Learning not to hate Blitz

Three months ago, I considered Blitz chess to be a scourge upon the Earth. A nefarious plot hatched by either Satan, Darth Vader, or the NSA to make me look like an incredible ass. Oh, the blunders that I would make! Oh, the stupidity!

Having joined WCL, I have started playing Blitz again. My current lifestyle does not afford me the luxury of standard games. I will make an effort to build time into my schedule for them eventually, but right now, I only have time for Blitz.

When I started playing more Blitz, I would usually play 5 12 time controls. The 12 bonus seconds that I got for each move seemed to provide me a little more peace of mind. However, the cold hard fact is that I suck at this time control. My rating on WCL is 937. It’s still provisional, but I don’t see it improving that much in the near future. At that rating, it’s awful hard to get someone to bite on my Seek.

WCL has a pretty cool feature. In the main window’s toolbar, there are three buttons, labeled 1, 5, and 15. By clicking on one of these buttons, you are stating that you want to play a game with that many minutes on your clock. Furthermore, you’re agreeing to play against whoever the system pairs you up with. This means that you get paired up very quickly, sometimes instantaneously. Sure, I may be paired up with someone rated 1700, but at least I didn’t have to wait for a game.

Here’s the funny thing. Despite my initial feeling of discomfort about not getting any extra time each time I move, I actually seem to play better under these time controls. My rating for “Pure 5-minute” games is 1280. I’ve won 2 games, lost 4, and drawn 1. My 5-12 Blitz record is 1-6-1.

Granted, I think that the better rating is due to the fact that I’m playing a lot of people rated much higher than me. Oftentimes, I gain ratings points for losing. When I play 5 12, I’m usually paired with someone within a couple hundred points of me, because no high-rated player wants to take a chance against a bottom-dweller like me.

I’m slowly learning not to hate Blitz. It’s really helping me to learn the different variations for my new opening repertoire. I think what I need to do is play a few games of Blitz, and then take the time to thoroughly review them. Figure out what I did right and what I did wrong. Once I’ve analyzed them, then play a few more games, and analyze those. Rinse, repeat. If I integrate careful analysis into the process, it should help me to improve.

Hey, it’s a theory. I’ll run with it for a few days or weeks, and let you know how it goes.

 Breaking News: I just defeated someone rated 1170 in a 5 12 Blitz game, bringing my Blitz rating up to 1008 (woo hoo – 4 digits, baby!). Maybe that stuff I said about time controls was just blather. Maybe I’m just getting better at this…

A Logical Defense (or two)

In my last post, I described my magical experience discovering the KIA, an opening that is really well-suited for me. However, since I’m obviously not always allowed the luxury of playing White, I needed to find a well-suited defense to use when I had the Black pieces.

Luckily, Yasser Seirawan has a solution for that too. Thanks, Yasser! I owe ya a beer at least, maybe two. After he describes the KIA opening for White, he discusses two more opening solutions, both Black defenses.

If White opens with D4, he suggests the King’s Indian Defense. This opening is very similar to the KIA, except reversed. That means that by learning the KIA, I also simultaneously learned the KID. Efficient! Sweet!

If White opens with E4, he suggests the Pirc. This is very similar to the KID, but has a slight twist thrown in to stop a quick e4-e5. Again, since this defense is similar to the KID, which is similar to the KIA, it is easy to pick up once you know the basic positions.

I’ve used the Pirc in a game or two, and the KID in a few games, and I’ve been able to get to the middlegame in decent shape in all instances.

Now that I’ve played each opening a few times, I plan to re-read the relevant portions of the book to gain greater insight into the various variations. I am still far from mastering these openings. I’d also like to find some discussion about the ideas behind these openings, and the types of middlegames I should try to play for when using them.

My Blitz play has already improved a bit. This is because I don’t spend much time thinking about the opening moves – I’m already comfortable enough with these openings to bang out the opening sequence and even alter it a bit when called for. Because I’m not spending as much time on the opening, I have more time to think during the middlegame, and that is leading to a few wins.

Still lots of blunders (oh, so many blunders), but there has been improvement, and that is encouraging.

Gotta stop with the Blitz already

Why do I do it to myself? Why do I try to make my brain move faster than it wants to? Why do I continue to play Blitz games on FICS?

I’m trying to work my way through Silman’s How to Reassess Your Chess (because I need a major reassessment, or perhaps a lobotomy), and the whole point of the book is to get you to analyze the game, look at all the imbalances that might exist, and then formulate a plan based on those imbalances. A methodical, logical process.

When I have time to play though, what do I do? Do I play a game with time controls that allow me to become familiar with analysis and planning? NO! I play Blitz, which for me may as well be called Blunder Chess. No analysis, no planning, just GO.

The appeal of Blitz is that it’s, well, quick. Once the kids are tucked in at the end of a long day, it’s really hard to get into a long game. But I think that training my mind to think things through is the only way that I will improve. When I play Blitz, it’s truly quantity way over quality.

I think that I need to train my mind to analyze and plan. Slowly at first, but as I become more familiar, I imagine that I will get better and faster at it. I really need to stop with the Blitz, and focus on developing a thought process.

Since most of the games on FICS are either Blitz or really short Standard (less than 15 minutes), I need to stay away from FICS for a little while. I’ve got Chessmaster and Sigma Chess, and I think I need to spend a little time playing against the computer with no time controls. Once I have the thought process down, I can start with long time controls, and then gradually make them shorter.

Some people swear by Blitz, but I don’t think it’s a good fit for me. At least right now.

The Odyssey begins…

So I thought I would kick off this blog with a “State of the Union”-type address. You know, so that all of you out there in the Big Blue Blogosphere know just what you are dealing with here. And as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will spare you the reading (for now).

The position pictured below occurred in a blitz game that I was playing on FICS last week. I’m playing white, and black just played Qf3. What move did I play in response?

Kxf3 you say? Well, if anyone else were sitting behind the white pieces, that would be an excellent guess! But I was the one sitting behind the white pieces, not someone that actually knows how to play the game of chess. You have to think more blundery.

For some reason, I had it in my head that the Queen was covered by another black piece. Clearly, this is not the case, but in my head at the time, that Queen was invulnerable. So I played the only move (in my feeble mind) that would get my King out of check. I played Kg1.

Every time I look at that picture, I wince. It’s little consolation to remember that I had less than a minute on my clock at the time. That’s really no excuse for a blunder this spectacular. I proceeded to lose the game, after my opponent picked his jaw up off the floor, ate my Rook, and continued to punish me for my error.

Ah well, live and learn. That’s what I tell myself to avoid bursting into tears.

I started this blog to chronicle my journey along the path to chess mastery. As you can see, I’ve got a long way to go. Stop laughing, sit back, relax, and enjoy. It should be quite a trip…