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 Winning blitz techniquesOk.Where does TA begin? First of all,I love blitz both OTB and corresp.Been doing it for as long as I can remember.I've been on all the major blitz sites over the years and play blitz at the club level and at places like Washington Sq Park in NYC,usually during the summer.For now,however,i'm going to give you some ideas on corresp blitz,not OTB blitz winning ideas.I have gained a very high rating in blitz doing things that may,at first appear unusual or unintellgent(dumb?)but I still win...now why would that be? Lets begin with your mouse!This can make or break you!I've had players that were winning a game against me but lost on time,or drop pieces on the wrong square due to an erratic mouse pointer movements or simply using the wrong "type"of mouse.Sometimes you have to experiment with several designs and WEIGHTS of the mouse before finding the one that works best for you.The one I got with my computer was very ergonomic but was too light in weight which caused overshoots on the squares and less controlled movements in fast paced blitz...like 5 minutes or less.Also mouse pointer speed setting can be adjusted.Sometimes a setting like on level 5 can give you even more erratic/less stable movements on the chess board screen.I personally use an very cheap mouse that does a better job(for me)than the best professional and expensive gaming mouse designs on the market.Don't need bells and whistles! Its a Memorex model MX4200.Fast,simple,clean and weighted just right for me.It definitely adds speed and time to my game with precision movement.Its probably around 10 dollars US for this mouse.Also forget the mouse pads when playing blitz.A solid,clean and hard surface like a wood laminate surface is best.Stretching your fingers and wrist a bit before playing circulates the blood better and loosens your hand up.Its very easy to end up with "finger"freeze,especially in the endgame of blitz. Well,i'll get back to more things on blitz.I have a thousand things to write as I get into the games.But for starters,here is just one of my past GK posts on blitz that I copied and pasted that you might find interesting.... "In my opinion,it all boils down to how much time the blitz game is set to relative to what type of opening or defense you play.If a game is 5 to 10 minutes,I generally play solid lines that I have memorized like the Ruy,Queens Indian and some English lines.If the game is say,3 or 4 minutes I tend to go out of book as quickly as possible with either a Trompowski as white or 1.b4(Sokolsky)Opening as white.In 3 or 4 minute games as black,I prefer a Basman Defense 1.e4,g5.All of these openings move out of book fairly quickly which tends to shead an advantage for me to the "unwary"who do not know how to handle such unusual openings in only 3 or 4 minutes.In 1 or 2 minutes,I either do the same or play ultra strange openings like the sodium attack 1.Na3 followed by 2.Nh3 regardless of what black does in the opening....later to spring the knights into action from the side files which are "mentally displaced"alot of times by my opponent since knights are usually not kept on the end files....a pyschological ploy.In a one minute lightning game,I have won many times by moving ALL my pawns to the 3rd rank as white creating a big wall.The advantage of this is that it requires next to zero response time and no thinking involved whatsoever.Even if my opponent manages to capture some pieces due to this weak opening,his "think time"is usually more than mine,and he still does not have enough time to mate me...so he times-out!Its all a strategy depending upon the blitz time set up.With incremental time,well,alot of this does not always work,but some of the things I mentioned will still work.On xxxxxxx where I play alot of blitz,there is zero increment,so you can play as strange and wild as you want and many times time-out opponents with odd types of strategy.Lots of fun." So playing games out of book can definitely give you a psychological edge,especially ones that you have practiced on using a tabletop computer or chess program on the lower/mid settings.In many cases my opponent will play by what his mind was programmed to do...play by the proper opening theories of development,but his mind cannot always grasp "unconventional"ways that I thrust infront of him in 3 minutes!Conventional dosen't always "answer"the case to weird or unconventional movements.Why?Because subconsciously,many blitz players have their mind "programmed"for piece pattern recognition,central development and book moves.But what happens if I jumble all this around? Well,sometimes just momentary confusion!!This costs time.And time my opponent does NOT have in 3 to 5 minute blitz with zero increment time settings! I'll be back with more specifics as time goes on.But thought i'd start the ball rolling for the blitz post. ----------------------- oh...I forgot to mention a few things on the mouse.Forget the wireless ones!They are usually not as ultra responsive as the corded ones.Plus,signal blocking can occur from time to time...bad for the game.But giving yourself just the "right amount"of cord and placing a weight on the excess,so that it dosen't pull into your way while playing super fast blitz is key.Also,a wireless mouse can begin to lose battery power later on if you forget to charge it up or replace the batteries in time.Then mouse freezes,skipping,ect will occur in the game.Corded is simply better for fast blitz play,even though many players do not agree with this. |
