When can I play fast time controls again?

Part 1: Speed Issues and How to Solve Them

A problem a lot of chess players have is that they play too fast and don't even realize what their opponent is threatening or going to threaten. These players are very good bullet and blitz players, but are bad at rapid and classical chess. These players are the type of chess players that will never learn or get better if they don't switch from their current chess mindset. If you are one of these chess players, then I suggest that when your opponent makes a move, stop your cursor from hovering over that chess piece! Think about what plan you should make to possibly win the game and to see if your opponent has a strong threat on your position. If you use your CCA (Checks, Captures, Attacks), then you are GUARANTEED to be a better chess player.

And then there are the type of chess players that have the problem of playing too SLOW. If you feel you're often low on time even in high time control games, and most of your losses are on time, then you have a common case of "Too-slow-itis". The way you can try and improve your time management is to do puzzle storm (or puzzle rush for our friends at Chess.com), which trains your brain to solve tactics in a fast-paced game. Bullet chess IS a possible way to speed up your chess, but then your chess DECREASES in quality and will most likely cause you to play worse chess.

Part 2: Switch your Mindsets

But then, you might say "When can I start to consider coming back to playing faster time controls, like blitz or bullet?". And for that, I have a simple solution. Take me, for example. I play a lot of 10 minute games, and play bullet and blitz occasionally. The way you can do this is to "switch" chess mindsets depending on the time control of the game. If the game is going to be long, then use the previous tips above or from my previous blog post to play good chess in that game. If you want to have some fun, then you would consider playing 3 minute, 1 minute, or even 15-30 second chess games. The mindset you would have for blitz chess is to play fast and not blunder. I would say, for playing better bullet and blitz chess, play a lot of safe moves and MAKE SURE your opponent doesn't have any counterplay that makes the game complex.

This is the secret that most titled and strong players don't tell you when they play both slow and fast time controls. You would say, "How are they still playing so good despite having so little time to think? And why can I not do that?". Not only do they use this secret, but they have tons and tons of EXPERIENCE. What makes a good chess player a good chess player is their EXPERIENCE. Experience helps you recognize which traps not to fall for and what traps you should set, and what you should play if your trap doesn't work. How do you gain experience? By playing more and more chess.

With this "switching" of mindsets, you can play faster time controls and it won't affect your long chess. That being said though, don't make fast chess your primary time control, otherwise it might cause some of the issues mentioned above in the article (make sure to mix in some rapid and classical with your fast chess too!)

Aryan