Author: Jeroen van Dorp
Date: 15:54:06 03/29/99
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Dear Sarah, Some time ago I came up with the same question in rgcm I got some reactions I put together in a posting. Here 's the text. Maybe it's interesting. Jeroen ;-} <quote> A short time ago I asked you fellow chess players what you think about the value of playing blitz games. Thanks for all your answers, hints and suggestions. One stated that blitz is the future because of increasing internet play, another stated that blitz is especially good for your blitz – there we have a point folks :-)! Another urged to keep in mind that playing blitz should be alternated with longer games in order not to lose your strategic insight –something which is not that useful in blitz. I kept my own thoughts on the subject because I don’t have that much experience with playing blitz. But it is obvious that playing blitz has some advantages, especially for weaker players like me. 1. First of all blitz makes it possible to play a lot of games against real people, not only against your chess computer of computer program. The Internet is a fine playing ground there. Playing to real people prevents you from getting sloppy – like starting a game anew against a computer after a blunder – who cares? Not Fritz or Rebel or Chessmaster! So you become more alert and serious. 2. In the second place blitz learns you how to oversee situations very fast with simple themes like having a piece en prise or noticing forks, pins, etcetera. You learn to look at a position and evaluate it in a blink of an eye. That also helps you with regular tournament games. You only have to take care not to act as swift in those games as in a blitz game. 3. In the third place you can easily practice the same or different openings in a lot of different situations, so as a less powerful chess player you learn to pin down your repertoire to a few opening lines which always provide you with an answer, but doesn’t make you drown in all variations. 4. In the fourth place it learns you how important endgame play is. I read it with many chess authors – openings are important, but understanding the positional play in the endgame gives you the cutting edge in chess play. All in all blitz provides a training to me to overcome some specific problems weaker players often have, including getting sloppy, making simple mistakes, pinning down valuable openings, and assessing endgame in the right way. And I haven’t forgotten what all of you told me: blitz is short, so you can play a lot, and playing chess is fun. Ergo: blitz is fun. You’re right. Thanks all for your input. Jeroen :-} </quote>
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