How to get better at bullet

Bullet and hyper-bullet are the most ridiculous forms of chess. Even GMs drop pieces. I don't understand why even elite players would want to play a form of the game with the least depth. There's at least some depth in blitz (especially the 5|0 and 5|3 forms) and even more in rapid. This "need for speed" is only a few decades old because in the 1980s and before there was no bullet and blitz was 5 minute, not 3|0.

I think engines will eventually kill classical chess but we don't need to accelerate its demise with these forms of chess that are move-on-reflex.

@Eleuthero I guess people want to play this time controls because it's loads of fun. It's based mainly on reflex of players (how you describe it), and there is a small test who has better. If you play bullet/hyperbullet and get frustrated because of many flags or piece blunders, then you should back to normal rapid games.
When I hear that bullet is the most ridiculous form of chess I think that this is just some boomerish thinking, chess is having it's 2nd life in the decade of internet, so many new variants/time controls/websites will be still created, there are many more pointless things in chess than bullet.

I have a friend who also wants to know how to get better at bullet. He has no idea how to play chess. But with his natural exceptional speediness he is confident that he can become a bullet chess master. In fact in between saving Planet Earth bullet chess may become his main recreational activity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTYqs-ytSk

@IAmMateCheckMate

I've already weighed in on premove but premove dominates online bullet far more than the longer time controls. As I've said recently, premove is precisely touching your pieces while the opponent is moving which is absolutely illegal in OTB chess. Can anything be more "pointless" in chess than it's most absurd time controls? You don't seem compelled to name what you claim are "more pointless things in chess than bullet". Are we supposed to guess?

Finally, it's just stupid to blame my contention on "boomerish thinking". My argument has absolutely nothing to do with my generation and everything to do with the obvious fact that bullet and hyper-bullet games have no depth, no strategy, grievous errors even by the world's elite, and short-term tactical shots. Boomers have an attention span and when they were young they'd read 3 or 4 novels per semester. Gen Y and Z don't read anything because they have no attention span. They also love the most absurd forms of communication i.e., Tweeting and texting.

I feel like people who dislike speed chess turn every bullet thread into a discussion "how bad and how pointless it is".
If you dont like it, just dont play it. Leave it to those insane freaks out there. :-)

@Eleuthero @Vegemite_Fighter
Can you please look forward with an excitement and not regret the "old good past".
Speaking of younger generation who walk down the street staring at the phone.
Did it change a lot? Its a new medium for now.
One hundred years ago people been walking on the street reading newspaper...

You could drill your mouse accuracy online or with a game such as Osu

You could try to observe strong players to get an idea of pacing, and strive to play at that sort of speed come what may.

This applies to half minute a lot more but a bullet maestro lichess player taught me the importance of playing in such a way that premoves are easy - you only need to engage your brain and burn your clock when your stuff is under threat. Keep it simple and stable and don't think when you don't need to.

Attack things, people make more mistakes and take longer to react when you apply some pressure.

The threat of bullshit premove tricks such as 1.g6 2.bg7 3.bxb2 can really throw an opponent off balance. You just have to mix it in enough so it occupies their mind and slows them down. You can also employ surprise moves in a time scramble such as a random spike check or even putting a piece in between where he wants to send one of his pieces, making his/her move illegal.

Learn when to start sprinting. If your position is lost anyway, it's often a much better strategy to play against your opponent's clock. If there's lots of material left on the board and both players time is critical you gotta turn on the jets ;)

@funkmaus

I'd be a hell of a lot happier if people really WERE going down the street reading a newspaper instead of messing around on their cell phones. Reading is almost a dying pastime because nobody has the patience to read, especially the young. So, of course, young chess players, even the elites, have little patience for even slow BLITZ. Blitz went from 5 minute to 3 minute in the 1990s and young chess players loved the reduced time. Bullet was virtually nonexistent until the new millennium and I wish it would crawl back under the rock that it came out of.

@Eleuthero @Vegemite_Fighter This is not a forum to discuss, whether bullet is good or bad, OP asked how he could improve his bullet and that's what we should tell him, not hijack this into a weird bullet discussion, if you want discussion about speed, ask kusokosla.

@LoudPearlPepper What @Funkmaus said is great advice for your bullet... But heed here warning it WILL be very bad for your chess, the habits bullet chess instills in you are really bad, cheap tricks weird openings,not thinking etc , those will be hard to break, you wouldn't be able to think for a long period of time and calculate accurate variations, not to mention reducing your attention span.. trust me i have been there..... anyway if you only want to improve your bullet than as i said listen to what funkmaus said, her advice is golden for bullet players. And as she said get comfortable in 1/4 and 1/2 and then you will see the difference in bullet.

There is a generation between us, dear @Eleuthero
I wonder if I will think like that in 20 years.
To be honest, I hope I wont.
Wanna be young forever, still there, alive and kicking :-)
The only thing I do regret as an old school lightning player is that I would rather play 1+0 without using premoves/auto-promote on mutual agreement.

I don't play as much bullet as I used to. These days I prefer increment in my bullet games but then its not really a bullet game anymore.