I’m a slow player, I still blunder and I forget to follow my
“thought processes” religiously, but yet, I was able to climb out of a 3 digit “area
code” Blitz rating to one approaching
the 4-digit middle ages in a matter of a
few short weeks. I posted back
in April about going slow to work on my OTB game. Times have changed. In
order to get some practice games in, playing online is the way to go in the days
of social distancing. Playing on line slow games always leaves me feeling suspicious
of playing against someone’s computer. So, I had to adapt to faster games.
Like I said, I’m still an amateur and no where near master
level. However, I have an infectious passion for this game and love exploring
ways to improve my chess experience as I share about this here.
What I plan to touch on in this post:
- “Hot tub time machines” versus finding a club of
trusted peers with some action
- Frozen in time
- Set modest goals
- Focused opening training
- Going back to basics in tactics
- “En prise”
Hot tub time machines
I’m not talking about the stupid 2010 movie. Playing live ARENA
blitz games is as confusing as falling into a hot tub with a magical knack for
throwing you back into the 1980’s. There are usually several hundred who sign
up, you join and SPLASH off you go. Is this studio 54 and who the hell am I
dancing with if you call this dancing? I
never really got into disco.
I use blitz arenas for experience and getting more
comfortable with the time controls. Not
being one who enjoyed G5 all that much, I needed to acclimate. But it’s a hot
mess, you never know who’s next and the quality of the games (your own mistakes
included) seem to vary player to player as there is no consistency. I use the arena games to chock up experience and
COLLECT DATA. On Chess.com and other online chess communities, you can download
the PGNs into your database.
When I started getting into online blitzing, I joined my
local chess club’s weekly Blitz tournament. I knew the players; I could even
look them up on chess.com and scroll through their archives and prepare. More
on that later, sorry if that creeps you out.
I kind of know the playing strength from the OTB experiences. The problem was that I was always on the bottom
of the ladder and kept losing.
Frozen in time:
My first hurdle was to overcome clock fright. It was taking
away precious processing time in my head. I’d look at the time remaining and
panic. I’d look back at the position, try to come up with a move but in my head,
I heard “tick tick tick”. I’d glance back up at the clock and bam! I’d lose either
on time or make the worst move possible. I found the experience similar to the Kotov syndrome
except, instead of analysis paralysis being the main driver, it was excessive
time control anxiety. The only way for
me to overcome this minor neurosis was with exposure therapy in the hot tub
time machines of the arenas. I had to
set my mind on not caring about the rating. Rather, I wanted to play through
games and not lose on time and use these games to learn from.
Set modest goals:
This brings me to my next concept. What I really wanted to
do was ultimately play better blitz games when I joined my club’s weekly event.
I set a goal of initially winning 1 game for that night. Notice how I didn’t
say “I wanted my rating to jump a gazillion points”. Overcoming my time fright
anxiety was a requirement and using the larger arena events to acclimate to
this was in order. I met my first goal.
Side note, I tried using the online bots… because… I hated “embarrassing”
myself to live players. I got over myself and suggest you do the same as these
bots didn’t really provide the training I was seeking. It was as “organic” as
playing human players. I prefer my opponents to be free-range and organic.
Using all these experiences to collect the game data, I
started tracking those I lost on time versus losing by dropping pieces or not
SEEING A MATE IN 1. The time loses were
now more attributed to prolong decision making because of openings and middle game
transitions making me reassess my preparation.
Focused Opening Training
Easy now, don’t go hog wild here. However you do your opening prep, make sure
you focus on a few key points:
- Only work on the most common variations from
your “data collection” phase
- Start with the first 4 or 5 moves ONLY
- Know your responses to the stupid “anti-variations”
that WILL come
I found it very unnecessary to go 11-15 moves deep into a
main line variation as in most games, by move 4 or 5 my opponent is through
some curve ball. If I don’t even understand the basics of my opening at move 4
or 5 to respond with confidence to a “minor variation” then maybe I need to
chose a simpler less complicated opening.
Once I built up my confidence on the first few moves of the variations,
I was most likely to encounter, I found myself losing less on time and better
able to get to a playable middle game under blitz conditions.
Iteratively, as I play more games, I review the lines played
( mostly minor variations off the main) and go deeper. I am now at the “8-10”
move threshold understanding for most of my repertoire. But my mind is a leaky
bucket, requiring repetitive reviewing and training to patch the holes. My longer-term
goal is to understand the major tabiya of each of my openings. There’s always
going to be something to work towards.
Oh… and a rant. I’m getting tired of the “anti-blah
blah blah’s”. I am a Caro-Kann player,
I see a common theme and I think some players are smiling and rubbing their hands
together when they throw a 2.Bc4 or some other odd ball minor variation. Even the Nxf7 sac or the Qe2 … I know these… I
can see your queen; I’ll eat your knight …I will hurt you. Bottom
line, you better know these trappy variations as most times, you can walk out
and do rather well once the storm passes.
Going back to basics in tactics
I used to be one of those Knights Errant who did the seven
circles of hell from Michael De La Maza. Look it up if you’re not familiar…
long winded story. The issue I mentioned before was not seeing simple mates or …more
embarrassingly, having a winning position
with a rook and king versus king and not being able to mate them before you
lose on time. That frosted me at first but also told me not to resign even when
behind as the clock can be your redemption!
Rather than circling the seven circles of CT-ART, I needed a
more focused approach and one for blitz games.
I found a series of Mate-in-one puzzles (however you choose) and did the
200 plus set iteratively for about a week.
This turned out to be my BIGGEST BANG FOR THE BUCK! I climbed out of the area code rating and
reached the 1100’s in a matter of a couple weeks.
Caveat: People cannot live on tactics alone. I was at a “comfortable” point in my opening
preparation but started getting too cocky with the tactics…like I did 10 years
ago after doing the MDLM circles of hell… and started playing unsound tactical
moves.
I know, you may be thinking, “But Blunderprone, isn’t
that what Blitzing is all about? Throw some crazy half thought out complications
at your opponent hoping that they waste time to see if it really is unsound?”
You may be right, but I know I am not Magnus Carlson or some
other GM. In most cases, my complications are probably unsound. I had to dial
back my urge to play craziness (lets face it, thrill seeking is fun) and chant
to myself “NO COWBOY MOVES!” Yee haw.
En Prise!
In most cases, these “cowboy moves” usually meant I was
leaving my queen or some other piece hanging. I found out; I have an unnatural
overconfidence in my queen’s ability to protect herself. I believed she’s such
a good fighter that I didn’t worry about her safety.
Dialing back the gusto and swallowing some humble pie, I
needed to work on tactics that focused on just capturing pieces to help
recognize and refocus my mind back to piece safety. Dan Heisman also has a nice
book titled Is
your Move Safe? It has puzzles for every aspect of the game to get you
thinking less of “cowboy moves” and back to thinking of safety first!
Dan Heisman is a wise man. He knows his audience and doesn’t
take the same condescending voice like Silman in some instance. To paraphrase Mr.
Heisman, if you want to get good at blitz, you really need to get better at
slower games first.
My rating is stuck in the 1200’s right now. I am looking at
refining my blitz preparation processes and see if I can get into the 1300 or
1400’s by end of summer. I’m finding a new club that offers a variety of
formats with some rated slow events. Yes, it’s back to turtle chess in-between
the hot tub time machines.
See you in the hot tub!
Until next time and wishing you all the best,
Blunderprone.
