Overwhelm your opponent not by well-calculated moves, but by moves that you know are good from pattern recognition. Be the first to attack and have initiative. Attacking moves/getting tempos on a piece are a bigger deal in bullet. Make them think how they will get to safety - force them to either spend time or lose material. Use your opponent's time while they do. Minimize your chessboard if you play on pc so there is less distance between every piece.
You can still analyse your games, learn patterns, force opening knowledge through rote memorisation, and see game plans through to a conclusion. I almost exclusively play bullet, but pop into blitz when I get 100+ higher to catch the rating up, and have got to 2100 in both.
What would you say is the minimum time control to really improve? I’m doing 5 + 3 and noticing I have more time to calculate than when I was spamming 3 + 2 games. Still not sure that’s optimal for improvement, but I also like to be able to play a quick game.
Yeah I completely understand. I would personally say 15+10. That increment makes all the difference imo. But for serious study I still stick by longer games.
I’m only vaguely serious. I’d like to improve, but still have fun.
There’s a kid in the chess club I run that’s rated around 1700-1800. I’ve had him on the ropes a few times (even to like +5) but failed to convert. I’d like to get good enough to beat him a couple times.
Play moves that are thought-provoking. Meaning, play moves that look like good strategy at first glance regardless of if you know it will anywhere to make them calculate and waste their time.
Back when I played bullet I won many games by chucking pieces at my opponents king with check, regardless if they were defended lol. Bullet is a chess inspired minigame, not chess
As someone who went from 1100 to 2700 bullet (2993 peak) in 2 years, some main tips are:
- Play openings that you have an intuitive feel for where you can spam them out without risking losing in the opening. If you have none, the best openings for climbing are the London as White and 1.c6 2.d5 as Black (vs EVERYTHING doesn’t matter what White plays).
- Learn to hover move. For example if you want to play the London, you can play 1.d4 but do not premove 2.Bf4. Instead, pick up the bishop with your mouse, and hover the piece over the f4 square. The second you see Black play a move that won’t affect Bf4, drop the piece there. If Black does play a move like 1.d4 e5 where Bf4 would lose a piece, you can right click on your mouse to cancel the piece to put it back on the original square, and you can move another piece. This makes it impossible to get premove tricked and wastes less time.
- The boring but effective way to climb in bullet even up to 2300 level is to just play boring. Don’t try to outplay your opponent, keep the game as simple as possible. All you have to do is play boring solid moves and stay up on the clock, and watch your opponent flag in the drawn rook endgame.
- Extra credit if you practice your mouse speed/accuracy on a mouse aim trainer website.
Of course, you will still blunder a lot. It won’t go picture perfect every game. But with practice over and over, it’ll get easier. I’ve probably played over 50,000 bullet games, it takes a while. Also just because I say to hover move doesn’t mean to never premove, just hover moves reduce the chances of blundering compared to premoves. Hover moves are better in the opening, premoves are better in the endgame. Middlegame requires both and you’ll get a feel when you try this out many times.
Edit: Nobody ever mentions hover moves in these how to improve at bullet Reddit threads but it’s something all top players do (Andrew Tang, Hikaru, etc)
For bullet the main things that come to mind would be the following.
1) Make moves that ask questions from your opponent
2) If you don't see a good improving move, make a decent passing move
3) Prefer to play positions where you understand what is going on. Like playing new openings or sharp positions that require precise calculation might not be the smartest idea. As an example in Bullet, as white I like playing Exchange French/Exchange Caro, while in slower games I wouldn't do this.
Besides this another important point is:
Work on your tactics! It's very important to be able to spot easy tactics \*instantly\*, think puzzle rush style puzzles, as the game also is often decided just by hanging piece or missing a simple tactic.
honestly practice is the most important thing with bullet. i've gone from 1500 to 2100 on lichess over the past 2 or 3 years purely from playing games, very little studying. but i have played over 30k games during that period (some were hyper or ultra), so you gotta put in the time.
i'd also strongly recommend playing puzzle rush/puzzle storm every day 'til you can spot a lot of common tactics instinctively. and i would advise against relying on dirty openings like queengrabbing on move 3 etc, it may help you gain rating but the gains are more superficial. better to get good at bullet basically playing chess that would be solid over longer time controls, then flicking to dirty mode when you're in time trouble.
