This is a common sense guide to blitz chess. In practical-advice blogs, as in life, there are no guarantees and readers are cautioned to rely on their own judgement about their individual circumstances and to act accordingly.
Tip #1 – The Best Move is Faster than the Fastest Move
I remember my first chess tournament. I was 15 years old, playing for my school. I had already won the first game in a breeze. And so I was pretty confident before the start of the second one. It was a long game – 1,5 hrs for each player. There were about 100 of us playing in that room, and I was on the first table near the entrance. My opponent was going to be someone named Amar Kamat. But he was late. The game had already started, and he wasn't there yet. I waited, and waited... and finally, this schoolboy with his red colored backpack and yellow t-shirt entered and we started the game. He had only 5 minutes against my 1 hour 30 minutes. This was going to be easy :)
He played fast, and so did I. I did not want him to have the luxury of thinking about his moves while I thought about mine. As the game progressed, I got a bad feeling; something about the confidence with which he moved his pieces worried me. But I continued anyway with my plan of beating him on the clock. He only had 2 minutes left compared to my 1 hour 27 minutes. However, as you can probably guess, he checkmated me easily with plenty of time to spare. I later found out that he was actually the #1 seed of the tournament, and went on to win it too. I came 8th.
So what did I do wrong? I didn't play good moves. I made a rookie mistake of trying to match his speed instead of using my time advantage to play strong chess. Playing fast is only good if you play well. It's much better to take your time and play a slower but stronger move as that requires the opponent to spend time thinking about how to respond. The only exception to this rule is if you are in time trouble as well.
If your opponent has very little time – play strong moves that force him to think. The strongest move is the fastest move because it kills his time.
Don't simplify the position if you don't need to. Don't allow him to play easy moves. Surprise him. Threaten him. Force him to make a mistake out of desperation, and then simply stay calm and win.
Tip #1 – The Best Move is Faster than the Fastest Move
I remember my first chess tournament. I was 15 years old, playing for my school. I had already won the first game in a breeze. And so I was pretty confident before the start of the second one. It was a long game – 1,5 hrs for each player. There were about 100 of us playing in that room, and I was on the first table near the entrance. My opponent was going to be someone named Amar Kamat. But he was late. The game had already started, and he wasn't there yet. I waited, and waited... and finally, this schoolboy with his red colored backpack and yellow t-shirt entered and we started the game. He had only 5 minutes against my 1 hour 30 minutes. This was going to be easy :)
He played fast, and so did I. I did not want him to have the luxury of thinking about his moves while I thought about mine. As the game progressed, I got a bad feeling; something about the confidence with which he moved his pieces worried me. But I continued anyway with my plan of beating him on the clock. He only had 2 minutes left compared to my 1 hour 27 minutes. However, as you can probably guess, he checkmated me easily with plenty of time to spare. I later found out that he was actually the #1 seed of the tournament, and went on to win it too. I came 8th.
So what did I do wrong? I didn't play good moves. I made a rookie mistake of trying to match his speed instead of using my time advantage to play strong chess. Playing fast is only good if you play well. It's much better to take your time and play a slower but stronger move as that requires the opponent to spend time thinking about how to respond. The only exception to this rule is if you are in time trouble as well.
If your opponent has very little time – play strong moves that force him to think. The strongest move is the fastest move because it kills his time.
Don't simplify the position if you don't need to. Don't allow him to play easy moves. Surprise him. Threaten him. Force him to make a mistake out of desperation, and then simply stay calm and win.
1 kommentti:
Good thanks for advice.
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