Why do Blitz players play like hustlers?

Yes, I've been noticing that when their queen+bishop attack is thwarted, they struggle with the next moves.  And when I trade 3 point pieces to open up the board and force doubled pawns, these guys are sometimes just grasping at straws.

Good point.  I'm finding that I have to find forks and pins very quickly.  Facing a queen out in the field somehow ends up turning into great opportunities for me. 

I'm 50-50 overall, but my most recent games I've been winning more like 80% of the time.

I actually recently started teaching kids chess in an afterschool program, so I'm very eager to learn and fill in gaps in my playing.  These "bad" games might make a good portfolio to share with the kids.  They love bringing out the queen and rook right away. 

Just play rated games. It gets you players of similar standard as yourself after a while.

Thank you this was good advice.  I found someone rated a little over 1300 and we had a couple of real games.  I told him I'd give him props here for actually  playing and for knowing a fork isn't just an eating utensil.  His name is Cocky-Conseeded and he put up a good fight.  We played a 4|0 that I lost on time (although he had the advantage) and a 15|0 that I won on mate.  So I'm going to continue stepping up my opponents to step up my game.

Don't worry if your opponent brings out the Queen early, since you will be able to gain tempi against it and obtain a substantial lead in developement which should translate into a material advantage in time.

If I recall correctly, 2. h5 was Nakamura's weapon of choice for awhile on ICC in bullet. It may not be for me but it apparently can be made to work by the right kind of player...and he was playing guys with ratings around his.

blitz is in my crude german lightning...

viz a viz , one should expect brute quick lightning reflexes as opposed to slow surgically precise chess..

of course this has its merits and demerits

I find blitz chess allows me to try out new and sometimes obscure ideas. also by the nature of the time controls, it tends to favour tactically inclined players as opposed to positional players. consequently blitz will allow you to "get the feel" of new and sometimes not so new positions. this can be transferred to over the board chess where unorthodox and sometimes chaotic positions dont look so scary any more..

moral; take the positive out of any situation.

Thanks for your insight.  Most games I won were on tactical decisions, and I'm mostly winning at the moment.  But maybe most of my losses were because I failed to prevent my opponent from setting up a good position against me.

One way to get better at chess is to play more games.

Another is to analyze them. Find weaknesses in your opponents moves.

Have fun. It's only a game.

This is because most of the people you play are trying to get cheap rating points by getting you 'out of book' early on. Just be patient and play a bit longer time control. I prefer 3 minutes + 5 seconds but 10+5 is not unusual on this site, which gives you plenty of time (in blitz) to formulate a positional plan.

However if you really want to play chess to learn then 15 minutes is the shortest time control you should play and you should save all your games and go over them critically, both losses and wins. Probably a good idea to use a chess engine to help analyse them (you can get Deep Rybka and Winboard free from Resources/Downloads as well as a couple of other freebies).

But to really improve your skills and understanding you should play rated live tournament chess. It makes a huge difference. However it does cost money, you have to join a federation and pay an entrance fee BUT that means you have a stake in the game, and you can win prizes as well.

I don't know why but the brain seems to go into overdrive when you face another person across a real board and pieces. Probably something to do with not making an idiot of yourself in front of another human being rather than a computer screen. And then the clock starts to run and the butterflies in your stomach go very quiet because they're too damn scared to flutter about! Oh yes, nothing like it; but you will definitely improve.

Yea I don't really see how taking someone out of book early and then winning results in "cheap rating points".   Dragging someone out of their book comfort zone forces them to actually play some chess instead of reciting moves from memory.  If a person can't handle it and blunders while navigating through a new position that he may not have anticipated, he deserves to lose the game, and the rating points. 

There is no such thing as cheap rating points when it comes to this sort of thing, only people who can and cannot play chess (well).

Those who play blitz only really can't play chess... chess takes thought and strategy, not continual checks making your opponent waste time.

no idea

they are trying to rattle you on time

guess so :)

blitz is a fundamentally different game than the long game.  until you accept that, it will be difficult.  play the opponent and the clock and adapt to both.  incidentally, quick games (1 min.) help my blitz and blitz helps my long, long helps my blitz.. and so on.  but to play a blitz the same way as a long game is a mistake i think.  moving the queen early is disruptive to conventional strategy, and you should think the same way when approaching your opponent, but in a 5 min. game sound fundamentals should still win it for you. 

real blitz is not fundamentally different from chess, many lower-rated players will know a trap or two that they try to use, and the players rated below that will get pieces out that they know can be used in a trap tho they aren't sure how to put it together; at the higher levels blitz players may play more standard lines more often, but that's about the only difference

if you're having trouble with the queen, look at your old games and see what worked and what it didn't, you should be able to figure out just how easy it is to block out early queens this way pretty quickly

Hutstle Bustle 9 to 5 says Dolly.  Blitz is chess!