I am trying out Blitz training as per @Benedictine 's general recommendation for adult improvers. Yes, I know that is against some conventional wisdom but I think he might be right. I certainly want to try it.
Blitz is to me a very fast move rate and I am not used to it. I can't see tactics that fast, and at 5+3, I can't click moves fast enough when I am down to 3 seconds or even down to 10 seconds. One hesitation, mis-select or mis-click and it's all over.
What I need are hints to getting faster and better at tactics and at generating the mouse speed. Anything beyond these?
1. Study lots of puzzles, especially fast puzzles.
2. Know more strings of opening moves. (Common variations in my openings).
3. Play more blitz and never mind all the losses: just analyse them all.
4. Study the other aspects of chess too of course.
Are there any mouse or screen board tricks I need to know to speed up mechanically? I believe in Lichess we can pre-move just one move ahead. Is it best to play with a big board or a small board on screen?. I mean in the trade-off between movement distance over big squares and mis-click rate with small target squares? Is it best to click and drag moves or click departure square and arrival square? Any and all hints are welcome. I am not used to speed chess at all.
It already looks like you are playing some good games. I like very much the Caro game against Bio...The bishop trade and taking over the d-file with a rook on the 7th was well handled. From that position, leaving the rook on the 7th and attacking white’s weak pawns with Qc5 was the way to press your advantage. You also dealt with white's threats on f7 very actively at the end with Qe1+ Kh2 Qxe5+ followed by Queen trade offer Qf5 - nicely done. You just lost on time at the end in a won position as you're not used to the time controls. (3 Bg4 took you 30 seconds which is a lot of time for a 5 min game.) Doesn't matter. Take home learning point - leave rook on 7th and increase Queen activity around weak pawns.
Tactical pattern to take away from the Owen game against Craig. Move 29 Be6! deflection and pin of the Queen due to the mate threat. Nice pattern to know. I would rip that position and train it in Chessable. These patterns coming from your own games are really worth training as mentioned in that video I did yesterday.
One more, against Amateur 9. Nxe5! as the knight is untouchable due to the Re1 pin. Another very important pattern to know cold.
The Lichess coordinate trainer could be a training that helps a little, 30 seconds to click squares It helped me to decide on best boardsize
@Benedictine said in #2:
> It already looks like you are playing some good games.
But bottom line I have been lost 7 games in a row, the last few dreadfully. Maybe it was tilt but it was a bit more than that too. Frankly, at this point I think I am just too old. The opening variety in Blitz is totally bewildering . I am losing minutes in opening after opening trying to nut my way out of trouble. I can't avoid making multiple blunders at Blitz speed. My tactics are not improving.
I do feel sure that your blitz recommendation, as one plank of chess training, will work for adult improvers younger than me, hopefully 15 or 20 years younger.
However, I will give it a decent trial and see if there is any improvement. I am 8 months into puzzle training, Rapid 15+10 training plus study of chess principles and the game phases. So far, my improvement is, to be blunt, almost non-existent.
@Wodjul
It's not a good feeling losing, but you have to see it as long term investment. I once had a thread in a private group called 'The Road to 10,000 Blitz Games' meaning I would play 10,000 blitz games and then reflect. When you try to think in these terms 7 games mean nothing. 700 doesn't.
The most important thing to do is to learn from those games. Blitz games, when taken like this, can be seen as generating teaching items. In the three games I had a look at I found two absolutely vital tactical patterns to take home and one very useful strategic point in attacking weak pawns - and also a lot of good stuff you are already doing.
If I was you I'd collect those and train them. You can do this for free in Chessable (best) I can show you how if you're not sure how to do this or you can save the positions in a Lichess study (next best).
@Wodjul said in #4:
> Maybe it was tilt but it was a bit more than that too. Frankly, at this point I think I am just too old.
No one's too old for chess, man :) I read an article about two years ago about a 90+ old man (I think) becoming a FIDE master after a long time
Perhaps you can try reducing the board size so that it takes less time to make moves. Try to place it at a size slightly lower than what you're comfortable with. And if you're using a computer, yes, I feel that it's best to use the click-and-drag method of moving pieces. Once you play more blitz games, your mouse speed will increase. It's faster to drag (which requires a single click) than to click-and-move (which requires two mouse clicks but is better for longer time controls).