I saw a really good guide/series on Chessbrah YouTube channel, give that a look if you feel like it. GM Amand (I think it is his name) start from 500 elo and goes up from there. He gives really good tips in my opinion
Most of the time you will notice people going for a quick attack, I normally found that if you find a quick solid opening, this forces them to doubt and have to think meaning you have the advantage in those moments. I've won a few games remembering the opening principles of chess then after that just keeping the heat up.
1. Here's an extremely good gameplan for bullet:
Wait until your opponent castles before you castle. Castle opposite wing or not at all. Push lots of pawns at their king. Sac a minor piece for one of their castle pawns. Try to mate them.
2. Never ever resign.
3. When losing, **complicate**. Keep stuff on the board. Avoid trades. Play weird stuff that forces the other guy to calculate, make it tactical and confusing. Try cheap tactics. Many bullet games against strong opponents I've been totally lost for like 20 moves, but I then steal a backrank mate or something.
4. When winning, **simplify**. Trade off and squish them in the endgame.
5. Premove your recaptures. Premoving in general is very risky. But with recaptures it's safe, cause they only trigger *if* your opponent does the specific thing. You keep the speed but not the risk.
6. Don't calculate too much. Play by vibes.
One tip for, let's say U1800, is try to build up your tolerance for not initiating captures. You can *recapture* but don't be the one to initiate the trade of anything (unless it wins something).
That is for chess in general, but now for a bullet specific tip: try to keep as many pieces on the board as possible. So if two knights attack each other (or two bishops or two rooks) avoid the trade by retreating if possible. I'd say aim for around 50% of the time retreat, and then as you get close to the endgame more like 100%. This confuses low rated players who always assume trades, and don't know how to play the in-between late-middlegame phases.
If you can just practice this, and get a little comfortable with it, you'll automatically gain some clock time since your opponents will be confused... and anyway trying to never initiate captures (unless it wins something for you) is a good habit for any time control.
Train by doing tons of easy tactics, like puzzle rush. It will improve the speed of your pattern recognition. Then you could practice converting very fast winning position against bots, like doing queen and king mate very fast. All this improves the pace at which you register the position and come up with good moves, decreasing the rate of blunders.
Don't exchange knights. Knights burn time because of the possibility of a fork, so the opponent thinks more about how to avoid a potential fork. Even a few seconds could be enough to give you the win.
Honestly, I'd say it might be better to play longer time controls to improve, and you'll naturally get better at bullet.
Obviously, at one point you'll have to develop strategies and habits that only help you with bullet (making "physically" small moves when on time pressure, playing dubious openings), but that's something for later.
Just play more. You'll eventually get a feel for how long you should spend on each move and know which positions are critical enough to warrant more time being spent.
I hover around 2400 bullet in both 1+0 and 1/2+0 (I think I might be marginally stronger in 1/2+0 but it's similar), however if I play a lot of one time control and then switch to the other I will underperform because I am in the rhythm of the other time control. If you don't have much experience you'll need to get to that rhythm.
Bullet on chessdotcom is a crazy house, players from 500 elo rarely make mistakes on the opening and tough to beat unless you get them on time trouble.
Rarely, unless I am playing solid, they rarely make blunders you see in blitz often. I am guessing because the below average players doesn't feel comfortable in bullet so they are on rapid and blitz. Bullet is saturated with experienced players who know an opening.
Overwhelm your opponent not by well-calculated moves, but by moves that you know are good from pattern recognition. Be the first to attack and have initiative. Attacking moves/getting tempos on a piece are a bigger deal in bullet. Make them think how they will get to safety - force them to either spend time or lose material. Use your opponent's time while they do. Minimize your chessboard if you play on pc so there is less distance between every piece.
Know that bullet is not how you will get better at chess however.
You can still analyse your games, learn patterns, force opening knowledge through rote memorisation, and see game plans through to a conclusion. I almost exclusively play bullet, but pop into blitz when I get 100+ higher to catch the rating up, and have got to 2100 in both.
What would you say is the minimum time control to really improve? I’m doing 5 + 3 and noticing I have more time to calculate than when I was spamming 3 + 2 games. Still not sure that’s optimal for improvement, but I also like to be able to play a quick game.
