Bullet Chess: Tips & Tricks
Bullet Chess? What's that? Is it healthy for chess? Is it important? How can I get better at Bullet Chess?
There have been many questions around Bullet Chess and, in this article, we will go through all of these questions and know how to get better at it!
Bullet Chess is a variant of Speed Chess, where the time control is less than 3 minutes! Yes, it's really fast! You might be thinking who plays this crazy variant? But according to recent Chess.com Stats, over 550,000 bullet games are played on Chess.com every day! Before, people used to tell that Bullet Chess is not good and it is just a waste of time. These days, the importance of Bullet Chess is clearly visible, even the Speed Chess Championship matches have a bullet segment! We can see that Fabi is the world's 2nd highest-rated chess player, but he lost to Duda in this year's SCC because of the bullet segment, even though, he was leading with 3-0 at the beginning. There are several other examples, where bullet experts came on top! On the other hand, playing too much bullet games is worse. I myself have experienced it! I played about 20 bullet games before a rapid match, and then, during the rapid game, I was just playing very fast and blundered everything!
Are you playing in the Bullet Open Championship this December?
How to Improve Your Bullet Chess Skills?
Now that we know playing bullet chess is not that dangerous as we used to think, we can look forward to knowing some tricks which we can utilize in our next bullet game!
1. Time Management
Time Management is one of the most important aspects of Speed Chess. You have to use your clock wisely. I have seen many players, who start the game slowly and when they fall into time trouble, they start playing fast. This is not going to work in Bullet Chess. You have to play fast from the beginning of the game. I generally, follow the 20/50/30 rule, that is, spend 20% time in Opening; 50% in Middlegame; 30% in Endgame. When you are below 30 seconds, try not to think more than 5 seconds unless it finds a clear checkmate.
Don't think so much in a Bullet Game! 
2. Openings
In Bullet Chess, almost any opening works, but playing the opening that you know well is better. Although I know a bunch of openings, I tend to play Reti Opening (1.Nf3) in Bullet Chess because I can premove almost every move at the beginning.
In the game above, I was almost able to premove the first 10 moves, and took the time advantage, which helped me convert the game at the end!
3. Premove Carefully
Premoving is very important in Bullet Chess, but premoving too much can backfire! It is good to premove only when you are sure about your opponent's move.
4. Never Give Up!
Never resign, even if it is mate in 2 or 3. In Bullet Chess, anything can happen at any moment of the game! There are many stories, where players had blundered or got timed out at the end when they were just going to checkmate in 1!
In the game above, we can assume that White mouse slipped 15.Qh7+ and Black won the game!
5. When to Simplify / Complicate?
When you have a big material advantage or down on time, try to simplify the position as much as possible. In simple positions, premoving is much easier than in complicated ones.
If your opponent is down on time or has a big material advantage, complicate the position as much as possible. In complicated positions, premoving is much harder than in simple ones!
Conclusion
Finally, we can conclude that these days, Bullet Chess is important, and the old saying about Bullet Chess is not completely correct. If you can control your nerves & don't get addicted, you can play it (as long as you limit yourself to 30-60 mins).
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