To increase your speed, try playing a few bullet (time control is up to you) and SuperBlitz (3+0) games with the computer and casual fast games with the online casual pool before going on to rated 5+3. Also, do a lot of puzzle storms and racers to decrease your time for spotting effective tactics. Above all, don't forget rapid and classical because that's going to help you in positional chess :D
if you learn a system opening , often you can get away with knocking out moves fast (not always !) this can give you an advantage on the clock in the middle and end game
Thanks to everyone for replying. There are a number of good ideas there.
1. On the mechanics of making moves, I am changing to a 75% size board from a 100% size board which I was using because of some sight problems I have. However, trialling 75% seems to show I lose nothing visually and I may gain something from less mouse travel. I may go smaller if it works. I could later trial moving from a right hand mouse to a left hand mouse. I am actually a natural left hander but have always used a right hand mouse. I started that way when desktop PCs came out because it was more convenient. I became naturalised to it at work and in other computer games. I never really thought I would be faster with my natural hand but maybe I could be. That's on the back burner for now.
2, I have steered away from system openings but I can see their attraction for Blitz. But a number of trainers and bloggers say don't play system openings, at least not exclusively or too much. This is because you get less opening repertoire practice, less practice in all the key pawn formations and general chess positions and probably less practice in general tactics as system openings tend to be more stylised and closed.
3. Something weird is happening to my play. In a nutshell it seems that the harder I train, the worse and more confused I become at chess. There could be any or all of the following factors at work:
(a) I have over-trained recently and I am physically and mentally fatigued. Fatigue is relative to both the amount of work and the individual capacity to absorb work. I can tell you from the heights, or rather lows, of septuagenarian-ism that capacity to absorb training work in chess becomes relatively low, without getting excessive brain fatigue or brain fog as they call it. I would say that two to three hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week, training and playing, should be my limit at this stage.
(b) My training is wrong. The random Lichess puzzles, within multiple tactics/motifs, are confusing me more rather than improving my tactics. Lichess does not offer targeted, selected puzzles.
(c) I did play chess a bit as a 30 year old. There were no chess machines for me then until the Novag Super-constellation came out, IIRC. No chess online. No automated online training. Online did not exist. I trained myself solely by studying openings and playing once a week at a local club. I had no coach, I did not do puzzles, or read other chess books or play fast chess. I think I self-taught myself a lot of bad mental habits in chess. I think those bad habits in perception, assessment and move-making are still in there ingrained. I have to undo all that as well.
d) At my age, I do have to watch out for pathological cognitive decline on top of "mere" age-related cognitive decline. I am already at a bad spot on the natural decline graph.
But I won't know for certain about all these issues unless I proceed for longer while not over-training and also maybe changing my training and training game methods and habits. Maybe something will work but I haven't found it yet. It is not far want of trying. In fact, I think I am trying too hard and not enjoying playing at all. That is an issue too. When the work effort is high and the reward is zero or negative is one simply being pigheaded even peristing? I wonder, I really do.
May I ask your age?
Because I am 68 and find that at 5+0 I'm OK for 60 moves or fewer. At 4+0 I lose every game either on time or not thinking fast enough & dropping stuff. (Well .... to be fully honest .... I can also lose at 5+0 by not thinking fast enough when getting a crushing attack that cant be continued based on instinct.)
Maybe there is a time control for you fast enough to play lots of games but long enough so it doesnt feel like one is making random moves.
Bill
@swimmerBill said in #9:
> May I ask your age?
> Because I am 68 and find that at 5+0 I'm OK for 60 moves or fewer. At 4+0 I lose every game either on time or not thinking fast enough & dropping stuff. (Well .... to be fully honest .... I can also lose at 5+0 by not thinking fast enough when getting a crushing attack that cant be continued based on instinct.)
> Maybe there is a time control for you fast enough to play lots of games but long enough so it doesnt feel like one is making random moves.
> Bill
I am 70 years and eight months.
I think what is important is what rating one achieved and still held when no more than about 50 or 55. It is really hard, but not impossible I guess, to get any significant improvement in chess after that and especially after 70. At least that is in my opinion from what I have now researched. I may be wrong. I hope I am wrong. I probably wouldn't have tried chess again in old age if I had realised what an uphill battle it would be with the cards of aged decline completely stacked against one.
However, I don't want to quit trying yet. I will likely give it about another year or so. By then I will know whether there is some mental life left in the old dog. Or whether it really is basically hopeless and just making a rod for one's own back. As I said, the outcome for effort ratio has been abysmal so far.
Yeah, 5+3 may be a hill too far for me for now or maybe even from now on. Perhaps 10+5 could work for me. I think @Bendictine 's ideas are sound but there may be a cut-off on the Blitz recommendation that comes before age 70 for most late adult improvers.
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