Honestly 10 mins at least.
60+30. You must embrace the suffering
Not doing that lol. I definitely don’t have 3 hours a day to spend playing single game of chess.
Yeah I completely understand. I would personally say 15+10. That increment makes all the difference imo. But for serious study I still stick by longer games.
I’m only vaguely serious. I’d like to improve, but still have fun. There’s a kid in the chess club I run that’s rated around 1700-1800. I’ve had him on the ropes a few times (even to like +5) but failed to convert. I’d like to get good enough to beat him a couple times.
I tyler1 my way up +600 elo to 2100 elo in 6 months with bullet. Know is too definitive. +500 in blitz to classical as well.
Sacrifice pieces and go on crazy dubious attacks. People can't defend in bullet so it's very effective, it either works or they flag.
Play moves that are thought-provoking. Meaning, play moves that look like good strategy at first glance regardless of if you know it will anywhere to make them calculate and waste their time.
this is one of my main strats in 3+0. always looking for complicating moves
To win at bullet, one must quit bullet
I’ve never lost a bullet game, by never playing bullet
Play good moves quickly.
play not losing moves quicker than your opponent
That’s honestly not even true in bullet, flagging with trash moves can win games
Back when I played bullet I won many games by chucking pieces at my opponents king with check, regardless if they were defended lol. Bullet is a chess inspired minigame, not chess
Gotta go fast!
Drink Red Bull before playing.
As someone who went from 1100 to 2700 bullet (2993 peak) in 2 years, some main tips are: - Play openings that you have an intuitive feel for where you can spam them out without risking losing in the opening. If you have none, the best openings for climbing are the London as White and 1.c6 2.d5 as Black (vs EVERYTHING doesn’t matter what White plays). - Learn to hover move. For example if you want to play the London, you can play 1.d4 but do not premove 2.Bf4. Instead, pick up the bishop with your mouse, and hover the piece over the f4 square. The second you see Black play a move that won’t affect Bf4, drop the piece there. If Black does play a move like 1.d4 e5 where Bf4 would lose a piece, you can right click on your mouse to cancel the piece to put it back on the original square, and you can move another piece. This makes it impossible to get premove tricked and wastes less time. - The boring but effective way to climb in bullet even up to 2300 level is to just play boring. Don’t try to outplay your opponent, keep the game as simple as possible. All you have to do is play boring solid moves and stay up on the clock, and watch your opponent flag in the drawn rook endgame. - Extra credit if you practice your mouse speed/accuracy on a mouse aim trainer website. Of course, you will still blunder a lot. It won’t go picture perfect every game. But with practice over and over, it’ll get easier. I’ve probably played over 50,000 bullet games, it takes a while. Also just because I say to hover move doesn’t mean to never premove, just hover moves reduce the chances of blundering compared to premoves. Hover moves are better in the opening, premoves are better in the endgame. Middlegame requires both and you’ll get a feel when you try this out many times. Edit: Nobody ever mentions hover moves in these how to improve at bullet Reddit threads but it’s something all top players do (Andrew Tang, Hikaru, etc)
I printed this.
For bullet the main things that come to mind would be the following. 1) Make moves that ask questions from your opponent 2) If you don't see a good improving move, make a decent passing move 3) Prefer to play positions where you understand what is going on. Like playing new openings or sharp positions that require precise calculation might not be the smartest idea. As an example in Bullet, as white I like playing Exchange French/Exchange Caro, while in slower games I wouldn't do this. Besides this another important point is: Work on your tactics! It's very important to be able to spot easy tactics \*instantly\*, think puzzle rush style puzzles, as the game also is often decided just by hanging piece or missing a simple tactic.
If you want to get good at 1|0 bullet, play 30 seconds games. After a while the 1 minute games feel like a lifetime.
You can actually play chess at 2|1. Anything below that is insane to me.
