How to play faster but not (much) worse?

I loose quite a number of games by running out of time but in better positions. I would, of course, like to play faster but I don't know how to do it without increasing my blunder rate too much.

I know the obvious answer of practice, practice, practice - but maybe some of you have other ideas/strategies.

As I like to attack I often end up in complicated open positions which I can only deal with using up (too) much time. I play Blitz only (1550), and my puzzle rating is about 2000 but it takes me a while to do each of them.

Have not found a forum post discussing this question.

Hi,

To play fast and good, you must have tens of thousands of games in your subconcious "positional memory". So there is no shortcut. You simply have to put in the hours and the years.

But if you have a strong will to improve, playing alot every day for several years will not be a problem. Afters those years you can start playing fast and good.

Blitz is a poorish place to start learning the game. I recommend playing a couple of years only 15mins + 15mins or slower games.

I think you can improve by playing blitz, especially if there is an increment but in my opinion you need a very strong base in chess before this is possible. And you can get this base only in longer games.

If possible join a real life chess club and go play there every week. It will help you alot. It will also be a gateway to otb real chess tournaments with slow time control. Playing real slow otb chess tournaments ie. "serious chess" will give you your base for chess faster. Especially if you have the will to improve.

You can always play blitz on the side, but blitz only mirrors your skills in long chess.

Once you have a good base in chess, you can start to train to play fast. I used bullet for this myself. I used to play 1 min bullet with no premove. This taught me to analyze the position with a glance and based on that glance I always have my opponents most likely next move in my mind and my reply to that move. Most of the time the opponent moves what you expect and you can instantly make your move. Rest of the time you take a new glance and then move based on that and also you instantly make a prediction for the opponents next move.

In blitz you can use this skill when things get hot and the time gets low. But before that just play your best positional chess in blitz (you learn it by playing long games).

I agree with the above, quicker calculation comes from practice/experience. One thing you may or may not be doing well is using your opponents time well. On your opponent's turn you should be trying to predict possible moves and calculating your response to those moves.

That way you are saving time if any of those moves are played and you force them to use more of their own time, instead of letting them calculate future lines on your time. Hope this helps!

Repeatedly playing chess is not the best way to improve at it:
http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/reingold/publications/PDFs/Charness.Tuffiash.Krampe.Krampe.Vasyukova.2005.pdf

Some people play better by calculating things.
Some people play better by pattern recognition.

Im more of the second one. So I tend to be better at bullet and blitz compared to standard or otb.

Toadofsky thank you for the url. Very informative. 10 years of study to become a GM. If one has a natural talent and really love chess and prepare to earn a livelihood from it then it is alright to spend 10 years of one's life to study chess. Imho sport like soccer and tennis pay more in monetary term but 10 years of of academy school. I am wondering whether Bobby Fischer had 10 years of study and who was his tutor. 10 years can produce doctor and surgeon. bye friend.

@anyonemouse,

If you're young (like U25), then simply playing a lot will lead to improvement at fast time-controls. If you're older, you can cram patterns using these methods :

- do "board vision exercises" (chessgym.net or Fritz attackers/defenders)
- go for intensive tactics training with very simple puzzles (look on the web for methods such as "Munich's saltmines", "woodpecker", "7 circles" and so.)
- go over thousands of master games featured in game collections - use only a couple minutes per game

However, you may also have an interest for thinking and long time control chess. In this case, I suggest you join a local chess club and appreciate the full beauty of the game :-) (This is the option I chose 20 years ago, and never regretted it)