I used to be really awful at Blitz, too. The time pressure got to me and I'd make blunder after blunder, and miss obvious checkmates. When I learned to take some time to gather myself, and not worry to much about the time, I got better.
As for your opening dilemma, really the only thing you can do is study openings. You never know what your opponent might pull off, so try to learn as many as you can.
Play 1 minute bullets and you'll see what types of mistakes you make most. Correct them.
What is the best way to get better at blitz chess?
I usually play 5 min blitz 5 second increments, and I usually lose to very low ratings. I make too many blunders, and sometimes sometimes I am unsure of what to do in openings(during correspondence chess, I usually use database if I'm unsure)
Thanks in advance
Im in the same boat. I am terrible at blitz.
I think being good at blitz has to do with how long you have been playing (and how much blitz you have played). My teacher a veteran NM can go on par with IMs on ICC and beat GMs ounce in a while, but would not be able to do so OTB. Note my teacher likes to play chess by "feel" and doesn't like calculating.
Do you care about getting better at chess as well, or just improving at blitz?
IMO, the best way to improve at blitz in a hurry is to play the same junk openings, over and over, and over the course of several weeks, REALLY begin to internalize the recurring tactics.
Play something like a BDG heavy repertoire as white...maybe a BDG/Tromp combo, which should cover 90% of games you start as white. Learn junk gambits against the French and CK, for those spoilsports.
As black, play something like the Grob against 1.e4, and the Polish against 1.d4, and immediately abort every game against any other white first move.
After your games, save them on an engine, and check out where you missed tactical shots. Do your best to remember them. Play over them occasionally, and see if you can find the wins.
Will you chess actually improve like this? Well, your tactical ability probably will, but for the most part, you'll never be better than a 1500 or so player. Yet, your results will probably be much higher, since you'll know your territory a lot better than most of your opponents, and time pressure will mean your memorized tactical ability will be stronger than your opponents' chess skill in a majority of games. You'll still get creamed in a bunch of games, but you'll win a lot more too.
Practice practice practice and tactics tactics tactics, and no reason you couldn't rise to 1800-2000 in a couple months' time. Of course the rating would be inflated, your chess skill wouldn't really improve all that much, and you'd still be slaughtered by any competent players at longer time controls. But if all you want is the thrill of racking up some wins against good competition at 5 minute time controls on ICC, you could develop a worse strategy.
@tupeloproblem: I laughed when I read your post because it is quite true. All the strong blitz players at my club play offbeat dubious openings and are quite good at tactics.
Or you could just play the same good openings in a lot of blitz games, sure it will require some more work but this way you'll improve overall as well.
I noticed recently a friend of mine dropped from about a 1400 rating to about
a 1200 rating and he has played thousands of blitz games here.
I guess it is possible to develop bad habits while playing blitz chess.
Hi friends,
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The thing that has improved my blitz and bullet the most (not that I play them often), and my chess in general, is the tactics trainer. Playing longer games and analyzing (without computer aid the first time you go through the games) them also helps a lot.
Opening repertoires are a whole different story. I can't answer this well, since I only play the Scandinavian as black (usually) and go where the wind takes me with white.
True, tactics is the way to blitz.
Chess is a tuff game to learn, just keep playing, and some day you wont make any blunders.
obvious answer is play more and learn from your mistakes there aren't any short cuts, if it were easy everyone would do it
Simple, get better at chess. Blitz translates fairly well from "real" chess. Unless ofcourse you really never play blitz and can barely use a mouse.
But the experience and pattern recognition from real chess applies very well at blitz. (Other way around too but less so. Blitz also gives you some bad habbits so you should prioritise classical chess to improve. Ofcourse there's exceptions, I guess Nakamura and some other young GM's pretty much got to be GM by playing bullet.)
It helps to study tactics but after reaching a certain level it becomes difficult to improve. I have had great benefit of studying openings. I think it doesn't help much to just memorize some lines. It is better to go study some GM games to get some feeling for common strategies. I also learned a lot of going through games with a computer. I haven't done that very much, but I benefited a lot when I spent the effort. In blitz (and OTB) I love to play against those unusual but known to be somewhat inferior openings even though I may don't know them as well as my opponent and I may have to avoid the main lines and not get the maximum theoretical advantage, chances are better than against many of those solid active openings I also don't know so well and it can be really difficult then to work out a constructive plan in a blitz game. Crap openings should be avoided, but it can be worthwhile to look for openings that are unpopular, but can still be very solid and dangerous against most players below GM level.
Flag the other guy. That always helps the rating.
I usually win on blitz on time
What is the best way to get better at blitz chess?
I usually play 5 min blitz 5 second increments, and I usually lose to very low ratings. I make too many blunders, and sometimes sometimes I am unsure of what to do in openings(during correspondence chess, I usually use database if I'm unsure)
Thanks in advance