Summer Slide
Chess does not like breaks...
It’s been a minute. May and June have come and gone and we’re well into July. While it is hot outside (110 F as I write) it has not been so hot on the board for me. Let me explain…
First of all, the online tournaments I participate in (Lichess4545, Dojo Classical) changed a bit. I’ve focused on getting more slow games that count towards my Chess Dojo cohort (1500-1600). That meant playing a bunch of slow games in June also with the Dan Heisman Learning Center (DHLC) and Dojo Classical. Those ended in late June…. leaving me idle hands (more on this later).
My performance during that time was… ok. Here’s my accuracy on Classical and Rapid games.
May: 8 games, Avg. Accuracy 83.3%
June: 10 games, Avg. Accuracy 78.3%
I felt I’ve reached a plateau for some time. However, things changed during that time. My kid was home, my schedule changed, and I found it harder to set aside time to play chess. I had idle hands with 10-15 minute windows to fill. Enter Blitz…
Blitz is good for at least three things, two of which are good and one of which is bad:
#1) Practicing your opening repertoire (Good)
#2) Testing your pattern recognition for tactics (Good)
#3) Consuming a lot of your time and attention (Bad)
For opening practice… one has to review each and every game compared to the book. Sometimes you get rare or uncommon openings. My goal is to simply learn one move more than I knew before. For example against the Russian game I’ll often play 3.Nc3 but what do I do against 3…Bb4? I played Bc4 in the game, but appears that’s not best, giving Black more counter play than I’d like.
OK… 4.Nxe5! It’s just a slight advantage but it’s nice to know what the theory is. From the DB it looks like only White is playing for a win after 4.Nxe5
Pattern recognition also can get worked. I’ve found (and missed) several mates playing Blitz. Here White played 41.Bb5+?? which led to a mate in 2 for Black here.
After Ke7 b7 Re4# it was game over. They were one tempo short of reaching the queening square. But the Rook had trapped the king and the Bb5+ move simply helped me get to the critical square to set up the mate.
Of course it also works against me. Here for some reason I played 11…Qd3?? completely missing the mate in 1.
It was over after White played Qe6#… bummer
However, Blitz has also taken a lot of time and attention from me. It may come as no surprise but blitz is SO ADDICTIVE! Anytime you want some chess-like action, just click a button. It’s so easy to get a game that I find my mind wandering when there’s a moment of down time. I say “chess-like” because I don’t think Blitz is “real” chess. It’s chess, but played badly. I hardly ever get >70% accuracy on the games. It doesn’t help to build good habits like slower, focused chess does. At least it doesn’t for me. I’ve fallen back into see-move-make-move. As long as I understand that, I think it can help me fill in the holes in my repertoire. But blitz cannot be the only way I play.
So hopefully my summer slide will now come to an end with resumption of slow games. Chess Dojo Classical and DHLC are starting back up again. Whatever time control I play, it is my intent to play each and every game (blitz, rapid, classical) by using as much time as I am allowed. Dan Heisman advises something like this, to use all the time you have to determine if positions are critical and how the board will change with each move. Using the formula of [(40 moves * increment) + Seconds in a game]/ 40 moves will give you how much time per move you’re allowed
Blitz 5m + 3 seconds 10.5 seconds per move
Rapid 15m + 10 seconds 32.5 seconds per move
Classical 60m + 30 seconds 120 second per move
I play each game quickly in the opening where I 100% know it. After that I will slow down to assess if a position is critical. I could care less about rating right now, especially in Blitz. It’s the habit of stopping and checking that I want to establish. From my experience over the last two months, I need to work on that.
I’d love to hear your summer experience. Let me know how you’ve handled any plateaus you’ve had or are having. As always, thanks for reading and please share if you like it!