When to Blitz

Anyone have an idea how to gauge if you're ready for Blitz?  Awhile back, I stated that I "have no business playing" Blitz.  After many loses and downright bad games, I think I can support that statement. 

There was this brief moment where I was improving, then I lost a series of games and my rating plummeted.  I'm thinking I just need to study and get nerves under control to get better?

Input would be much appreciated

What is your goal?

1. Improvement

Playing speed chess should be kept to a minimum because it is longer time controls that will help you improve. You can play it from time to time, but in general it isn't that beneficial. It might mess up your time management, as you might start playing too fast in slow games as well.

2. Just killing time/having fun

This is easy. Play whatever time control you like the most. 

You should choose from the above. It is that simple.  

Good

A proper thinking process needs time and that is true at all levels. Experience helps in speeding up that process. You should be able to feel, what is the time control where you can play comfortably. For me in the beginning 10+0 seemed like a fast time control, now it is quite easy to play without getting to time trouble, 5+0 (or 3+2) is becoming comfortable, 3+0 is probably still too intensive and bullet I won't even try. I still play daily games for improvement as there I can properly analyze interesting positions. I prefer to play better chess slowly than terrible chess fast.

There are ways of improving time management. Practically improving any part of the game helps. Having some pet lines in the opening phase helps as you know what to play in the positions you encounter. Playing puzzle rush (or first just solving puzzles, even slowly) helps seeing tactical patterns quickly in the middlegame. Improving endgames (doing drills) helps in the final time scramble. Still blunders do happen and many of them could have been avoided by thinking two seconds more. A good player knows when the position is complicated and requires thinking.

Agreed with this first paragraph here for sure.  

It comes down to how comfortable you are in that time control; you should never be feeling too "rushed" from the start of the game. If you want to learn/improve, then generally longer time controls are much preferred. They give you "extra" thinking time, time of come up with new plans, time to predict the opponent plans, time to find a good move yet look for a better one (before moving right away), time to double check your ideas to make sure you aren't overlooking something simple like a tactical flaw or hanging your Queen and so on. 

These are some of the reasons to recommend longer time controls and staying away from speed chess. Another danger is conditioning your mind into moving too quickly and unable to easily adjust to longer games again. 

It depends on what your chess goals are and how much you want to focus on speed chess (bullet/blitz especially). Personally, I think fast time controls have their place. They can be helpful for learning in many ways, but with tactful moderation and reasoning behind it - not just game after game with little else. This is just auto-pilot and not going to improve your game long-term or not as quickly as you might otherwise be able to accomplish. 

I like choosing the time control(s) you feel most comfortable with (might change over time though) and mixing it up a little here or there just to prevent you from conditioning yourself into only one play speed. If you play 1 hour games a lot, then maybe mix in a few blitz games for fun. If you play 10 min games, then maybe play some 30 min games to give more thinking time and to mix it up a little. 

You get the idea

Another consideration is that the best speed chess players in the world are also the best at longer time controls usually as well. When playing speed chess, there are several "tricks" to save time and these are almost always connected to experience. 

Some ways include: 

vast knowledge of opening theory which saves time if you have memorized what moves to play in advance, great endgame ability so you can convert endgames favorably under time pressure, knowing how to premove effectively and which premoves are "safer" premoves than others, huge "database" of patterns and positions in mind (consciously or subconsciously) which makes tactics and winning ideas easier for them to spot quickly, ability to calculate quickly during the opponent turn as well as their own and so on...

Within the next few months, I will likely be investing a lot more time in education and career pursuits, so I will have little time to play chess.  It is my hope to improve enough in Blitz for it to be enjoyable.  When I see the streamers play Blitz, I like the pace of it, however, I lack the knowledge of "natural moves" so I'm making lots of blunders.

Thank you for your guidance  

@harriw and @KeSetoKaiba

Thank you for the great insights and information.  I will try diversifying games again.  Thank you

You're welcome. Chess can be enjoyable on any level. I liked it and I enjoyed my messy games in the first few months, and I enjoy it now when I occasionally find some good move or 2. Hopefully, I'll like playing it if I get better as well.

In that case, just try to find the most enjoyable time control for you. Experiment and see what suits you the most.

Hi! My name is Lauren Goodkind and I’m a chess coach  based in California: www.ChessByLauren.com.  

    It depends on what your objective is.  If you want to play quality chess, then I don't recommend playing blitz. Why? You need time to think  before each move.  I recommend playing at least G/15 minutes or longer.   If you find playing blitz and you lose a lot, but you find it to be fun, then continue to do it, if you just want to have fun.  

   I hope that this helps.