Spark

I'm wondering how many think speed chess develops bad habits.

I'm talking mostly playing Spark Chess, 2 min. per move and 10 min. + OTB; not the Blitz and Bullet chess i min. and 5 min. games. That's just nuts.

I've been finding Pirc holds up well in these fast games. Actually, I'm slaughtering 1000 pt. higher players and when I log on the "within 10%" setting, people log off because I've been playing them down to under my score or the + players log off, whichever comes first.

Spark seems to be mostly self-taught and some amateur players. Sound enough play, but some annoying moves everyone seems to make do happen (rook's pawn to rook 3 to keep pins on knights from happening). Mostly used for reasonable tune-ups for my Chess.com games or practice on lines; three for three forcing stalemates on purpose yesterday. Players bail after making really dumb moves as a matter of course, but they rematch most of the time.

A practice site for our serious play here or a bad habit building danger?

I'll report back on the totals.

Thanks.

I don't think it does. I know it does.

Blitz makes you good at calculating short lines fast, but bad at calculating long lines, which is a problem for "serious" (long) chess.

After a certain minimum time limit, the game goes from chess to some neuro-muscular display where you see who can move a piece and hit a clock faster.

Tigerprowl. Chess.com is serious. Spark is...something else. A good place to play out practice lines to see where they might go, there are some good players there -most are patzers with no formal training- and sometimes its the bad moves by your opponent that mess up a plan; so you find a way to keep the mess from happening, and it takes hours, not days, if you're lucky.

I practiced stalemates one day. Went three for three and eliminated a bad habit I had pushing open king-pawn pairs. So it can be fun and some good grudge matches come up!

We are the "serious site" as far as I'm concerned, and I only have the free version!

Thanks for the comments. Any contary views?

Just spent the day thumping 1000+ pt. players on Spark and got a challange from one of the "on high" players that have been on so long their point value is huge; but I just took 826 pts from a resignation.

Here's what I found. Speed chess can hurt your play parrying inferior but annoying moves and such. But, if you don't think of your play as a series of lines, but can see through the whole game in tested moves that take all offenses. Seeing a whole game is more geometry than algebra for me. Playing the same openings against four hours of play a day helps.

Seems today's players have forgotten the old lines they never see because they are a generation old. I got to play when Fisher did, and an American International Master as #1 in the world, then his illegal match in Yugoslavia when he opened Yugoslav Defense (a Pirc opening) the first game and took a draw as black from Kasparov in the first game, won the match, and went back into seclusion. The crowd was on its feet cheering at the tribute and had to be settled by the tourny directors for play to resume.

My black Pirc baffles Spark players and when we rematch and I end up with the king side fiachetto and it looks like my black game.

Who told people early queen use was a good idea? Half the players can't mate with rooks, let alone bishops. p-a3 and h3 (or a6, h6 as black) is an epidemic! Lazy defense because they can't attack and dfend at the same time.

Well, another good day; inside and out. Spring is winning!