5 tips 4 better blitz results

You want to improve your blitz results ? Here are some hints.

1.Use the barrage or dual move method.
When your opponent is in time trouble, even in slight time trouble and you have quite some time, prepare a plan which consists of moves which are not so easy to expect for your opponent AND prepare your follow up moves. What can happen is that you make your move, and your opponent could be surprised and wants to reply fast, but then after the opponent reply you play your next move right away, according to your plan!
This can put quite some psychological pressure on your opponent and increase the time trouble, and there is more chance your opponent will blunder. - This was by chance also mentioned in the brand new book about IM Manuel <Wizard of Zaanstad> Bosboom.

2. Learn maneuvering and "do-nothing" a la Petrosian, Ulf Andersson and Karpov
Go through the games of these grandmasters and learn how to make good moves that slowly improve your position and prevent the options for your opponent.
The advantage is that you will learn how to do "nothing" or very little, but still not giving away chances or creating weaknesses (What I often see is that especially lower rated opponents want to play agressive and either weaken their own position or start to blunder very soon. They simply don't seem to know how to do little or nothing to improve the position or at least not to lose. Or maybe they are just impatient at the chessboard ?)
One thing I learned from a game from Petrosian is that in a semi closed position, where both players are putting all pieces on the best squares, it can be useful and fun to find a better and safer place for your king to just walk your king from the one wing to the other. Often your opponent will not expect this and lose time, while you need little time because you have a clear cut plan.
I have also used these kind of king marches successfully several times in my games.
Here the king walk game of Petrosian where he first makes sure that his king is really safe before taking action.

3. Check your opening repertoire.
If you are (or think you are) a positional and defensive player, you might want to make your style more all-round.
Playing positional chess, winning one pawn, and then wanting to win a long lasting endgame can be done, but will take more time, and your chess skills need to be very good.
If you want to win lots of games in order to win a blitz tourney it makes more sense to adjust your opening repertoire and your chess style into a more sharp one, and take some more risk, possibly resulting in faster wins. (Of course such an adjustment of opening repertoire and style needs some time. Say some weeks, months).
Apart from this, remember that in general in chess it takes often less time to play active, instead of defending a small material advantage. And since time in blitz is more important than in "classical" chess, this is something to re-think about.

4. Tactics, tactics, tactics.
Do tactic puzzles on a few tactics website, and see what tactic ratings you will have.
A tactic rating of 1800 seems to be realistic for most chess players. If you are currently rated below that, then it could be a matter of doing tactic puzzles every day, for at least a few months in a row. Find out which tactical motives you are weak at and work on them
In openings, middlegame and endgame one can come across tactics. 4 or 5 or even more tactics in one game is not very very unusual. Tactics can be the decisive difference in a lot of games!

5. Make sure you know opening tricks in various openings.
This can give you quick wins, especially against weaker opponents.
Here's an example of such an opening trick, which even stronger opponents fell for !

At last, as a sort of disclaimer : having fun at chess and creating pieces of art or playing a witty or beautiful tactic can be considered more important than gaining a few rating points.

H a v e F u n ! :)