Ultrabullet Tips

When playing ultrabullet you shall meet tons of different people who play different styles of ultrabullet. Do not however that a lot of people play a combination and they can play on instinct, it's not like they prepared for this specific "style". These "styles" can also be seen as tips. I will try to point out these styles in this blog, as well as some tricks and tips afterwards.

This incredible study by @The_Laminator on A Guide to Ultrabullet demonstrates tons of good knowledge and tricks you should have in ultrabullet, so I'll just point out a lot on tactics/tricks (and some on openings in ultrabullet) since most of I want to mention here is basically in that study.

Styles

Sacking

The first most obvious style, or trick, is sacking. Tons of people use this trick, although it's more commonly used by lower rated players.

This technique has nothing special, it's literally just throwing pieces to attack e.g. the queen and hope the opponent either doesn't see it or premoves. However typically for higher rated games, through experience, this has a lower chance of working due to the opponent's being more careful and precise with their moves.

Playing aggressive

This is usually quite risky, as playing aggressive can lead to loss of time and blunders quickly. However at the same time, playing aggressive can also make the opponent panic, and/or make the opponent think for a slightly longer time to defend your attacks. Playing aggressive means to attack a ton and making tons of threats to the opponent's pieces/position.

Playing passive

I usually play quite passive, and this allows me to premove pretty much the first 10 moves of the game without blundering anything. This includes playing solid openings and not opening your pieces to possible attacks, allowing less time to think and more premoving. Please do note that you HAVE TO premove only when you feel it's best.

General tips

Predict your opponent's moves

Predicting or guessing what the opponent is going to play next does play a part in ultrabullet to some extent, as it can usually help you premove. I will discuss more about this in the next section. This game below shows how playing Be5 anticipates Qc7+, which then lead to me winning on time.

Play TimoBjornson • lichess.org

This tactic is used a lot in ultrabullet, especially with only 15s on the clock, you have to premove a lot, and knowing sort of what your opponent is going to play is crucial.

Opening cheapos

Quite a few common opening cheapos can be found in this study by @The_Laminator on A Guide to Ultrabullet.

Endgames

Whatever the piece is, be it a bishop, knight, rook, always avoid possible checks, this significantly reduces the need to think and can help save time for you. For example, if the opponent has a dark-squared bishop, avoid placing your king on a dark square unless you're forced to, or you are running your king. Also try to check your opponent as much as possible if you are losing or are losing on time.

Pawn pushes

These are super common, usually you can push a pawn to attack a bishop or better yet the knight (or any other piece) and hope the opponent doesn't see it. Try to make sure the pawn is protected as well, so you can actually not lose anything if it doesn't work and the opponent sees it.

Check, check, check

Make sure you are the one checking the opponent, not the other way round. Checks are seriously annoying and cause serious time losses, so make sure your king is safely tucked away and start throwing checks (don't lose any pieces in the process). I do not intend to say that checking is your top priority, I only mean to say that if the opportunity arises, take it. Since this is a 15s game you obviously don't have time to think, so checks could also give your pieces a way inside the opponent's position and you may very well find a checkmate somewhere.

Memorise checkmates/endgames

I'll roughly give some tips for endgames and checkmate patterns since there are a ton of them. I will not state all types, since I just want to give a rough feel of what to do in certain situations. Additionally, you can also keep playing games to practice.
Now when I say "memorise", I don't mean for someone spend weeks just studying and memorising specific endgame situations, just roughly know it and MAKE SURE you EXECUTE it fast and well.

Endgame situations

R/Q vs K

In this situation, especially if you are low, just keep giving checks, the opponent will eventually run out of time. MAKE SURE to keep the queen/rook close to your queen and not too close to the opponent's king. If you have enough time you can go for a checkmate.

Q vs K+R

In this situation (with the queen), you have to keep checking the opponent (seriously), a rook and king is very maneuverable especially since all the opponent has to do is shuffle the king and rook around to ensure checks can be easily escaped without wasting time. If you have pawns laying around, push them forward every few queen moves to try and get them closer to box the opponent in and cause him to panic and/or cause checkmate threats.

Checkmates

For checkmates, only perform them when you have enough time, unless the checkmate is a very short one e.g. smothered mate or ladder mate.

Well, that's it! :) If I have missed anything that you think should be included, please drop me a dm in lichess, or alternatively reply in the forum for this blog!