It turns out there's a special 5-minute variant of blitz on ICC, with automatic opponent selection (closely rated) and automatic flagging & disconnection forfeit. It also has it's own rating, which seems to be a bit harder to obtain than the regular blitz rating. At least at the lowest level where I currently am. -I was just crossing over 1200 playing far inferior blitz compared to this moment, when I discovered the 5-minute automatic player pool (It's just really handy), and I sunk like a rock to the 900's. 890 was probably the lowest point. Today I finally clawed my way back to 1000+, and it took days to accomplish. The 5-minute pool players seem to also know their openings better than players in the regular blitz pool.
Anyway, it's been a constant battle against time. In the beginning I couldn't handle it at all, scrapping openings, middlegame, endgame, and almost never beating the flag. Huge blunders left & right, and the rare game I "won" I then lost because I panicked in the haste. Now, I can mostly keep my game together up until the endgame, but often fail to end it even with a straightforward win. Missing obvious mates etc. But it's all gotten a lot better during the week, and I feel quite optimistic that I'll soon get the hang of it. I now "win" about 80% of the games, and finish about 50% of my games to an actual win. There's definite progress, but still way too many games are lost just for panicking in a won position. "Won" as in having huge material lead in the endgame, not merely positionally winning. It still doesn't matter much how well my opponents play though, the losses are almost exclusively my huge blunders.
It's a rocky road learning to survive in blitz controls. Nothing like slow chess. Nothing like CTS either.
ICC 5-minute: 1021, 83 games.
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7 comments:
yes, the 5/0 pool has several major advantages: prevents selecting opponents, and the ensuent rating inflation some players get by avoiding certain types of opposition; it makes the pool larger, and it puts everyone in a rating category under the same measure, that is to say, 2/12 and 8/12 are all called blitz, as is 3/0, but each of those three are distinctly different variants of chess.
0/4 is MUCH better than 3/0, but sounds like you are destined to try it. after this long test of yours, i can assure you, you will be playing increment, whether it be 3/12 or 2/12 and often have nineteen seconds or fourteen seconds on the clock and feel that you adequate time, and can find a move. and eliminate the occurance of panic.
again, ultra fast games with increment avoids this crazyness, but as you wish: 3/1; 0/4, 2/1, and 1/2 or 3/3 etc (3:00 + 40*3=120/60= 2:00 = 5 minutes etc).
thus you limit the time spent, keep rapidity, but avoid the crazy mouse race, ruining many a good game, gg.
anyone miss tempo??? i do.
warmly, dk
Few hundred games more and you will be a deadly blitzer. Since most of your games are already 'won', all there is to do is finding a way to eliminate panic attacks and one move blunders that cost you a game. 5-minute is the best thing on ICC. Only bad thing about it, it's very addictive, you have been warned!
Cheers'
PI
yet another new handle, 'weakie'? :) I take it 'poisonivy' was already taken... -you can also change your screen name to whatever you like in the blogger preferences. I changed mine to 'wormwood' that way.
and yea, dk, I know playing without increments rushes the endings, but it's same for both players. so that's not a real disadvantage. -I also feel that the 'panic' & speed of play is what I need to address now. once I'll get those sorted I can go back to increments if I like.
today I messed up K vs KBB ending in 20 seconds. I just couldn't do it fast anymore. -just another remainder of how fragile a beginner's 'skill' is.
practice, practice, practice!
Funny how rating can differ: our FICS standard game rating is somewhat similar (mine is about 1680 right now) but my blitz rating on FICS (1450) is higher than yours and your CTS rating is much higher than mine (which is about 1400). I wonder what that means. Who's better at what, exactly? : )
Hm, my profile isn't showing my blog, and for some reason I can't set it to display it either. The profile should link to: http://caughtinthefire.blogspot.com/
xy, exactly. I've heard time and a time again people criticizing CTS because "it's just blitz and won't do anything to your slow play." which, as it turns out, couldn't be farther from the truth. it has affected only my slow play, leaving my blitz pretty much as if I had never played.
although I do expect some kind of a 'jump' after I get the basics of blitz down, as only then will my tactical & positional understanding begin to reap rewards.
I hope that's the case, anyway. :)
I think it's almost obvious that training tactics will improve both blitz and standard games. Or at least has a great potential of doing so, though of course other factors matters as well.
But let them think that CTS isn't very helpful, that just means more advantage for us. : )
I never play 5 0 blitz, it's just too little time. I feel I learn nothing when I have to rush myself like that. It's 5 14 or 5 15 for me. Which also happens to be the exact line between blitz and standard on FICS.
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