Blunders blunders

I mostly play on FICS, and with friends. But I have some serious problem with concentration with blunders and dropping pieces when I play blitz games (less then 15 minutes). So, even if my rating is estimated around 1500 for standard games, I often lose even from some who has 1200 or less when it cames to blitz games. Any of you guys faced the similar problem? What is your advice to improve my skills in this aspect of chess?

Don't think once - think twice.

Well, on a small time limit, you don't have enough time to think twice. My advice is practice, practice and once more practice. Everything comes with experience. The more you'll play blitz, the less you'll drop pieces.

With 'think twice' i mean that you give it a blundercheck right before you actually grab the piece, and perhaps a final one right before you put it on the square.
Especially if you are blunder prone another thought is adviceable.

Ok, I understood it as going through the combination you're thinking of twice. But giving a blundercheck is useful always. Of course, if you're playing blitz on 1 min, then you don't have even enough time for that.

If you look at 99% of Players at FICS you will notice their blitz rating is always 2 or 300 pts below standard.

as example: - My best standard=1800
My best blitz = 1500

so, A 1500 losing to a 1200 in blitz sounds about right to me...and I'd bet money that those 1200's your playing, if you looked at their profile, would have a standard rating somewhere near to 1500.

I noticed that some people play blitz at 1 minute per game.

At that time limit you don't have time to think once let alone twice. The game becomes a lottery as even GMs will make serious mistakes at that sort of limit and in the end the winner is usually decided on time regardless of what pieces are left on the board. Often this depends on who has the fastest internet connection or the best accessories enabling them to move quick - in my opinion it is not chess at all.

Choose a blitz time limit that actually gives you sufficient time to think twice. I find 5 (or even 3) minutes plus 5 seconds a move achieves this pretty well. After 20 moves you can actually have 5 minutes left, right when you need it most and in the ending a few obvious quick moves gets you a breathing space so you win on skill not time.

Edit: My blitz rating is 300 points above my normal grade (OTB) so the previous posting is not strictly correct. Blitz can help you manage time trouble better in full length games OTB.

that's one thing I've been wondering about: where do the points go? I mean, I see no reason why the blitz ratings should be lower, yet they clearly are. the way I see it, there should be an equal amount of people who have 200-300 higher blitz rating compared to standard, but I haven't really met any. for every dropped piece someone wins the points, so dropping pieces doesn't really explain why blitz ratings are lower either. where do the points go?

Originally posted by wormwood
that's one thing I've been wondering about: where do the points go? I mean, I see no reason why the blitz ratings should be lower, yet they clearly are. the way I see it, there should be an equal amount of people who have 200-300 higher blitz rating compared to standard, but I haven't really met any. for every dropped piece someone wins the points, s ...[text shortened]... es doesn't really explain why blitz ratings are lower either. where do the points go?

Originally posted by Dragon Fire

Edit: My blitz rating is 300 points above my normal grade (OTB) so the previous posting is not strictly correct. Blitz can help you manage time trouble better in full length games OTB.

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
Blitz can help you manage time trouble better in full length games OTB.

Originally posted by Shinidoki
I belive the awnser to that is rather simple.

its because Blitz has a bigger pool of players than standard.

Originally posted by wormwood
I don't get it. how should the size of the pool affect ratings? if anything, a (relatively) bigger influx of newbies should bias the rating towards 1500...

Originally posted by Shinidoki
I'm not really the one to ask -- But I'm sure someone at FICS will be able to help.

Originally posted by Shinidoki
I was refering specifically to standard and Blitz [b]FICS ratings, not OTB, FIDE, or any other organisation.[/b]