What do you say about it?

I find that if you're in a sequence that you're realizing is a trap, and the pressure on you is building. Or you've blundered, or worse, you deservedly are about to get crushed—its a traumatic experience where the ideational nature or principles of the position are more readily gleaned.


Yes, more longer the game you can play, it can test your concentration, visualization and memory power.

When I initially started playing Chess, I was always excited to play blitz Chess. I kept playing and finally I couldn't improve my Chess as I didn't improve what was needed.

Recently I played with a time control of 1 hour in my debut FIDE tournament, I took the most time for my moves against my opponent. All 9 players I met in the field were having Class C rating but then they had the basics right. I could win against 6 and drew with one while losing the remaining two because of minor blunders. Luckily, I could open my FIDE rating in my very first tournament, though the rating is not much to be proud of. It set a platform for me to concentrate more on longer games and less on blitz.


Like sprinting vs. a marathon, both styles of game are valid but build different skills. Blitz chess is all about "board vision": the ability to quickly recognize tactical patterns, identify threats, or just create an innate sense of where the pieces should go. Longer time controls exercise computational skills: the ability to "go deep" on exchanges or set up a tactic.

Playing only one style may help you win sooner, but I would argue that playing both will help you win more often.


short answer, yes. But that does not mean that play no blitz. try playing 7-8 blitz games but play all the other games in longer times. the myth that you improve by playing blitz is there because you can recognize more patterns and learn how to manage time trouble. Also you can cheat because of low time (the reason why gm play blitz. But even they played longer formats first). For everything else longer games are better.


No. It's the opposite. The QUICKER games improve your chess skills. It's somewhat like the principle "if you are going for a 300 meter race, train like you are going for three times 100 meters sprints".

In quick games you will initially make a lot of mistakes. You will get frustrated, commit blunders, miss tactics etc. The quick realization that you made a mistake will be ingrained in your memory and next time you will immediately recall what you did last time in similar position.

I play on chess.com and the titled players the longest games titled players play there are 3 mins matches. It enhances your thinking and decision making potential so that you can assess the situation more deeply when you get longer time controls.

  • Actually sprinting 300m is nothing like 3x100m because lactate accumulation in the muscle becomes a real problem after appr. 150m of full sprint. That is the reason why 100m/400m double starts are extremely rare. You have to train differently to handle the lactate. In chess terms your analogy would translate to: In blitz you never learn deep calculation or precise positional assessment of a position, because in blitz both of these are irrelevant. – BlindKungFuMaster Jun 16 '15 at 13:42
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    In blitz you never have the time for deeper calculation, but you learn how to analyze quickly (in limited depth) which is the main point behind blitz play. Blitz sharpens your quick thinking skills so that when you have more time on your hands in a high level tournament, your analysis of the situation gets really deep and you can think 3-4 moves ahead. – Youstay Igo Jun 17 '15 at 4:58
  • If that's true, @Youstay Igo, why is there so much negative criticism of blitz play? It's because it cultivates habits of playing intuitively. If you let these habits become ingrained, then in longer time control games, your opponent will always be able to beat you by calculating concrete variations because you haven't practised it enough. Sure, in blitz you learn how to analyze quickly, but it's largely superficial, and only 2-3 moves deep, ever. In a 40/90 game, you just won't have the mental muscle tone needed to beat an opponent who concentrates on playing at standard time controls. – jaxter Sep 15 '16 at 5:04

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