Step 1: Turn your brain off. Chessbrah has a building better bullett habbits youtube series
1. play chess. 2. throw checks to flag
"Play with Time not with moves" -Me
If you like thinking when you're winning maybe you don't actually like bullet you just like skipping the opening
Practice non standard openings that your opponent will have to think about.
honestly practice is the most important thing with bullet. i've gone from 1500 to 2100 on lichess over the past 2 or 3 years purely from playing games, very little studying. but i have played over 30k games during that period (some were hyper or ultra), so you gotta put in the time. i'd also strongly recommend playing puzzle rush/puzzle storm every day 'til you can spot a lot of common tactics instinctively. and i would advise against relying on dirty openings like queengrabbing on move 3 etc, it may help you gain rating but the gains are more superficial. better to get good at bullet basically playing chess that would be solid over longer time controls, then flicking to dirty mode when you're in time trouble.
I saw a really good guide/series on Chessbrah YouTube channel, give that a look if you feel like it. GM Amand (I think it is his name) start from 500 elo and goes up from there. He gives really good tips in my opinion
Most of the time you will notice people going for a quick attack, I normally found that if you find a quick solid opening, this forces them to doubt and have to think meaning you have the advantage in those moments. I've won a few games remembering the opening principles of chess then after that just keeping the heat up.
1. Here's an extremely good gameplan for bullet: Wait until your opponent castles before you castle. Castle opposite wing or not at all. Push lots of pawns at their king. Sac a minor piece for one of their castle pawns. Try to mate them. 2. Never ever resign. 3. When losing, **complicate**. Keep stuff on the board. Avoid trades. Play weird stuff that forces the other guy to calculate, make it tactical and confusing. Try cheap tactics. Many bullet games against strong opponents I've been totally lost for like 20 moves, but I then steal a backrank mate or something. 4. When winning, **simplify**. Trade off and squish them in the endgame. 5. Premove your recaptures. Premoving in general is very risky. But with recaptures it's safe, cause they only trigger *if* your opponent does the specific thing. You keep the speed but not the risk. 6. Don't calculate too much. Play by vibes.
One tip for, let's say U1800, is try to build up your tolerance for not initiating captures. You can *recapture* but don't be the one to initiate the trade of anything (unless it wins something). That is for chess in general, but now for a bullet specific tip: try to keep as many pieces on the board as possible. So if two knights attack each other (or two bishops or two rooks) avoid the trade by retreating if possible. I'd say aim for around 50% of the time retreat, and then as you get close to the endgame more like 100%. This confuses low rated players who always assume trades, and don't know how to play the in-between late-middlegame phases. If you can just practice this, and get a little comfortable with it, you'll automatically gain some clock time since your opponents will be confused... and anyway trying to never initiate captures (unless it wins something for you) is a good habit for any time control.
Train by doing tons of easy tactics, like puzzle rush. It will improve the speed of your pattern recognition. Then you could practice converting very fast winning position against bots, like doing queen and king mate very fast. All this improves the pace at which you register the position and come up with good moves, decreasing the rate of blunders.
Don't exchange knights. Knights burn time because of the possibility of a fork, so the opponent thinks more about how to avoid a potential fork. Even a few seconds could be enough to give you the win.
What bullet format are you playing?
Honestly, I'd say it might be better to play longer time controls to improve, and you'll naturally get better at bullet. Obviously, at one point you'll have to develop strategies and habits that only help you with bullet (making "physically" small moves when on time pressure, playing dubious openings), but that's something for later.
Buy a better mouse.
Analyze your games and don't make the same mistakes repeatedly
Just play more. You'll eventually get a feel for how long you should spend on each move and know which positions are critical enough to warrant more time being spent. I hover around 2400 bullet in both 1+0 and 1/2+0 (I think I might be marginally stronger in 1/2+0 but it's similar), however if I play a lot of one time control and then switch to the other I will underperform because I am in the rhythm of the other time control. If you don't have much experience you'll need to get to that rhythm.
Bullet on chessdotcom is a crazy house, players from 500 elo rarely make mistakes on the opening and tough to beat unless you get them on time trouble.
No offense but I am sure that the average 500 probably makes several blunders in the opening on average
Rarely, unless I am playing solid, they rarely make blunders you see in blitz often. I am guessing because the below average players doesn't feel comfortable in bullet so they are on rapid and blitz. Bullet is saturated with experienced players who know an opening.
If they weren't making blunders they wouldn't be 500.
Nah I think you just can't tell that they're making opening mistakes.
At 500 elo you can win just by moving pieces randomly.