I'm cutting back on blitz

Right now in my chess trajectory I'm trying to play only slow games. Blitz feels wrong when I'm in this mode. Not only do I suck at it, but it seems to drag me into sloppy thinking habits. I think blitz has its place, but I think the best way to improve at blitz is to improve at slow games.

Next step is to try some correspondence games where you really have time to think and develop your plans!

I find it very helpful as I try to incorporate what I am learning in ICS. The only problem is that I've got too many games going right now and could hardly keep up!

I think Dan Heisman wrote in his Novice Nook once that the best blitz players are the best slow players. So if one follows this one indeed has to be good in slow games (best way to learn and inprint thoughtproces) before one can adopt what one has learned (how to handle certain positions, speeding up thoughtproces the right way) for playing blitz games.

Btw, i hear here much talk about correspondence games. Why dont we organize such tournament on a yet to be chosen server (gameknot, Red Hot Pawn, ...) under those members of this forum who want to join such tournament? All play all, each player play each other player once? Only thing on which i stand is that atleast 5 days of thinking time per move is used.

chesstiger wrote:I think Dan Heisman wrote in his Novice Nook once that the best blitz players are the best slow players. So if one follows this one indeed has to be good in slow games (best way to learn and inprint thoughtproces) before one can adopt what one has learned (how to handle certain positions, speeding up thoughtproces the right way) for playing blitz games.

Btw, i hear here much talk about correspondence games. Why dont we organize such tournament on a yet to be chosen server (gameknot, Red Hot Pawn, ...) under those members of this forum who want to join such tournament? All play all, each player play each other player once? Only thing on which i stand is that atleast 5 days of thinking time per move is used.

This is a good idea! Chess.com is another great site for correspondence games. It's easy and use, has great and clean interface and I think some of our members here are already members there.

Net-Chess.com is another site. Typical time is 30 days with 2 days added for each move.

Wish I had the patience.

What I've been doing is setting up a board, and going to ICC to find 40/5 games. I only look at the computer to find out the move my opponent makes. I do all the thinking by looking at the real board to emulate in-person chess more. It is a lot of fun!

Then, when I make a mistake or find a very complicated position the next day, after doing my quick postmortem, I typically spend about 20 minutes analyzing the position, writing down my thoughts.

Then I'll see what Fritz has to say.

I have stoped the blitz games. It's all 20 min+ games for me. I find I enjoy the game more when I can take my time.

For those who enjoy slow games in ICC with proper time to think i strongly recommend www.euwememorials.com
I have been playing a tournament and a match there.
Take a look.

Strad wrote:For those who enjoy slow games in ICC with proper time to think i strongly recommend www.euwememorials.com
I have been playing a tournament and a match there.
Take a look.

To do everything I need to find a new carreer. Something with a 2 hour work week. Does anyone have any ideas? we also need a spell check in this site.

fanat wrote:
This is a good idea! Chess.com is another great site for correspondence games. It's easy and use, has great and clean interface and I think some of our members here are already members there.

nice site chess.com! I already finished 2 games there, it help me much more in absorbing and applying the ICS material than the internet blitz games. Also, it helps me trying the opening materials from ICS.

I have played on ICC and find it's the best. Chess.com is good for correspondence games (but the livechess they have there is possibly the worst!). Correspondence ratings are way inflated for people who use openings database..and I try to avoid such players if I can. I might as well play CM9000 with its book moves running against me than a 2600 rated Corr. player who is barely 1500 OTB.

Well, astonishingly, my blitz have improved recently, i'm back at 1400 (while i was mainly 1300 for a long time), the reason is that i'm making far less blunders than before. I think it is a consequence of the ICS course.

On longer games, i'm still stucked at 1650, mainly because i try things that do not work properly, it is also a consequence of the course. I've learned new things and enjoy to use it, but i use it wrong (or at least not as efficiently i would to), so i fail sometimes.

For all those who are setting aside blitz for slower time controls, I believe you are doing the right thing. We are all trying to do something very difficult through ICS - that is change the our problem solving methodology at the chessboard. One cannot hope to fix and cement a re-wiring of the brain by bashing out moves in a format that will intevitably cause us to fall back on our default thought patterns buried in the bedrock of our consciousness.

I read this in the U1500 blitz tournament rules on ICC

Code:

To make the prize distributions fair and give everyone a chance to win, we have the following rule: To be eligible to win one of the prizes, you must have an ICC blitz-best rating under 1800, a current bullet rating (if you have one) under 1700, and a current standard rating (if you have one) under 1700.The idea is that people with bullet or standard ratings over 1700 probably are not truly "under 1500" strength players, and we want to give the "true" under 1500's a fighting chance to win prizes. You are still welcome to play even if you don't meet the prize requirements.

I think it's particularly weird to impose a standard rating < 1700 ?!
Personally i always had bullet < blitz < standard

bullet : 1150 (best 1320)
blitz : 1290 (best 1505)
standard : 1653 (best 1794)

But this rule suggest that players are not ranking this way.
Although i noticed the large majority of players on ICC don't play longer games, something is escaping to me...

BTW, what about you (regarding the rule "i sucks at bullet and am decent only at standard time limits") ?