Blitz

Hello How can I improve my blitz rating ? I'm not talking about playing a lot of games, though that for sure must be taken into account, but strategy wise ? maybe specific openings ? Any precise advice is welcome. Thank you so much

I may not be the greatest example for advice, but here’s mine:
- On strategy, focus on not blundering, it’s ridiculous how far that can get you, And if your opponent hasn’t made a terrible mistake that move, then just slowly put your pieces on better and better squares, until something breaks
- On openings, I’d suggest learn one or two for each color, and understanding them deeply. Studying exact lines you seem to commonly get may help long term also, some openings I suggest are the Caro-Kann, the French, the London, and the Vienna
- Also some additional advice, playing puzzles really helps, at least it did for me. But spend a lot of time on them, and try to get all 3 correct, or do more if you end up getting a membership.
- Most importantly though, is to enjoy the game. Otherwise it can become a disheartening slog of “how long until I’m not tilted anymore”

Anyways, hope this helps :)

Hi there,

I am rated over 2400 online (https://www.chess.com/member/ppandachess). I created a free course that will teach you a training plan to improve. Feel free to check it out: https://www.panda-chess.com/daily-improvement-plan

Sadly I think that playing a lot of games in blitz is the fastest way you'll see improvement so there's no shortcuts. You could try and learn some tricky oppenings that your opponents will fall for early on but on blitz you will rely heavily on pattern recognition and tactics instead of long term stategies which more often than not come from time spent playing hundreds or thousands of games in said format.

I'd also point out that you will be playing significantly stronger opponents when you play blitz, since it has a stronger pool of players; on average, your rapid rating will be about 300-400 rating points higher than your blitz, so you should take that into account when comparing your ELOs between formats.

From what I see when I check your profile you're doing pretty great. I'd stick to rapid until 1500 and then start grinding blitz since by then you'd probably have built a strong intuition of what's happening in most positions.

Thank you all so much for your responses, I'll do my best !

chopm on hanging pieces