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dditional blitz thoughts.... Tactics,tactics and more tactics!Thats what blitz is about,especially in lesser time controls of say...5 minutes or less.In summary,your skill set for blitz is mostly the opposite of corresp chess.Blitz places a priority on tactical skills,while corresp chess places a priority on strategical skills,including long term positional skills.The clock ticks down alot faster in blitz.The pressure is much more intense,especially if you play "sudden death". While the two are vastly different, if you improve at one, you will most likely also improve at the other. Tactics are far more important to get right in correspondence chess. The slightest misstep will be punished by your opponent simply because they have all the time they need to analyze all of the variations, and they can also use at least a board to assist them, and in some cases, even a chess engine. In blitz chess, while attacks frequently win the game, unsound moves are not always refuted. This means that if you are able to launch an attack, even at the cost of a piece, your opponent will most likely be forced to burn time in order to avoid mate, and this will give you an advantage on the clock. In terms of long term planning, in correspondence chess, assuming a high level game where tactical blunders will not determine the result, plans become incredibly important. A correspondence game is frequently a battle between two plans while in blitz chess, tactics and the clock rule the day. So overall, correspondence chess is a much higher quality game. Blitz chess is fun and quick (so you can play a lot more games), but in terms of getting better at chess, blitz won't really help you. If you want to improve at blitz, practice tactics and play more blitz! |
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Basic techniques,good,bad and psychological... 2.Do not click on to your piece and then click on it again to release it.That technique is way too slow!Drag and drop!But again,this is where the proper mouse comes into play.Find a mouse with separate right and left click control buttons,and one that is not "too"light touch sensitive,yet not too "hard" to click down on.Make sure the bottom of the mouse is very clean.I use a tiny bit of carbana wax on the mouse bottom before play.Grasp light,not hard....otherwise your fingers will begin to fatigue after a few games and you will actually lose time in the games. 3.Turn your chat off.Chat is a psychological weapon.Sometimes an opponent has pretyped in messages he flags infront of you,distracting you,causing you to lose your train of thought.If you respond back,you lose even more time.Nothing wrong with saying..."hello".But serious players do not even do that!It just cost you 2 or 3 seconds in a 3 minute game!In the end,you might lose on time due to that hello!!!Is that worth it?You decide.Say,thank you and hello AFTER the game!Sometimes I keep my chat on BUT I raise the bottom portion of my window to block out the portion of the chat bar!This way,your opponent who may be trying to distract you(and wasting his own time)cannot affect your game,because you will not be able to see his comments...but HE DOSEN"T KNOW THAT!!!But you can use chat as a psychological weapon if you think your fast enough and good enough against your opponent and do the same thing.So,its up to you! 4.Rocket push those pawns and other pieces.I mentioned drag and drop.But there is a technique where you can click/push the pawn/other pieces simultaneously,fast and recklessly forward IF you know that the piece to be moved can only move straight FORWARD one square and is "blocked"ahead by another piece,in most instances your own piece.So in other words,you cannot "overshoot"the piece,so THROW it recklessly forward.This actually can reduce your clock movement time down to next to zero.It takes practice,believe me! 5.If your close to the end of a blitz game,and you have,for example,10 seconds left on the clock and your opponent has,say,15 seconds left on the clock,begin to push pawns,kick your King around a bit(if you can)and even reverse play a Knight into the same position a few times,BUT extremely fast.Use my system in # 4 above.The same if your opponent has a few seconds LESS than you,but he has you in a mating net.It is a technique to time-out your opponent,even if he is many times up alot of material or is about to mate you. Here is a psychological tactic I use alot in blitz.Its a weak opening,but has a tactical sting,if black does not respond correctly(and many times does not!): This is called the "Sodium Attack" Now,what would you do as black?Many,many of my blitz opponents fall for my psychological tactic and capture either one or BOTH of my Knights with their Bishops on c8 and f8.Is that what you would probably do?Now why do they do this?Several reasons.They are going by "learned"chess theory that says...Knights are better