How to Master Bullet Chess: The Insider Tips
Recently I had a brief conversation with one of the top internet bullet chess players in the world and I want to share some of the secrets with you. He have played tens of thousands of bullet games (1-2 minutes per game) against the strongest competition. This player have shared his own vision of this game which dramatically differs from classical chess. The main difference, of course, is that both players experience extreme deficit of time.
We have previously discussed how to play better at blitz chess, which is the 3-5 minute per side. However, the bullet chess is completely different animal.
Many players do not appreciate bullet chess due to its lack of well calculated variations and intuition based play. It is true that playing too much bullet chess will not be as beneficial very for novice players if they want to improve their game. However, for stronger players playing short time control games can help to develop chess intuition as well as to test opening ideas.
There is no time to think about each move, the decisions need to be made almost instantaneous making the game very unpredictable. In bullet, a much weaker opponent has a greater chance of beating a stronger opponent, than say in classical chess. For example, an experienced bullet player with 1800 -2000 classical ELO can beat a GM, not as experienced at 1 minute chess, maybe 2 times out of 10. In classical time control, this player will not stand a chance against a GM.
What equipment do you need for winning at bullet chess?
With a freezing computer, slow internet connection and an old mouse it will be difficult to compete at bullet chess, where every single second counts. Therefore, the following are recommended for optimal play at bullet chess:
1. A high end, precise and fast gaming mouse is necessary to save time which you never have enough at bullet chess
2. A fast internet connection with a minimum server ping/lag, meaning your moves will not be delayed
3. A large screen, at least 19 inches, where you can expand the chess board for the ease of use
How to maximize your results at bullet chess (the insider’s tips):
The main resource of bullet chess is time. The most important idea that you need to always keep in mind when playing bullet is that you need to save your own time and to force your opponent to spend his. How can that be done?
1. Do not play standard opening lines (such as Queen’s Gambit or standard Sicilian lines), since your opponent most likely knows them as well, and will not spend much of his time thinking about the moves. Instead, play off-beat, rare lines, the ones you won’t ever play in classical chess.
2. Play the lines which lead to positions which do not require much thinking from your side. Avoid open positions in favor to closed systems (especially against stronger opponents), in which you can burn the clock by simply moving back and forth. That is something many novice bullet players do not understand, and that’s one of the main reason they lose on time.
3. Keep the knights on the board. Remember, in blitz the knights are as valuable as the rooks. It is also true for bullet chess. Knight moves tend to burn more of your opponent’s time than other moves, say bishops, because of L-shape nature which is generally harder to visualize, especially in extreme time deficit.
4. If you are up on time, you should repeat the position for couple of times, which will burn your opponent’s clock. Be careful of threefold repetition draw rule. For example you can attack a piece and step away for a couple of times or to check the opponent’s king twice before continuing with the attack.
5. Play on both sides of the board and make moves that your opponent does not expect to be made. That does not necessarily have to be objectively strongest moves on the board, but they will do their trick by burning opponent’s clock due to an element of surprise.
It is indeed make sense to learn fundamentals of chess, train tactical skills, go over the masters games, and study most common endgames which are the most important components of our training program which will bring your chess level up allowing winning both short and long time control games.
Strategy against a stronger opponent at bullet chess:
1. Play defensively, it is much harder to beat a defensive player at bullet chess.
2. Keep the position closed. Do not exchange pawns. It is much harder to break through the closed pawn formation when you’re short on time that will involve some element of risk which you can utilize at the right time.
3. Exchange pieces, especially the queens. This is a completely opposite approach from playing a stronger opponent at classical time control, where we want to complicate the position. The main idea in bullet’s defense is preventing your king from getting mated for a maximum number of moves. Simple, closed positions are the best bet for that.
4. Castling, contrary to the classical chess, is not always a good idea. The reason is that after castling your king has a more or less permanent position on the board and it’s much easier for your opponent to come up with a plan to attack.
Therefore, sometimes it make sense to leave your king in the center and castle only when it is absolutely crucial to evacuate the king from a direct threat. Remember, time is the number one priority. Meanwhile, the king can hide behind its pawns.
Strategy against a weaker opponent at bullet chess:
1. Play aggressive, attacking chess. That will increase your chances of winning and decrease chances to run out of time.
2. Aim for open positions where it is easy to come up with a plan to launch an attack on the opponent’s king.
3. Avoid exchanging pieces especially the queens. You will need it for an attack.
4. Keep in mind that if your opponent is playing very quickly, the quality of his moves will be very low and you can take advantage of that. However, you shouldn’t over-think the position, that’s how you can get in time trouble.
Strategy when you are winning at bullet chess:
1. Force your opponent to play defensively, that way you will control the position and will not need to spend much time thinking.
2. If you see a quick checkmate, go for it. If you don’t, you should focus on capturing the material, creating and queening passed pawn. Afterwards, it will be much easier and faster to checkmate your opponent’s king.
3. Keep the things simple to deliver the mate with either two rook or the queen.
Strategy when you are losing at bullet chess:
1. When you’re losing positionally you should primarily focus on dropping your opponent’s flag. In order to do that you need to play actively and try to make your opponent spend time thinking.
2. It is especially important to play forcing moves such as checks, captures and threats (even the obvious ones). That will burn some of your opponent’s time.
3. Push your pawns forward towards the promotion squares. That will draw attention of your opponent and he will spend valuable time trying to stop it.
4. If you’re about to get mated, or your opponent has just 1-2 seconds left on his clock you can sacrifice some material with a check in hope of your opponent flagging before mating you.
Good luck with you bullet games!
Note: The world-class bullet player whose ideas are used in this article wished to remain anonymous 🙂
Don’t forget to check out our training program below, most of the information presented in the program applies to short time control chess games as well:
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