz chess sounds uncomfortable, as I would grow closer to becoming infinitely massive. Actually, that sounds quite painful!

So we can combine chess.com with exercise.com?

Please don't give Leader Erik any more bright ideas.

chesxersise.com!