than Bishops in tactical play,Bishops are worth a bit more in many endgames because they can reach farther and attack at better distances.Other reasons are that by taking my Knights early in the game,they have doubled both my pawns on the a and h files causing what appears to them to be a true weakness as they have learned in some theory in books,forums or actual play.Ahhhh...but in Blitz,theory changes a bit as compared to corresp play! Notice the diagram below..... With say,the following moves in an actual GK blitz game I played after move #5 1.Na3,e5 2.Nh3,Bxa3 3.bxa3,d5 4.d4,Bxh3 5.gxh3 Now,do you notice anything? Yes,the b and g files are wide open!In blitz and to some extent,even in long corresp games,open files are a big weakspot for black,atleast in this style of game/opening.Whites Rooks can apply big pressure when moved to b1 and g1.So it becomes a better strategic "gamble"to have whites Knights taken.By mid or endgame those rooks,even with black moving his pawns to b6 or g6 is not as good for black.Blacks BETTER move would have been to NOT CAPTURE whites Knights at all!!!!Play something else,but do not capture those Knights!Advanced theory also states that doubled pawns in the opening have only a small fraction of percentage disadvantage as opposed to doubled pawns in the endgame or in the center of the board(see my post on doubled pawns). One final note on the sodium: Those Knights if not captured is a double psychological weapon.Why?Because many players brains are not wired for opening game knights placed on edge files.very rare indeed.So,its a psychological distraction.How many times have they "focused"on central control(following that theory again!)and momentarily forgot under time constraint pressure those edge file Knights...who now will suddenly "spring"from the side files and plow into the 4th or 5th rank in enemy territory causing double checks or captures?Believe me,it happens alot! TA |
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Breakdown of the time cycles: But oddly enough,it can be classified under the "blitz" heading.At the club,all I can say is that when someone says he wants to play a lightning game,then that would define a game that is from 1 to 3 minutes,not 5 minutes long.Where the confusion is,I believe,is that lightning chess can have a fixed time control of 10 seconds per move,which THEN can result in the game exceeding 3 minutes,but can be "capped"at 5 minutes!Confusing,right? Heres the Wiki breakdown,so do your own chin scratching!: ■According to Wikipedia:. ■Rapid or Quick: 15 to 60 minutes per player, sometimes with a small time increment per move (e.g. 10 seconds).[1]. ■Blitz: 15 minutes or less per side. Usually sudden death (no increment), but may also be played with a small increment. More recently due to the influx of digital clocks, 3 minutes with a 2-second add is also preferred.[1]. ■Bullet: 1 to 3 minutes per side. The time control for this setting is 2 minutes with a 1-second add or 1 minute with a 2-second add. The term "Lightning" can also be applied to this variant.. ■Lightning is a term used for either Blitz or Bullet chess, and is a general term for extremely fast chess. It can also refer to games with a fixed time (e.g. ten seconds) for each move. This also can be used for 1-minute games.. ■Armageddon: a game guaranteed to produce a result, because Black has draw odds (that is, for Black, a draw is equal to a victory). To compensate, White has more time on the clock. Common times are 6 minutes for White and 5 for Black, or 5 minutes for White and 4 for Black. This can also be played with a small increment. This is also known as "time odds" and it is used in various tie breaks for quick tournaments. But interesting,here is "another" wiki definition of lightning which states lightning is 3 minutes or below!(i'm just copying and pasting these things directly from their site): Classification The amount of time given to each player to complete their moves will vary from game to game. However most games tend to change the classification of tournaments according to the length of time given to the players.[1] Shorter time limits, which do not afford due consideration to moves, are afforded a lesser degree of importance. Indeed shorter limits are normally given special names to distinguish them. "Lightning" is the quickest limit, then 'blitz'. Chess has an 'active' category after this. In chess, Lightning refers to 3 minutes or below, blitz refers to between 4 and 15 minutes, and Active is between 15 and 30. By way of contrast, for Go anything under twenty minutes could be considered blitz. In terms of chess ratings, 30 minutes is considered to be both blitz (fast chess) and long (slow chess) at the same time as it affects both ratings. So you can see a slight flux of opinion.However,I tend to go by 1 minute for lightning,1 to 3 minutes for bullet(the term interchangable with lightning but including the 1 minute definition),4 to 15 minutes for blitz and then Rapid-15 to 60 minutes. If you look at it realistically,lightning moves at the speed of light and would be faster than a bullet,so then lightning would appear the most logical of choices when someone wants to play the "quickest" chess game,which then WOULD be 1 to 3 minutes. |
