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How to avoid time trouble / how to play faster?

#1

I've just recently starting playing chess and playing rapid and I keep losing on time and it really frustrates me. What would be the best way to improve the speed at which I play. Would playing longer time controls help? Or shorter time controls?

If you have any experience where you've struggled with managing your time it would be quite instructional to me to see how you solved it or improved your speed so that I could maybe pick some knowledge up that could help me.

I've just recently starting playing chess and playing rapid and I keep losing on time and it really frustrates me. What would be the best way to improve the speed at which I play. Would playing longer time controls help? Or shorter time controls? If you have any experience where you've struggled with managing your time it would be quite instructional to me to see how you solved it or improved your speed so that I could maybe pick some knowledge up that could help me.
#2

Practice, practice, practice. I recommend you try two things:

  1. Play in longer time controls before attempting rapid. This lets you ponder each move and find the best ideas, something rapid, blitz or bullet is not designed for.
  2. Select one (yes, only one!) opening for each color, and play it until you learn how it works. This will be frustrating at first... up to the point where you begin winning consistently.
    Shorter time controls are fun because they put additional pressure on the players, but this is not an ideal learning environment.
    Also, consider that you can play casual; casual games have no effect on your rating.
Practice, practice, practice. I recommend you try two things: 1. Play in longer time controls before attempting rapid. This lets you ponder each move and find the best ideas, something rapid, blitz or bullet is not designed for. 2. Select one (yes, only one!) opening for each color, and play it until you learn how it works. This will be frustrating at first... up to the point where you begin winning consistently. Shorter time controls are fun because they put additional pressure on the players, but this is not an ideal learning environment. Also, consider that you can play casual; casual games have no effect on your rating.
#3

managing time on you skill level is best improves by learning to play better. easiest is to swith to rapid 15/10. it lot longer than 10 minutes you are now using and further more the increment allows you to win most games where you have a good advantage

managing time on you skill level is best improves by learning to play better. easiest is to swith to rapid 15/10. it lot longer than 10 minutes you are now using and further more the increment allows you to win most games where you have a good advantage
#4

Basically, chess is super complicated. Anything you can do to slow it down and examine it on a micro level would be helpful. Players in shorter time controls typically have a huge base of experience to draw from, so they are familiar with common sequences and therefore need less time to understand how the game is changing move by move. You need to build your own game experience database, after which you will have no trouble playing quickly. I tend not to play bullet, but I can play the few openings I know well quite quickly, and have occasionally defeated opponents in rapid with 7-8 minutes left on my clock when they ran out of time. You could certainly achieve the same.

Basically, chess is super complicated. Anything you can do to slow it down and examine it on a micro level would be helpful. Players in shorter time controls typically have a huge base of experience to draw from, so they are familiar with common sequences and therefore need less time to understand how the game is changing move by move. You need to build your own game experience database, after which you will have no trouble playing quickly. I tend not to play bullet, but I can play the few openings I know well quite quickly, and have occasionally defeated opponents in rapid with 7-8 minutes left on my clock when they ran out of time. You could certainly achieve the same.
#5

If you want to get faster, play a lot of blitz (I recommend 3+0) and bullet (maybe start with 2+1 and work your way up to 1+0). In the beginning you might lose a lot, but that’s normal. 1 year ago i had a different lichess account and both my blitz and bullet rating were 1400-1500 rating. Now my blitz is 2100+ and my bullet 2000+! Believe me when i say it just takes practice. I always thought i was just slow and that’s it; but there is no such thing. It’s all about practice practice practice… even if that means you might lose a lot in the beginning.

Btw, maybe play in the beginning casual games so your rating doesn’t goes down. I my self didn’t do this, but maybe you find this nice. And remember! >>>>>>DON’T GIVE UP PLAYING WHEN YOU LOSE MUCH!

If you want to get faster, play a lot of blitz (I recommend 3+0) and bullet (maybe start with 2+1 and work your way up to 1+0). In the beginning you might lose a lot, but that’s normal. 1 year ago i had a different lichess account and both my blitz and bullet rating were 1400-1500 rating. Now my blitz is 2100+ and my bullet 2000+! Believe me when i say it just takes practice. I always thought i was just slow and that’s it; but there is no such thing. It’s all about practice practice practice… even if that means you might lose a lot in the beginning. Btw, maybe play in the beginning casual games so your rating doesn’t goes down. I my self didn’t do this, but maybe you find this nice. And remember! >>>>>>DON’T GIVE UP PLAYING WHEN YOU LOSE MUCH!
#6

This subsection of the chess_opening page on Wikipedia helped me a lot when trying to figure out which openings to start out with. The whole page is really useful and I refer there and subsequent links often.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_opening#Opening_repertoires

Once you have those decided, then its just a case of having your fallback defences against white openings you haven't studied as yet and accepting you are probably going to lose. Familiarity with your favoured openings will arrive soon enough and before long you'll be wanting to improve your middle and end games, as well as trying to expand your opening repertoire.

When you aren't sure, follow the principles, search the studies: https://lichess.org/study under the learn menu item and forums: https://lichess.org/forum under the community menu item ffi, and make the moves.

I play mostly in the ratings restricted arenas <1300 so I know I am against same level players. I still time out but not as much as I did when I started. You will see opponents making mistakes a lot also.

There are also some really good advice about which openings to play at which level you are at on streaming sites. So check out those streams. Most importantly have fun, you learn as much when you lose a game as when you win.

This subsection of the chess_opening page on Wikipedia helped me a lot when trying to figure out which openings to start out with. The whole page is really useful and I refer there and subsequent links often. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_opening#Opening_repertoires Once you have those decided, then its just a case of having your fallback defences against white openings you haven't studied as yet and accepting you are probably going to lose. Familiarity with your favoured openings will arrive soon enough and before long you'll be wanting to improve your middle and end games, as well as trying to expand your opening repertoire. When you aren't sure, follow the principles, search the studies: https://lichess.org/study under the learn menu item and forums: https://lichess.org/forum under the community menu item ffi, and make the moves. I play mostly in the ratings restricted arenas <1300 so I know I am against same level players. I still time out but not as much as I did when I started. You will see opponents making mistakes a lot also. There are also some really good advice about which openings to play at which level you are at on streaming sites. So check out those streams. Most importantly have fun, you learn as much when you lose a game as when you win.

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