I’ve been casually enjoying chess off and on for the past year, and while I can tell that I’m improving, I think I need to get faster at calculating. I play mostly Daily games (1300-something currently) and am a puzzle fiend, but I find myself getting into time-trouble constantly when I play games with actual time controls.
I want to get comfortable with blitz, but I feel like I’m not learning as much because I’m just scrambling to get (often terrible) moves out in time. I tried puzzle battle for the first time recently too, and even though my regular puzzle rating is 2500, I’m frequently losing on time once the puzzles get to 1000+ (my avg time per puzzle is usually 0:06-0:08 at the end).
I suspect the answer is just going to be to play more with time controls, but I’m curious if anyone here has found any practice tips that have helped them personally.
Well you’re doing better than me. I’ve been casually playing for 6 years and 1350 in daily is my peak lol.
For me personally, I find Rapid 10 min games are a good in between for being able to manage your time and also perform the necessary calculations. What’s your Rapid rating out of curiosity?
Also you’re using chess.com I assume?
But yeah not that I am qualified to answer your question but I like to do a set of puzzles as a warm up before I start running through games. It seems to help me get into that tactical mindset and I can spot things quicker.
I do really like the rapid time control, it’s just that it’s a longer commitment and harder to find the time/focus for me. In a year of being into chess, I’ve only played 20 rapid games, with my rating sitting at 1170.
Yeah, I’m on chess.com (I know I know, it’s not the FOSS option).
Understandable. I feel the same way about 30 min time controls. Just a bit too much of a time commitment.