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Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Remove the evil in blitz

Why is it when I don't try to improve my chess (except for stuying tactics) and I just play tuns of blitz... my blitz chess ability soars... lots of tactic problems and blitz... and when I start to focus on real chess improvement... and play some slow games... I cannot play blitz anymore... at all... I think I have a hard time transitioning from quickly analyzing threats and possible treats to long term planning... I think I forget that when playing slow (real) chess I should do the same things as I do when I am playing good blitz but take the time to be sure... not just feel good, hope chess. My realization is that when I am playing good blitz is when I first consider my oponents threats first... and last... When I am playing good blitz I first figure out what he can do to me... then check to see what I can do to him... you know ... can he mate me or take material.. oh he can... can I do it to him worse by ignoring his threat... if no... how do I deal with his threat... can I... if the situation is hopeless is there a good tricky trap I can set... When I start playing slow chess I stop doing that for some reason... and start planning first... then check to make sure my plan works... I think this is good... but I think I need to try playing blitz... as real chess... BUT... just before making my move... 1.) make sure it is tactically sound in the short term 2.) make sure it doesn't create other weaknesses 3.) check the resulting position for bad tactics or the seeds of tactical destruction... The transition back to quick chess will simply be to believe my gut and quick tactical checks... to transition to slow chess will be to not hope... but make sure... I think this will remove the evil of blitz.  Blitz is bad becuase it messes up your real chess thinking pattern... so if I make them almost identical then playing slow chess will not hurt my blitz and vica versa.  By the way... I got smoked at blitz (4 games in a row) last night after spending 25 minutes analyzing a position of a corespondence game... all games I should have won and had a superior position/attack.  I dropped all of them to stupid one or two move tactics.  Slow chess puts my blitz in slow motion... I actually think that blitz doesn't hurt my slow chess but slow chess hurts my blitz... ?  BUT I do know that blitz does not improve my playing strenght where slow chess does.  The reason is a slow game I remember the moves after the game and can then analyze the moves and decide if they were good or bad... and at least for a week or two recall that information... blitz I have little or know retention...  I think really really strong chess players have the ability to remember many sequences of moves and therefore can chunck more info.  The chucking process allows them to think about more info and faster than one who is not chunking significant sequences of moves. Ok enough... goal play slow chess like blitz but slow down... goal get top candidate in under 15 seconds.. then stop... and look... Blitz... get top candidate...check it... if I feel it is a critical move... check clock see if there is time to keep looking... look for x time... if no move make top candidate...  

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