Premoves In Bullet Chess

There is Chess, the game we all know and love. The game we all study tactics, strategies, openings, and endgames for. The game that requires thought, that requires intense, time-consuming calculation.

And then there is Bullet.

As many of you know, Bullet Chess is Chess with a timer of less than 3 minutes. The game is completely different from Standard due to this, as everybody is rushing to make moves. There is a general rule that you shouldn’t think for any more than 5 seconds before moving, or you will lose on time. This makes for a very chaotic game.

Needless to say, it is much easier to play Bullet online than in-person.

Online, the rules of the game are completely different, as discussed by many bloggers. One of the main features of online chess is the ability to premove, where you make your move in advance, so that you automatically move as soon as your opponent moves, taking only 0.1 seconds off of your clock.

While the premove is great in the endgame, or when you’re under time pressure, there is always a cost. And in Chess, it can be fatal.

But first, we should discuss when it can be advantageous to premove.

The main one is that it saves time.

Take this situation here from a standard opening:

Here, it is a good idea to premove Qxf3, since if the opponent does initiate the trade, you automatically collect their piece, and if the opponent doesn’t, nothing happens (unless you’re playing Capture Anything, but hey, who here actually plays Capture Anything?). This shows that you can premove responding to any trade, regardless of time control.

It is also good to premove whenever you are doing a fork or skewer where you give check while doing so, as you know that one of the pieces is going to have to move aside, and the other will inevitably be taken, so why not save yourself a few seconds? This game is an example:

And when you do play a skewer, you generally can premove to capture the piece in the back, since they're not moving. The more valuable piece is the one that moves off the row, column, or diagonal, and if they don't (either due to not seeing it or time pressure), nothing happens, since you can't go through pieces. But do not premove all captures. Only premove forks where you give check, capturing as the result of a trade, and capturing the less valuable piece of a skewer. Do not premove Pin captures, as the pinned piece could move up or down the row, diagonal, or file, leading to this situation:

While that is all well and good, there are risky premoves where you premove any move that is not a capture. Take this situation here from a few months ago (I can’t find the game) where I premoved into the Bishop’s Opening, but my opponent played the Scandinavian, and so immediately captured the Bishop:

Even in Bullet, being down 3 points at the start of the game is not good.

When you’re not forking and giving Check, it is also not a good idea to premove. In one situation, I was playing the classic Queen-Rook Opening Fork, but my Opponent didn’t see the threat to their Queen, and moved their Rook instead. Since I assumed that they were going to move their Queen, I premoved Nxh8, and basically hung my Knight:

Similarly, a couple weeks ago, I had an opponent who wanted to play the King’s Pawn Opening: King’s Knight Variation, and so they premoved Nf3. However, I played the Scandinavian Defense instead of 1... e5, and so I caught them in a Tennison Gambit they did not prepare for, and accepted due to the fact that since it was unintentional, they likely did not know how to respond:

This is why unconventional openings are a good idea, especially in Bullet.

Premoves are not as common in the middlegame, but are super common in the endgame, when the time pressure kicks in.

The most common endgame premove is either pushing a Pawn to get it promoted, or trying to stop said Pawn from being promoted. While it is important to avoid time pressure, you have to watch out for your opponent launching a surprise attack while you focus on promoting your Pawn. You could be premoving when, out of nowhere, your defending piece gets attacked since you didn't move to protect it, such as in this example:

So the lesson here is: Only premove when the capture is safe, or when the move is safe regardless of what your opponent plays.

Good luck in Bullet

— ChessPawn921