Is blitz bad for you?

Much bashing of blitz chess for the quality of one's overall game. I personally like games of about 15 minutes. This allows me some time to think, and seems to help my overall game. Those of you who are blitz-bashers, what thinkest thou of the value of 15-minute games?

Originally posted by basso
Much bashing of blitz chess for the quality of one's overall game. I personally like games of about 15 minutes. This allows me some time to think, and seems to help my overall game. Those of you who are blitz-bashers, what thinkest thou of the value of 15-minute games?

My club has 3-4 people who always play slow (only 2 regularily show up) and 4-5 people who are always there playing blitz. Needless to say, I play tons of blitz and I don't feel like I learn from it. We recently switched to rated quick games (G/15 or 10 w/ 5 sec delay) and it seems much more useful. More active thinking goes on and less reacting. I find it is fast enough to play many games in one night and not so fast that I cannot think about a few crucial moves (I also have time left for my endgame).

Two thumbs up from me.

Originally posted by basso
Much bashing of blitz chess for the quality of one's overall game. I personally like games of about 15 minutes. This allows me some time to think, and seems to help my overall game. Those of you who are blitz-bashers, what thinkest thou of the value of 15-minute games?

That's not a bad timer. I don't really consider that "blitz".

When people mention blitz, I mostly think of 5 min games.

Originally posted by RahimK
That's not a bad timer. I don't really consider that "blitz".

When people mention blitz, I mostly think of 5 min games.

When someone mentions blitz, I think of 2 (or 3) mins games but 5 minutes is TOO slow. You should try bullet i.e. 1 min or 10secs with 1 sec increments.

Well it all depends on what you want to achieve in the end whether it's blitz or the slower time limits. If you want to think deeply then by all means play the slower time controls.

Originally posted by Oddjob291
When someone mentions blitz, I think of 2 (or 3) mins games but 5 minutes is TOO slow. You should try bullet i.e. 1 min or 10secs with 1 sec increments.

Well it all depends on what you want to achieve in the end whether it's blitz or the slower time limits. If you want to think deeply then by all means play the slower time controls.

I played bullet several times vs the ICC bots. Won most of them and the ones I lost, I was winning but the time ran out.

Again a lot of interesting opinion and anecdotal evidence. I just know almost all the great players were great blitz players so it can't be harmful. If you look at the great Herceg Novi blitz tournament, 1970, which Fischer won 19 pts out of 22, in which played Petrosian, Korchnoi, Bronstein, Tal, Smyslov, etc, Fischer's two great attributes, speed and accuracy came to fore. This is what blitz helps. As all blitz players know, you could be playing a masterfully strategic game and suddenly you drop a piece or a couple of pawns and everything's downhill from there. You gotta have quick sight of the board. I stink at blitz, a little less stinky at correspondence, but I can sense in a blitz game over the internet that even tho my opponent has a superior position, he's beginning to hesitate in case he loses that position and he slows down. I try to keep as much on the board as possible and play quickly, trying to use his time to choose my moves. It doesn't hurt, in my opinion, as long as you realize that that this sort of thing doesn't work in OTB, unless your time is really short. Again, I wish that some chess psychologist would do some sort of double blind study to find out what works and what doesn't, as all this is personal opinion and usually contradictory.

Originally posted by buddy2
Again a lot of interesting opinion and anecdotal evidence. I just know almost all the great players were great blitz players so it can't be harmful. If you look at the great Herceg Novi blitz tournament, 1970, which Fischer won 19 pts out of 22, in which played Petrosian, Korchnoi, Bronstein, Tal, Smyslov, etc, Fischer's two great attributes, speed and accu ...[text shortened]... t what works and what doesn't, as all this is personal opinion and usually contradictory.

Fisher and all em other people didn't become GM's by playing blitz like someone mentions. I keeps saying, good slow players make great blitz players.


As for stragetically playing and dropping a piece. That's more like blitz for you. If you play seriously and use your time this wouldn't happen as much. You play the perfect OTB game, your winning and move to quickly and drop a piece and lose the game. That habit came from blitz not from slow play.

These two games show what I've learned playing blitz:

[Event "ICC 3 0 "]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2001.05.21"]
[Round "?"]
[White "cactua"]
[Black "Wulebgr"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A57"]
[WhiteElo "1423"]
[BlackElo "1430"]
[PlyCount "21"]
[SourceDate "2003.01.01"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. Nc3 axb5 6. e4 Ba6 7. e5 Ng8 8. Qe2
e6 9. Nf3 b4 10. Nb5 Ne7 11. Nd6# {Black checkmated} 1-0

[Event "ICC 5 0 "]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2001.02.14"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Wian"]
[Black "Wulebgr"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B32"]
[WhiteElo "1410"]
[BlackElo "1461"]
[PlyCount "21"]
[SourceDate "2003.01.01"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 5. Nb5 d6 6. c4 Be6 7. N1c3 Nf6 8.
Nd5 Bxd5 9. exd5 Ne7 10. Qa4 Nd7 11. Nxd6# {Black checkmated} 1-0

Today's blitz lesson:

[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "freechess.org"]
[Date "2006.02.15"]
[Round "?"]
[White "zuher"]
[Black "Wulebgr"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C19"]
[WhiteElo "1778"]
[BlackElo "1643"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "2006.??.??"]
[TimeControl "180"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4 Qc7 8.
Qxg7 Rg8 9. Qxh7 cxd4 10. Ne2 Bd7 11. cxd4 Nf5 12. Qxg8+ Ke7 13. Bg5+ {
Wulebgr resigns} 1-0

Originally posted by Wulebgr
Today's blitz lesson:

[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "freechess.org"]
[Date "2006.02.15"]
[Round "?"]
[White "zuher"]
[Black "Wulebgr"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C19"]
[WhiteElo "1778"]
[BlackElo "1643"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "2006.??.??"]
[TimeControl "180"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4 Qc7 8.
Qx ...[text shortened]... . Ne2 Bd7 11. cxd4 Nf5 12. Qxg8+ Ke7 13. Bg5+ {
Wulebgr resigns} 1-0

and what exactly did you learn from it?

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.

Well i dont know their names because they suck at slow chess but all the hustlers at washington square park are amazing blitz players, but if they were good at slow chess they would be in legit slow tournaments where the real money is.

Originally posted by Gambitzoid
Well i dont know their names because they suck at slow chess but all the hustlers at washington square park are amazing blitz players, but if they were good at slow chess they would be in legit slow tournaments where the real money is.

Exactly. Well done.

Originally posted by RahimK
and what exactly did you learn from it?

To keep my knight on e7.