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Blitz or not?
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Author:  mayweed [ Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:22 am ]
Post subject:  Blitz or not?
Lo
I've got a question wrt practice of blitz game. I heard from some stronger players that it can hurt beginners to play blitz (like 1mn + 5x0:30 byo-yomi). According to your experience, does the playing of blitz slow the progress of a player or prevent him to go beyond a certain level?
Finally, is there a good method to play blitz? Is there at contrary something not to do in blitz game if you want to go up?
Thx for your sharing :)
Author:  BaghwanB [ Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:31 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Blitz or not?
It can be fun, but don't spend all your time playing it (or even much of it right now). Especially as a beginner, you should be spending some time in your games trying to understand why you are playing any given move and not just reacting or playing what "looks good" without any understanding why. If you are looking for quick games, I'd suggest smaller boards instead of 10 minute time limits.

Once you have a better understanding of why a given move is good or bad, then your fast play will become more competent and you can have for fun with the idea of blitz. But for now (and probably quite a while), make sure you are getting lots of "slow" games in (and review them) so you can figure out what's going on on the board.

Bruce "Speed Cop" Young
Author:  MarylandBill [ Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Blitz or not?
mayweed wrote:
Lo
I've got a question wrt practice of blitz game. I heard from some stronger players that it can hurt beginners to play blitz (like 1mn + 5x0:30 byo-yomi). According to your experience, does the playing of blitz slow the progress of a player or prevent him to go beyond a certain level?
Finally, is there a good method to play blitz? Is there at contrary something not to do in blitz game if you want to go up?
Thx for your sharing :)


I am a beginner myself... and I think I would agree that Blitz games are not a good practice at first. As beginners, the most important object of playing for us should be to learn... especially learn about what makes a move good or not. Blitz games, in my opinion simply don't allow us the time to think through our moves or look for the why in our opponents moves.

I move too fast, I know it, and I am working to try and slow myself down. I think I learn more by 1 game where I take 20-30 seconds on a move than I will in 10 games where I take 2-3 seconds. But that is just me :).

--
Bill
Author:  levanez [ Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Blitz or not?
at 15kyu you definitely should not be playing blitz, it gets you into the habit of "play first, think later" many beginners have, which you need to drop if you want to get past DDK (double digit kyu).

On a related note when you're solving tsumego try to read out all the variations and be sure you've got it right before placing the stone, don't just glance at the problem and hit where you think is the key point.
Author:  illluck [ Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blitz or not?
I'm not sure I agree with the above posters - I don't think there's anything bad about playing blitz. Playing longer games might be more useful in terms of improving (but I'm not convinced even about that for beginners), but you'll probably improve faster by doing what you enjoy as a beginner.

Personally, I feel that beginners should play faster games - the main hurdle is often not in reading, but in common pattern recognition/feel for shape.
Author:  hyperpape [ Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blitz or not?
  1. 1 m + 5 x 0:30 isn't blitz if you use your time. If you just slap your stone down immediately, then you're playing blitz even if you put 20 minutes on the clock.
  2. I have never actually heard anyone give concrete evidence that blitz or slow games are better. Keep that in mind as you read any discussions about the subject.
  3. Tiny indirect evidence: I think the obsession with playing slow is more common among Western amateurs than in East Asia. I have heard that Korean amateurs almost always play at breakneck pace unless they enter tournaments (which typically have 45 minutes absolute time or less, unlike tournaments in the West).
  4. Children rarely play slowly. They often improve rapidly. Of course they do not learn exactly the same way we do.

My gut reaction is to play what you like.
Author:  Shaddy [ Wed Apr 06, 2011 7:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Blitz or not?
Use enough time so you can have a few thoughts about your move, but not too many. Overthinking is very, very easy to do.
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