I’m a 3000 blitz player – what do you struggle with most in blitz?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been playing on Lichess for a while under the nickname doughnut42, and recently crossed 3000 blitz. In real life, I’m an International Master, and blitz has always been my favourite format.

I’m thinking about creating some resources (videos, ebooks, or short guides) to help players improve their online blitz practical skills, covering topics like:

1. Time management and when to spend time vs move instantly

2. Flagging tricks and mouse speed techniques

3. Choosing openings that suit blitz and bullet

4. Staying calm in the event of time scrambles

What do you personally find hardest about blitz games?

I’d love to hear what topics would be most useful for you, be sure to share your own struggles, your own blitz tips, or just anything that comes to mind.

Thanks and good luck in your next games!

– doughnut42

Its hard to get 3000 rapid?
You are super! How mach you have in chescom blitz?

@doughnut42 all four of them. There's not enough time to look for tactical and positional ideas.

Time management is the hardest. I'm yet to play a blitz game on Lichess, but I've played a bunch of them in real life tournaments.
This time control is just too fast for me. I guess the only feasible way to improve is to play, but oh well.
I'm not really interested in flagging. Nothing wrong with it, it's a part of the game, but I rather prefer winning in a more... Meaningful way.
What I'm extremely jealous of, however, is the ability to find good moves and beautiful tactics in a time scramble. Absolute magic.

@RemRus said in #2:

Its hard to get 3000 rapid?
You are super! How mach you have in chescom blitz?
Hey, thanks a lot!
Yeah, honestly I think getting 3000 rapid is actually harder than blitz here. Right now, the top active rapid players aren’t even reaching 2900, so it’s definitely tougher to gain a lot of rating per win at the very top in rapid compared to blitz.

That said, it’s easier to gain rating quickly if you start fresh – new accounts tend to rise faster if you’re playing well. I might give it a shot at some point and try to push through to 3000 rapid just for the sake of it.

As for chess.com, I’m not the biggest fan personally – I’ve run into quite a few cheaters there (not sure if others had the same experience). I did have an account there a few years back, and my blitz rating was around 2800 the last time I played, but I wasn’t taking it super seriously. I feel like if I did grind there properly, there's more potential to gain higher ratings, and I wouldn't be surprised if my chess.com rating would be even higher than my lichess blitz.

Thanks for your question, and good luck with your games!

Cool idea. I pretty much play the same repertoire in blitz and slow games.

Would love some content on dirty tricks. Two tricks I have been able to identify

• When both are low on time. Check them and premove something right after the check.
• When in lost positions and their queen is undefended, move somewhere with your queen far away but attacking their queen. You "hang" your queen but sometimes they don't see it. 50% of the time it works every time.

I am stuggling with time management in bullet,what should I do

@Cedur216 said in #3:

@doughnut42 all four of them. There's not enough time to look for tactical and positional ideas.
Yeah, that’s exactly what makes blitz so chaotic and fun to play at the same time!
Honestly, the key is to train yourself to spot tactical patterns as quickly as possible rather than calculate them from scratch each time, and overall for blitz I wouldn't recommend calculating variations that last any more than 5 moves max, unless there's a very specific reason to do so, and even when it comes to tactics I often just trust my instincts. For positional ideas, I try to simplify my thought process to just two quick questions mid-game: “What’s my worst piece that I could improve right now?” and “What’s their main threat?” – this alone avoids tons of mistakes without eating your clock, and it works even on the highest level, as playing blitz really isn't rocket science, it's mostly all about not blundering your own pieces while capturing as many of opponent's as possible. Also playing openings with simple piece set-up where you don't have to worry so much about what opponent does really helps, so these could be K.ID., London System, Jobava London, Grand-prix attack for white (against the Sicilian), and maybe Caro-Kann as well.

I’ll be writing some blog posts soon about this, breaking down practical shortcuts for blitz decision-making that helped me reach 3000, so stay tuned for that if you’re interested. But yeah, you’re right, there really isn’t enough time to think deeply in blitz, so the only solution is to make your thinking faster and simpler/more efficient.

Good luck with your games, and let me know if there’s any specific area you want tips on for blitz!

@vdnh said in #4:

Time management is the hardest. I'm yet to play a blitz game on Lichess, but I've played a bunch of them in real life tournaments.
This time control is just too fast for me. I guess the only feasible way to improve is to play, but oh well.
I'm not really interested in flagging. Nothing wrong with it, it's a part of the game, but I rather prefer winning in a more... Meaningful way.
What I'm extremely jealous of, however, is the ability to find good moves and beautiful tactics in a time scramble. Absolute magic.
Yeah, time management is probably the biggest challenge for most players. Blitz feels too fast because it is indeed too fast compared to classical.

Here are just a few tips that really helped me early on:
Always play the first 10-15 moves instantly if it’s an opening you know, even if you’re not sure of the exact move order. You can think later when pieces are developed.
Don’t aim for the best move every turn. Aim for a good enough move that keeps you in the game. Trying to find brilliance every move is the fastest way to flag.
To spot tactics faster in time scrambles, practice tactical patterns daily, but also learn to see checks and captures instantly, and even if you’re down to seconds, these are your lifelines.

And yeah, flagging isn’t everyone’s favourite, but I've had experience of playing thousands of ultrabullet games, and at some point it just naturally becomes part of the practical skillset, but I completely understand why someone with tons of classical/rapid experience would struggle with it. I’ll be writing some blog posts soon on time management and how to find good moves under time pressure with more in-depth explanations, so feel free to check those out when they’re up.

Keep at it, blitz will start feeling a lot slower after some training. Good luck!

@greysensei said in #6:

Cool idea. I pretty much play the same repertoire in blitz and slow games.

Would love some content on dirty tricks. Two tricks I have been able to identify

• When both are low on time. Check them and premove something right after the check.
• When in lost positions and their queen is undefended, move somewhere with your queen far away but attacking their queen. You "hang" your queen but sometimes they don't see it. 50% of the time it works every time.
  Haha, love those tricks – especially the “hang your queen but attack theirs” move. That’s a classic in ultrabullet or bullet where nobody has time to double-check captures.

In blitz, these can still work but the higher-rated you go, the less often they’ll fall for them, although it definitely depends on the time situation and how experienced they are under time scrambles, and depending on my opponent's Bullet/UB rating I tend to build up my flagging strategies from there.

Some other little tricks I sometimes use under heavy time pressure are:

1. Checks that force them to move only their king – keeps the initiative while you premove next;
2. Moving a knight back to its original square with tempo (especially if they premoved an obvious capture);
3. Pre-moving pawn pushes that block checks – very effective when they’re about to premove checks on an open file, and I find it very easy to premove pawns when playing on my phone/tablet, I think that's where playing on a computer falls short, but you can still do it.

That said, I still tend to play more reasonable moves even down to my last seconds, it feels more reliable overall, but of course, depends on the exact situation.

I’ll definitely include some dirty trick content soon, it’s a fun topic. Thanks for the ideas!