I’ve been casually enjoying chess off and on for the past year, and while I can tell that I’m improving, I think I need to get faster at calculating. I play mostly Daily games (1300-something currently) and am a puzzle fiend, but I find myself getting into time-trouble constantly when I play games with actual time controls.
I want to get comfortable with blitz, but I feel like I’m not learning as much because I’m just scrambling to get (often terrible) moves out in time. I tried puzzle battle for the first time recently too, and even though my regular puzzle rating is 2500, I’m frequently losing on time once the puzzles get to 1000+ (my avg time per puzzle is usually 0:06-0:08 at the end).
I suspect the answer is just going to be to play more with time controls, but I’m curious if anyone here has found any practice tips that have helped them personally.
Personally, I find blitz is less about pure tactics, and more about making and enforcing a plan, and then the tactics stem from that. A lot of new blitz players will get into the middlegame and not really know what they should be looking for, especially when there simply aren’t any tactics in the position, and that’s where having an opening you know the rough middlegame plans for comes in handy.
For me, as black I play the Pirc or the Czech Benoni. Generally, I know that I’m going to be pushing on the kingside once I’ve closed the position, so I go into it having a clear plan and largely sticking to it. If I blitz those moves out, then suddenly I have more time when I get to the critical position.
I’d compare it to a set play in a sport (e.g. rugby, or American football). The attackers have rehearsed a move to break open the defense and gain an advantage (opening/middlegame strategy), but also need the ability to improvise when they spot a defensive error (tactics), which they can then convert into a score (endgame)
Hopefully that makes sense – feel free to ask if I’ve been unclear.
So basically I might be faster if I take some time to learn more opening theory… That makes sense.
Sort of – it’s more middlegame than opening. That is, more understanding the pawn structure and what it’s aiming for. Daniel Naroditsky is a good youtuber to watch to get a flavour of these kinds of ideas.
I’ll check out his channel, thanks!
Well you’re doing better than me. I’ve been casually playing for 6 years and 1350 in daily is my peak lol.
For me personally, I find Rapid 10 min games are a good in between for being able to manage your time and also perform the necessary calculations. What’s your Rapid rating out of curiosity?
Also you’re using chess.com I assume?
But yeah not that I am qualified to answer your question but I like to do a set of puzzles as a warm up before I start running through games. It seems to help me get into that tactical mindset and I can spot things quicker.
I do really like the rapid time control, it’s just that it’s a longer commitment and harder to find the time/focus for me. In a year of being into chess, I’ve only played 20 rapid games, with my rating sitting at 1170.
Yeah, I’m on chess.com (I know I know, it’s not the FOSS option).
Understandable. I feel the same way about 30 min time controls. Just a bit too much of a time commitment.
Where do you play?
Usually chess.com
The answer is not going to be to play more with time controls but playing long time controls and spending time (maybe years) thinking deeper in lots and lots of different positions until you can calculate well then you will be able to speed it up as you have a lot more knowledge of the positions you get into.
This sounds like good advice. I guess I need to learn my openings well enough to play them quicker and quicker. Reminds me of learning to play something complicated on a musical instrument: you don’t start at full speed, your learn it at a slow tempo first and then speed it up.
