Hacker News Reader

Comment by kwikdraw | Hacker News Reader

For mediocre chess players like me I recommend trying online speed chess for a few months. Bullet chess where each player gets a minute total clock is a completely different game where you move every half second on average. Aggressive playing is rewarded - as long as you get your opponent to waste time thinking. The quick play allows you develop a better sense of positioning, game flow, and end game tactics. When you return to normal slow timed chess games after playing bullet for several months you will find that your clock management will be much improved.

View on HN

No, in my experience it forms bad habits such as being severely prone to going for one turn attacks. One turn attacks may be the most common mistake among chess players. Anyone who has learnt to calculate deeper and look for nuances within a position will crush someone who only knows to go for time pressure.

This is true. But the comment above is true as well.

It depends on who you are and where you are at. I have certainly developed a habit for those one-turn attacks you describe. But going from short games back to slow chess and puzzles has been nice because I learned to manage how to think under that pressure.

I’m now learning how to play tennis (another cliché gentleman’s game, I know). What I’m discovering is that it is very similar - there is the simple repetitive and purely textbook aspect of hitting the ball at just the right angle to make it go where you want. And then there is the energy management under time and pressure. So you sort of have to straddle this tension between these two and you gradually descend into just barely holding it together.

My thought here is that ideal chess is very similar. There are the routine strategies, tactics and perfect moves. And then there is this raw impulsive fast paced aspect of just making the least awful move to just survive what is thrown at you with the bits of focus you still have left.

This is the opposite of what every coach I’ve spoken to says. Rather: Do tactics, study basic endgames.

Of course conventional wisdom isn’t always right, but that is the conventional wisdom.

Correct play in longer TCs translate much better to blitz than vice versa.

Faster you do something, more you rely on your instincts, and instincts alone do not further your game -- or anything you strive to be good at really -- you need to be mindfully thinking it through.

It might be beneficial to spice things up, but this is in general not a good advice.

This is very fun but translates very badly to longer time controls in my experience. YMMV though.

I love bullet, but I am 100% it has worsened my rapid/classical game. It has improved my time management though.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com