Is blitz bad for you?

Originally posted by Drumbo
blitz chess is great for your game, it gives you a lot of exercise and expands your quick "sight of board" capabilities.
anyone tells ya different is full of it. ALL the top players are speed demons, ain't no such thing as a speed chess master that sucks at slow chess.
There just ain't. Name one, please.

All the top players are speed demons because they can play excellent slow players.

Anand who some people would say is the blitz king is known for his slow play not his blitz.

ok...those that say blitz is great for your game, play nothing but blitz for a month. Play a OTB slow tourney at the end of the month.
See how you do.
Then play nothing but slow games for a month, then play an OTB tourney. Then see how you do.
Very sure you will tank most of your games the first month, and do much better the 2nd

This is what I will say about blitz.

If you want to learn an opening, set it up and blitz from it vs someone else and see the ideas which work, plans etc...

If your not sure why such a position is winning, losing. Set up a board and blitz from there.

etc...

Play blitz just for the sake of playing blitz doesn't do much.

You gotta play it with a purpose.

Originally posted by Grandmouster
...He said, kasparov, anand, krammink, etc, are the best blitzers around, because they developed their skill's by playing slow games in major tourneys...

But not vice-versa. They didn't become GMs by playing blitz.

Like GM Bruce Pandolfini said to young Waitzkin, (I'm paraphrasing) "Blitzers rely on crazy tactics, that don't work in tournament chess, which are meant to scare their opponents psychologically. Stop playing blitz."

Originally posted by point
Will playing a lot of speed chess hurt your slow game?

My two cents...

I definitely think the worst thing a young/amateur chess player (who really wants to get good) can do is get lost in the world of speed chess. It's fun every once and a while, but until you get the solid foundation of the slower game, speed chess remains just fast wood pushing.

Now if you aren't that serious about really getting better (and a lot of people aren't, more power to them), than I think blitz games are fine.

Originally posted by chesskid001
Blitz isn't neccasarily bad. The problem is that once you play blitz you get so invloved in the game you get addicted to it. Blitz can actually help you, but only in moderation. Blitz helps you in time pressure, and sharpens your intuition in chess positions. I say that play only one blitz game for every 9 slow games.

Exactly. When our chess club in school started up after summer, all of our kids had practiced nothing but strategies. So they did pretty well, but in the opening they would make horrible blunders inorder set up a seemingly decent midgame formation.

Our coach re-taught them tactics, and had them blitz like mad for a couple days. The better players learned to see both those tactical advantages and the strategic ones (mostly just me and my brother but o well).
In summary, like others have said, it can help your blitz and your short-term tactics. It can also help you play when in time trouble. This sunday I saw a friend of mine forced to take a draw by time because he spent too much time finding simple tactics. The sad part was that he was playing a 2462 when he was a 1485 (I am a 1148) and this was in a real life cash prize tourny. Needless to say when the 1485 ended up (as black) with a black squared bishop the only pawn on the board on the a square (forced Queen situation) he was crushed that he didnt have enough time.

But as chesskid said, you need moderation...
It's kinda like a paradox...

Originally posted by magnublm
But not vice-versa. They didn't become GMs by playing blitz.

Like GM Bruce Pandolfini said to young Waitzkin, (I'm paraphrasing) "Blitzers rely on crazy tactics, that don't work in tournament chess, which are meant to scare their opponents psychologically. Stop playing blitz."

Pandolfini was a NM (USCF master) Not a GM.
What blitz can do for you, is maybe speed up your reflexes, and get you used to moving fast in time pressure.
I started playing the Chess Hustlers in Was, Sq. PK about 10 years ago, and did get from 1100 to about 1300 from just 5 min games. But got killed in OTB tourneys, when i started to play in them.
What gets me better is playing slower games, and study.
One thing i think someone can benefit from speed chess, is after a loss, look up the opening in a database, and see where you erred.
A few hundred times doing this, should increase ones opening knowledge vastly.

Originally posted by Oddjob291
Can't you use blitz to get to try moves in 'tabiya' positions?!

Please forgive the ignorance, but what is "tabiya"? Thanks.

Originally posted by basso
Please forgive the ignorance, but what is "tabiya"? Thanks.

'Tabiya' positions are common positions which are often got to after frequently played opening sequence of moves e.g. Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez or Posioned Pawn variation in the Sicilian Defence.

So in blitz, if you know know your openings well, you can whittle them off, slap, bang, bang to get to the set position you are wishing to play and try the move(s) or novelty(s) you want to play.

Does this sound okay?

Yes, oddjob, sounds great. Thanks for the explanation.

Originally posted by Drumbo
I supervise the chess club at the high school I teach at, and I play nothing but speed before class, giving the n00b students odds of ONE MINUTE my time versus their unlimited time.

I do same against my dad. he is about 1400-rated.

Originally posted by Grandmouster
ok...those that say blitz is great for your game, play nothing but blitz for a month. Play a OTB slow tourney at the end of the month.
See how you do.
Then play nothing but slow games for a month, then play an OTB tourney. Then see how you do.
Very sure you will tank most of your games the first month, and do much better the 2nd

well I have noticed my otb rating increased quite a bit after periods in which I have played a lot of blitz games (even a bit of lightning so mostly between 2 and 10 mins per game)

The other half of the experiment sounds a bit too boring so maybe somone else can try that 😛

Blitz is coffee. It wakes you up, but its only a myth that it makes you smarter.

Originally posted by Testrider
well I have noticed my otb rating increased quite a bit after periods in which I have played a lot of blitz games (even a bit of lightning so mostly between 2 and 10 mins per game)

The other half of the experiment sounds a bit too boring so maybe somone else can try that 😛

I don't play blitz, so I'll be the one to try the second method.

I play here CC slow chess, OTB slow chess game in 2 hours and my OTB rating is going up. My blitz is also getting better slowly as a result when I play once a month. Very rare, i play blitz when i'm waiting for a tv show to start or something.

Originally posted by Wulebgr
Blitz is coffee. It wakes you up, but its only a myth that it makes you smarter.

A you coffee drinkers. You know one day in the forseeable future, there won't be coffee or it will be to expensive and you won't get your daily X amount of cups and see how you feel that whole day.

Poeple come to work or school without having coffee and they are basically dead for the whole day. Useless can't do anything.

I take a can of pop with my now to otb to sort of level off the field. It just in my mind but i'm having good results with it 🙂