Sunday, July 29, 2007

B-B-B-BLitzing!

With all the discussion happening on BDK's site about the benefits ( or perils) of Blitzing, I've been blitzing. My rating is not stable on ICC ( username...like my blog... blunderprone ..in case you want to find me). I went through this phase a while back and felt it was affecting my slow games.

What was happening was I was playign as wreckless as a blitz game. I've since learned to "dial it back" when playing at slower time controls and found blitzing to be a good alternative to tactical training.

My reasons ( justifcations) are as follows:

1) Its fun. ( period... I don't care if I go blind... or my spin curves... or hair grows on my ... wait that was a different myth)

2) I was board with CT-ART... on the 11 th circle of hell... I wanted to practice tactical vision training in a pseudo real game. .. This is working.

3) I've had more practice playing against d4 and honing my defense ... At the club I get a lot of 1.e4 and when I go to a tournament, I'm like " Crap... how does the slav go again?" So the need to review my opening repertoire books wains as I get more practical and varried responses.

4) Its a training tool. I'd rather play an opponent 100+ points higher. I lose more games ( Like DK-Transformations. I practice with the bots... play the bot over and over until my win ratio starts to improve and my rating climbs back up. The I jump to the next higher rated bot and do it all over. As a result, my rating fluctuates 100-200 points on a given weekend.

5) Its a measured improvement as I work on tactics.

6) Many tournaments in the area are 1-day four round grinders. I used to avoid them because I was an "old timer" meaning I used to only want to play "slow". Now I have a sense of more confidence... play in G60, G30 and G10 events with new sense of passion.

7) I play slow games and my worries about time preasure have subsided. Blitzing has helped me think quickly on my feet.

8) I play at work over lunch. I play G5 games with some folks who pose some challenge. So far I am undefeated and I never lost on time.

I will get back to tactical training regimine eventually. I am going over whole games ... and will continue. For now, I will Blitz to my hearts content...because I can... and its a free country... Huzzah!

Have a good day and be kind to yourself... and let others own thier opinions free of charge!

5 comments:

transformation said...

exactly! thank you.

hope possibly to see you in 21 days out here... :)

Unknown said...

blitz on, blitz lover...i play/lose a few blitz games each day, just to keep me honest...

takchess said...

Let me know if you would be interested in this. Some Sunny weekday meet in Harvard Square drink far too much coffee and play chess for some hours? I have some vacation hours coming.

Jim Takchess

Blue Devil Knight said...

Excellent reasons. Especially the first!

BlunderProne said...

Thanks for the kind words all.

It means a lot to me.

-BP