I only play 3/0 online. Basically I'm getting winning positions in almost every game (believe it or not...) but I end up either losing on time by an entire 1 or 2 minutes or I just blunder in a better position. It's a bit disheartening because it makes the game seem like whoever moves fastest wins and little else matters. No it's obviously not like that but it's taking me way too long to find decent moves while my opponents just play badly and flag me.
How do you move faster in this game and not blunder? I find that moving faster only causes me to make more mistakes and lose anyway. So it feels like a catch 22 situation and it's almost like I'm just wasting time playing good moves because I can't convert with them anyway. Any thoughts?
Maybe play 5/3? It's still Blitz and is my personal favorite, plus allows you to slow down and think one to two times a game.
Play slower games until you learn how to win from those positions.
People ask the titled streamers all the time "how do I get better at chess?" and the no. 1 response is always "play slower time controls" and "don't play blitz".
If you're having trouble winning, play slower games and analyze your games until you get better. You can't expect to find all the right moves for the first time in time trouble; find them while not in time trouble, then remember the patterns for when you are.
Bump
Doesn't make sense ...
"I only play 3/0 online."
"Basically I'm getting winning positions in almost every game (believe it or not...)"
Not.
"...but I end up either losing on time by an entire 1 or 2 minutes or I just blunder in a better position."
We all blunder, especially under time pressure. No problem there.
What do you mean by "losing on time by an entire 1 or 2 minutes" -- This does not make any sense. Are you saying that your opponent still has 1 or 2 minutes left on their clock?
You can't really be in a "winning position" if after a total of 6 minutes between two players (3-minutes each), if there is still 1/3'rd or 1/6'th of the total time left, all allocated to your opponent. (It doesn't sound like you're playing very far past the opening.)
You sound like a 5/0 or 5/+ player. (Previous suggestion, #2.)
I'm a regular 3/0 ZH player, and, yes, I flag my opponents if they move slow. And sometimes I get flagged if I take too long to think.
As far as getting faster: Play 1 or 2 minute games. It makes 3 minutes seem like forever. Same holds if you're used to playing 3 minutes, 5 minutes seems like forever to me.
@CoolBreezeG Just keep playing. You will get better over time.
@MrCharles Sorry I cannot understand your post. It's too long and too difficult for me. Please provide some explanations with some images and videos for the readers who are unable to understand your posts. Not everyone is good in English.
I'm literally losing games on time while a piece up or at least with a large advantage. You can go ahead and look at my games if you don't believe it. I really don't like playing bullet chess because I'm using a touchpad and anyway I don't think I can play good games at that speed at all. I used to play 5/0 but I started playing 3/0 because it seemed like titled players rarely play anything longer than this time Control. Maybe I'll go back... Thanks guys.
@coolbreezeG You should switch to 1/0 because this is the most popular time control for titled players and it's always used in titled arenas. Titled players like fast time controls because it's harder to cheat in 1/0 games than in slower games. Apparently cheaters target titled players, making titled players face many more cheaters than other users. To find out, it's necessary to become a titled player, and most players will never achieve that.
Paradoxically, you'll never* get better at blitz/bullet playing primarily blitz/bullet. Bullet/blitz are heavily dependent upon the 'muscle memory' that you build up through extensive analysis, tactical training, and especially the work that goes on in slow games. Memorize this sentence: "This is a sentence that says absolutely nothing."
That would be almost impossible to do if you had to actually think about the sound each character makes, and try to combine those sounds into phonemes, and convert those phonemes into words, think about what those words mean, try to remember the grammar rules to connect the words, and then finally using all of that try to connect it into a sentence. Instead you see the sentence, and just instantly recognize what it says and means, and could instantly repeat the some odd 50 characters required to construct that sentence. You must be a genius! No, it's just training in practice.
Bullet/blitz is the exact same. You need to build up that muscle memory before you stand any chance of playing bullet/blitz effectively. Otherwise it'd be like e.g. trying to learn Russian by reading Dostoyevsky. The latter is an application of a previously learned skill which without you'd spend more time stumbling over yourself than actually making progress. And similarly blitz/bullet is an application of a chess skill which is gained much more effectively in other avenues.
The reason I add the asterisk is because once players reach a certain level then of course they need to play some blitz/bullet to improve at it. Fabiano has some reputation, no idea if its deserved, of being poor at blitz/bullet. But obviously if he actually put any effort towards it he could become one of the strongest blitz/bullet players in the world since he already has an incredibly strong general chess toolkit to work with. But up to a reasonably high level, the best way to improve at bullet/blitz is paradoxically to not play bullet/blitz!
don't compare youself with titled players, that's bad for improvement.
the less time you have , the more your experience and knowledge of specific positions is important to win. any total beginner would be completely crushed in ultrabullet for example.
you need to play classical/rapid games and after you have a repertoire of openings (at least 4, 2 black, 2 white) you feel confortable with, you can start playing blitz using the same openings you have experience with.
having experience allow you to do moves without even wasting any second on them because you KNOW them, you already played such position before and know well the key moves and the general objective to reach. Experienced players don't need to think in the opening to reach the midde game, no matter how complicated the position is. 3 mins seems like a lot then.
that's also why bullet and ultrabullet games can be played to very high levels. The players only need a fraction of second to play a move without blundering anything and still try to checkmate the opponent.
i only recently started to play bullet and ultrabullet games without dumbly hanging my queen or getting checkmated on move 10 (or like you, losing on time). i'm rated 400 elo points less in such time control than my real level and that's an huge improvement.
Play your best chess first, leave 3+0 games for later