Daily, Rapid, Bullet or Blitz?


I'm a beginner and I play best with the daily games. Gives me a chance to think. Sometime I do blitz just because I have a few free minutes but don't play as well in those.

In the beginning I played very big control: 30 minutes per game. And then slowly began to play for 10 minutes a game. In general, Rapid is preferable. But sometimes you can play blitz for quick wits.


Over the board, most beginner games are over in 15 minutes or less. A game 15 with a 10 second increment should be fine for most beginners to play a complete game without feeling pressured by time. A 45 move game at that time control would last about 45 minutes at the most.
I do not recommend daily chess at all to beginners. Daily chess requires remembering the plans that you thought about the day before. That's far too much to ask of a beginner.

10 min games are the ideal control beginner level in my opinion. If that doesn't suit your style play, move to 15|10 (Gold standard for serious rapid)
I of course support daily games, lots of those, and "maxing out" your chess skill with those- I did that myself over the last year with fantastic results.
Blitz you can do casually to support a growing your skill in fast chess, but I think it's unnecessary unless you enjoy it more, at the <800 level blitz won't be much different then 10 min games. And of course, don't play bullet.
I hope this helps, good luck on your chess journey.

Play Longer Time Controls...
For many at the beginner-novice level, speed chess tends to be primarily an exercise in moving pieces around faster than your opponent while avoiding checkmate, in hopes that his/her clock runs out sooner than yours. And/or hoping to notice and exploit your opponent’s blunders while hoping they don't notice yours. The reason for this is that there is little time to think about what you should be doing.
It makes sense that taking more time to think about what you should be doing would promote improvement in your chess skills and results.
An effective way to improve your chess is therefore to play mostly longer time controls, including "daily" chess, so you have time to think about what you should be doing.
This is not to suggest that you should necessarily play exclusively slow or daily time controls, but they should be a significant percentage of your games, at least as much, if not more so than speed games which, while they may be fun, do almost nothing to promote an understanding of how to play the game well.
Here's what IM Jeremy Silman, well-known chess book author, has to say on the topic...
https://www.chess.com/article/view/longer-time-controls-are-more-instructive
And Dan Heisman, well-known chess teacher and chess book author…
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627052239/http:/www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman16.pdf
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/dan-heisman-resources
and the experience of a FIDE Master...
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/how-blitz-and-bullet-rotted-my-brain-don-t-let-it-rot-yours
for some good stuff on general chess improvement, with a view toward learning what you should be doing, browse my blog.....
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

I would recommend playing rapid and classical to improve, but my favorite is speed chess but I also improve a lot by playing blitz games from 900s to 1400s. The I play rapid and set my rating to 1400s from 1100s.

I play a mix. 10 min rapid seemed like a sweet spot for me. But it would get a bit tight at the end and I couldn't always finish it off. I tried playing longer with increments, but I don't like when opponents play garbage moves at the end to jack up their clock. And longer games don't necessarily help improve my time discipline. That's why sometimes switching it up to faster games pushes me to make faster decisions, and not lag or paralyze in indecision for too long.
After getting my 10 min rapid to 1000 elo, I've been working to build up my blitz and bullet scores.

I have started doing the tournaments, the people l play with are really good…. Just need to get through there moves…. If you are a beginner, do just about everything that they do, if that doesn’t work, just move all your pieces in a square to protect your king…. For a beginner, try doing the blitz tournament, then you learn how the best players, well, how they play, and what there strategies are…. ♟🧩

The articles that @RussBell cites refer to players who are not really beginners, but players who are looking to improve from the novice level to higher levels. Those articles are definitely worth reading, but do not address the question of what time control a true beginner should play.
Dan Heisman recommends at least one long game ( (+60 minutes per side, 2 hours total) a week. That's fantastic advice, for players who are beyond beginner level but not at competitive levels. Other trainers and many GMs now recommend playing as much blitz as possible in addition to those long games. The point is that chess is a language, and just as a child learns by playing constantly, strong players also learn by playing constantly. The long games are essential. But chess is also a game. And playing should be fun. For most people, fast time controls are FUN! Don't deny yourself the pleasure of chess, but do make sure to play a long game every week too.
But again, that advice is for players who are not absolute beginners. As others have pointed out, a 15/10 (game in 15 minutes with a ten second increment) is just about ideal for beginners. Such a game will not drag out, but it will give both players plenty of time to work out what's going on. A 45 move game could last as long as 45 minutes. As you get more comfortable playing chess and thinking, then experiment with longer time controls and blitz.
But bear in mind what the traditional teachers recommend: learn to play slow chess. And also bear in mind what today's young studs do too: play as much fast chess as you like! Again, the blitz chess is fun. The slow chess will help you to improve. Go over your slow games and learn from your mistakes.

So far, as many others have said, I really like daily games. I like to take a few minutes, on my own time, and study the position. Have fun!

I went straight to blitz. Maybe try to challenge the best players so that you can study their moves. Otherwise l’d just secure my king

I would recommend to play both Daily and Rapid. The idea of daily is to have some games where you really have time to think and can stop and analyse many moves ahead before moving. Here I would say have not more then max 3 games running at the same time, no more. It is important that you really focus on the games and don´t start running 20 games and the same time because you get bored of waiting for moves. So run for example 2 games at the same time, and while waiting for your opponent to move you can analyse the position and try to figure out how you can make a really good move that somehow will make you gain some kind of advantage in the long run. Now when you have this 2 games running and you feel like playing you can also play Rapid.
After the games have finished make sure to analyse them so you can see what mistakes you made and how you can improve.

Am I the only one who thinks daily chess is a TERRIBLE idea for an absolute beginner?
Daily chess requires being able to come up with ideas, tactics and plans and holding on to those ideas for several days. Even if an absolute beginner were to take perfect notes for the daily game, they'd have to play through those notes and work out what is right and wrong for every single move.
Daily chess is a TERRIBLE idea for an absolute beginner.
For novices with experience with notation and how to think about a position, daily chess may be a reasonable option. But not for true beginners.

Am I the only one who thinks daily chess is a TERRIBLE idea for an absolute beginner?
Daily chess requires being able to come up with ideas, tactics and plans and holding on to those ideas for several days. Even if an absolute beginner were to take perfect notes for the daily game, they'd have to play through those notes and work out what is right and wrong for every single move.
Daily chess is a TERRIBLE idea for an absolute beginner.
For novices with experience with notation and how to think about a position, daily chess may be a reasonable option. But not for true beginners.
Your opponent is low rated/ new to. This is what I did a lot in start when I started to play chess 1.5 years ago. You don´t have to remember the plans and everything you look at the board and try to find the best move in the current position and try to make a plan from there. Also I used to match versus people that we went for a game that lasted only for a few days, I tended to hit rematch on the people that was very fast at making there moves so we could play a game that only last for up to around 3 days in total. I liked to play daily a lot when I was new to chess 1.5 year ago because then I didn't have to have the stress from the clock.