Studying Blitz

[SpongeBob]

Today in the KGS kibitz, some guy mentioned that his teacher told him not to play so much slow games, but he should start studying blitz more seriously.

So - I am wondering ... studying blitz - this sounds like a contradiction in itself, doesn't it?

[speedchase]

I mean, If his goal is to get strong at blitz, then he should "study" blitz, where "study" means play over and over. It doesn't seem like a good strategy to get strong at slow go though.

[amnal]

A lot of blitz, perhaps most of it, is quick and dirty. It degenerates into mostly 'what happens if I go here?' go, where luck plays a big part, and a lot of reading is replaced by 'meh' and shape moves.

That doesn't have to be the only kind of blitz. Although it's harder to become so involved in the game, you can still try to put the most possible effort into every move, reading as much as you can and trying to find the best move. Anecdotally speaking for myself, I find that when really trying I can play blitz very significantly better than when playing because I'm bored. This kind of play can really highlight your weaknesses and help you to improve them. Why couldn't you find the best move here? Why did this move paralyse you? Was your response here that looked like good shape actually a sub-par failure? By answering these questions, you can certainly improve your game.

This kind of opinion appears unpopular. I think this is because most people never really play blitz this way. If you look at most blitz games, you can even note that the players play mostly within a couple of seconds, not even using half their available time. I think this obscures the real gains that can be made by playing blitz games seriously, though this is certainly harder than the mere act of playing blitz games.

[illluck]

I'm too impatient to play non-blitz most of the time, but it seems to be weird to discourage slow games when the student can play slowly.

Though, for ddks players, I suspect a lot of blitz games will be much better for improvement than slow games. The only potential issue is that it might be hard to break out of blitzing later on.

[Laman]

suggesting to play fast games doesn't surprise me too much. i've heard how some of young mid-to-high dan players got to their levels mainly by playing many blitz games. and from my short experience with Asian servers, i got a feeling that it is an usual attitude there - no theory, little thinking, fast reading, win.

on the other hand, i still enjoy slow games much more and don't take blitz very seriously