How To Quit Bullet Chess
Thanks to the Queen’s Gambit and initiatives like Pogchamps, chess has recently blown up over the internet and since there have been so many new players joining, I wanted to address an issue which I’ve seen many people face recently. This issue is an addiction to bullet chess.
For those who are unfamiliar, bullet chess is when each person has 1 minute (or less) on their clock, which means the moves have to be played almost instantly. Bullet chess, requires a different skill set, than rapid and blitz, as you have to rely on your intuition because there is limited time to calculate variations. Since the max time a bullet game can take is 2 minutes, people can easily go through 30+ games in an hour.
Why is it Bad?
So what’s wrong with playing bullet chess? I want to make this clear throughout this article; there is nothing wrong with playing bullet, but there are many drawbacks of getting addicted to bullet, which often happens to many people.
False Notion: Many people get this false notion of improvement in bullet. Oh I can practice my openings, or I’m using tactics, but in games where the time limit is 1 minute, you don’t have much time to comprehend new moves, let alone develop ideas. Having an exceptional mouse speed will not make you good at chess. Think about how many times have you have flagged your opponent or won on time in a losing position. Just Think. This is why people enjoy bullet, the Botez Gambits, the Mate in 1s, insane stalemates, flagging your opponent, they get dopamine.
Not only does this make it a waste of time, but I would argue it hurts your chess skills. Let me explain. Bullet Chess relies on intuition, or making the move which seems the best with minimal calculation. This makes you develop the habit of moving instantly and so when you play rapid games, you are in the habit of trusting your intuition and not calculating much, which often gets you into trouble in longer paced games. The fact of the matter is your calculation will worsen, as you are not practicing any calculation, rather relying on your intuition.
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Time: Bullet can take a lot of time, as people usually think “just one more” and essentially develop a habit of playing. Not only is this unhealthy for you because you are playing online bullet chess which is a screen but inherently, when you have pockets of time you will try to fill it with bullet chess. This is extremely unhealthy because you are possibly neglecting you other responsibilities, health, and relationships with those in your life. If you want to know how I fill “pockets” of my day, I recently made a video on that, so feel free to check that out.
But GM’s Play Bullet
I know many of you are wondering “But Krish, GMs play bullet all the time”, and in reality that’s true, but that’s not what made them a GM in the first place. Flagging people while down 45 points of material is not what made them GMs. So I’ll give this to you straight: If you want to improve in chess, limit the number of bullet games you play. Let me say that again: If you want to improve in chess, limit the amount of bullet you play. Instead, focus on playing longer games, improve your calculation through studies and tactics, and broaden your opening repertoire.
Who are You?
From all this, I think the most important thing is to ask yourself- who do I want to be? Do I want to become a better chess player, do I want to play bullet for fun, do I want spend my time studying chess? You have to approach this with the end in mind. Think to yourself what exactly is your end goal, and how can you achieve that.
It’s important to note whichever path you take is fine. I have a friend who just got into chess recently and likes to play blitz for fun, again its up to everyone to choose, but whatever you choose to do will reflect what type of a chess player you become. For me, the end goal is becoming a better chess player, but that’s easier said than done.
Actionable Steps to Quit
If you’ve stuck around till now, I assume you want to know the secret recipe to quit
Quitting bullet is hard, trust me I was there. In reality breaking any habit is hard, so over the summer I picked up Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit and James Clear’s Atomic Habits, and I actually took detailed notes on Atomic Habits, so if you want to check those out, they will be in the video description below.
Ask yourself Who do you want to be? Do I want to be a person with exceptional mouse skills or do I want become a better chess player. This question has a different answer for everyone, if you aren’t that serious at improving at chess, and like playing bullet for ertainment, that’s great. But if you want to become better at chess, then bullet isn’t the way to go.
Usually, I would open a new tab, type in chess.com and since I was logged into my google account I didn’t have to even enter my username or password. I just had to click new game, wait 1 second, and done. To avoid this, I needed to make the action of playing much harder. I changed my email for my account, and added a verification code. So now, to log in I would need to log into my other email address, for which I had created a really long password, and then get my phone, and enter the verification code, which would take about 30–1 minute more. This action alone reduced how much I play it. This applies to anything, make it harder to gain access too. If you play a mobile game a lot, delete the app off your phone, ask your friend to change the password, delete your account.
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