The Art of the Blitz - Last Tips

Stick to the basics
Don't try to play chess that's too fancy for you. You have been playing for many years, and what you are today is a result of all those years of hard work. Rely on that experience, and stick to basic simple chess.

Stick to familiar territory
Play your openings the way you know how to. Direct the games towards positions that you are familiar with. If your opponent surprises you in the opening, take a calm step back and re-assess your options. Typically, I would avoid going deeper into his opening territory even though it's probably the best move. Instead, I would play a safe move that allows him a mild positional edge, which is fine as long as I take out most of the opening traps that he might have planned.

Keep an eye on the clock
Remember to have the mental flexibility to change your plans as the game progresses. Having a time edge is a big advantage in the last 1-2 minutes because of the flexibility it offers you - e.g. if you suddenly find yourself in a disadvantageous position you can keep up the pressure by prolonging the game in an attempt to win on time.

Keep up the intensity
Players are drained after so many games, especially on Day 2. Your biggest edge is in simply boosting your own intensity and mental alertness. On day 2, depending on the situation, some players might be mentally shattered as a result of having lost almost all of their games. You should search for this emotion in their body language and capitalize on it by exuding calm confidence and creating that aura of invincibility that will make him subconsciously expect to lose to you.

Shake it off
It's easier said than done, but one of the keys to success in the mega-blitz tournaments is to shake off the bad feeling from a loss. It doesn't matter if you screwed up. It doesn't matter if you should have won but lost it. Life goes on. Shake it off and out of your head so you can focus with the intensity of a tiger for the next game.

Enjoy the game
Last but not least. None of us are champions or anything. There's nothing significant on the line for us.. so just enjoy the game, respect your opponents, and have fun. But remember to stay focused and intense.

Tip #3 - Don't Admire Your Opponent
Tip #2 - Never Lose the Option to Win on Time
Tip #1 - The Best Move is Faster than the Fastest Move 

The Art of the Blitz - Tip #3

Don't Admire Your Opponent
There is a phenomenon in all sport, and especially in chess, which I will call as the "aura-effect". It's when you have so much admiration for your opponent, that you don't notice their blunders, and you sometimes even allow them to magically win from a hopeless position.

You have to look no further than the last two World Chess Championships to find the aura effect taking its toll on some of the world's best players.

In 2016 Game 10 Carlsen - Karjakin, Karjakin was leading in the match, meaning a draw would be a great result for him. Yet, on two successive moves (moves 20 and 21), he missed something that the even chess commentators had spotted - a chance to force a draw. Most experts say this is due to "nerves" or other vague reasons. But for me the reason is clear: Karjakin did not truly believe that he deserved to win, and he admired Carlsen so much that he failed to notice his blunder.

In 2014 Game 6 Carlsen - Anand, Anand missed a tactic (move 26) that would have probably won him the game. Again, experts were eager to pin this down to his old age and all sorts of silly reasons. But to me, it's clear: Anand did not truly believe that he deserved to win, and he admired Carlsen so much that he failed to notice his blunder.

In my own chess, I observe the aura-effect playing a role in many of my games. Especially in games where the opponent is significantly higher or lower rated than me. I have a tendency to squander winning positions against high-rated opponents, and lower-rated players tend to overlook my blunders more than they would ordinarily.

I've had many experiences when I play a series of games with a lower-rated opponent whose style happens to be especially effective against me. I often win the first one or two games with a bit of help from my opponent... but eventually he wins one, and then his self-belief grows, and his chess play improves too, making it harder and harder to beat him. Essentially, he admired me at first (and lost like he expected to), but then he realized I was a pretty crappy player and started to beat me (like he believed he ought to).

Summary:

• Players play better when they believe they deserve to win. They're calmer, more precise, and spot blunders more easily.
• Players play worse when they don't believe they deserve to win. They're more likely to let their opponent get away with blunders, and are more willing to make blunders themselves.

Simply being conscious of this psychological effect is a good starting point. It allows you to recognize what's happening and help you strengthen your resolve to overcome it.

My advice: 

1. Don't admire your opponent.
2. Play like you deserve to win.

Doing this will help you spot blunders more easily, and will help you stay calm enough to convert advantages into wins.

Tip #2 - Never Lose the Option to Win on Time
Tip #1 - The Best Move is Faster than the Fastest Move 

The Art of the Blitz - Tip #2

Never Lose the Option to Win on Time
My blitz rating is much higher than my standard rating. I tend to be able to punch above my weight in the shorter format. Last year, I won four out of the six games I played against titled players. Out of the 100 or so blitz games I have played in these big tournaments (5 minute 0 increment), I have lost only one on time. I should also mention that I don't have the quickest hand action either; I'm definitely slower as a piece mover than Tero or Petr, for instance.

But what I do have is experience playing tens of thousands of high speed games online. And from that experience, the best tip I can share is that you should never lose the option to win a game on time.

If you find yourself in a position where you have a comfortable advantage (maybe a few pawns or a piece up), but the only way you can win is if you manage to checkmate your opponent within the next 20 seconds, then you have done something horribly wrong with your time / game plan management.

If you are winning a game, it is an absolute crime and a tragedy to lose it on time. Don't let the weaker player beat you like that!

So how does one achieve this? It takes three things -
1. Self-awareness
2. Game Plan Methodology
3. Practice

Self-awareness is important because you need to know what your key strengths and weaknesses as a player are. For instance, I am good at getting small positional advantages but am bad at executing tactics.

This understanding helps with the second point of having a game plan methodology. Every chess game involves a game plan choice. If you're winning, you can either go all in for the checkmate, or you can liquidate your advantage and simplify into a winning endgame. If you're losing, you can try to complicate the position, or you can try to out-gun your opponent on time. There are many other options as well besides these of course. But the key is to figure out which plan you should have, and at what point you should switch plans.

In my case, because of my positional strength and tactical weakness, I typically attempt to maintain a good position and use that to slowly pressure my opponent on time, and then win. But if my opponent has managed to get ahead of me on time, then I will usually try to liquidate my advantage for a simple position that I can play quickly even if it means having to make many moves to finally win. The important thing to note when adopting this plan is to be decisive and alert about when to switch to it so that you have enough time to execute it. Typically you should switch to this kind of plan when you have at least 1 minute to spare. As far as middle game checkmates go, I rarely attempt to execute one. And if I do, I do so only if I have a lot of confidence in its success and a lot of time (so that I have a backup option to win on time in case something goes wrong).

The last point is common sense - practice. Test out your time management / game plan methodology. Practice was particularly critical for me because I had played most of my chess online where it was possible to play ten moves in one second. So I needed to re-calibrate my internal time management clock to figure out when to adopt a certain plan.

I will end by saying that each player is different, and your unique strengths and weaknesses, and even your attitude to chess should be the driving force behind your personal blitz strategy. If you would like help figuring out the plan that works best for you, feel free to reach out to me - ashwin26@gmail.com

Tip #1: The Best Move is Faster than the Fastest Move

The Art of the Blitz - Tip #1

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.