Bullet Chess #4: Fidgeting

Apart from the 10+1 (10 seconds with 1-second increments) games I had, I also tried playing 1-minute games. This was six years ago. I would only do this when I had the balls and the courage to face other players in faster time controls especially with a rather slow internet connection.

As such, these games wouldn’t really be much fun for me and obviously it won’t be instructive either. But I can say that I wasn’t doing badly at all when I played bullet games. I guess it’s because my opponents were just as low-rated as I was but if I were to play against them again, it would probably be a lot easier. Then again, many years have already passed so it’s possible that they also improved, perhaps more so than I have.

Let’s have some fun looking at some of them. Again, bullet games aren’t the most instructive games to study but they provide us with an area where we can probably have a chance to even win against strong players. Not to say that strong players aren’t good at bullet games, they are. It’s just that the circumstances are different. With more pressure on time, they too might miss moves that in a classical game, they would easily have the time to calculate or even simply notice.

Oftentimes with low-rated players, bullet games would end in a time forfeiture and if not, it would most likely end quickly because of one major blunder. As I said, with elite players, it’s different. They probably have more leeway finding tactics and demolishing their opponents even after one inaccuracy.

Analysis





In the first game, Black was doing a lot better. After winning two pawns, there wasn’t a lot that White could do except flag him, which he did. Black did make a mistake and left several pieces hanging so that added a lot of pressure that ultimately gave White the victory.

In the second game, Black had made a few lapses in the outset. White didn’t capitalize but later on, White was able to gain a pretty big advantage both in position and time so it was an easy win for White.