The Trick to Winning Online Bullet Chess Games

Photo by Will Porada on Unsplash

I have just recently discovered the best way to win in online bullet chess games and you might have an idea of what that is already but before I share my epiphany, think about it and ask yourself, "What is the most important thing to keep in mind when you're playing a bullet game?" Is it your strategy, skill, or a combination of the two? None of those actually because they mean nothing when you don't have time. And yes, my friends, the most important thing to keep in mind when playing bullet chess is the time. Now, I'm not saying that you should just try to flag someone but it's more like trying to play with tempo.

Remember, first and foremost, that the goal in playing bullet chess is not to become better at chess. In my case at least, I just want to have fun while playing chess and not stress myself by thinking about complicated lines and variations when in fact, all you need to do is play your opponent. If you have a bad internet connection, however, then tough luck buddy because this won't work. In other words, fix your internet speed first and then, go for bullet chess. Otherwise, the best thing to do is to stick with longer and more educational games than these rough and wild bullets.

Playing with tempo is just my fancy way of saying I was pretty much trying to annoy my opponents by making random objectively "bad" moves in all phases of the game in order to create chaos and muddy the waters. So basically I was trying to confuse my opponents until they make a mistake which I can exploit to my advantage. An important caveat: You mustn't try this tactic against masters because they will not be fooled. Unless they have a very horrid internet connection, you won't be able to beat masters this way.

Now, before I used this tactic for myself, others have used it against me in many occasions which I didn't really mind as much because I was able to beat some of them while others were just completely frustrating. I simply wanted to try it out for myself because I'm tired with playing "textbook" games when in fact, I haven't even memorized any variations or lines from any opening. All I have is intuition and a good grasp of the basic principles of chess. Of course, where I mostly have failed at is proper timing in making moves. So this time around, I didn't want to worry myself over such trivialities and I just went gung-ho and played whatever came to mind. Keep in mind, I was also pre-moving most of these so there were times when I would blunder a piece or a pawn.

The wonderful thing about not worrying or thinking too much about what move to make especially in the opening stages of the game is that you don't lose time. Even in life, when you overthink too much, you lose precious moments and become unable to make any progress whatsoever. These lead to regrets and despair. So then, you have to pick your punches and make the right moves at the right time. That's another thing that needs to be addressed though. It's that when you play like this, don't play dumb. Don't just throw away your pieces for the sake of keeping your time and confusing your opponent because if your opponent is level-headed enough, they will poke holes through this whole shenanigans and frivolous play and beat you to a pulp. That being said, you have to play fast but play smart. So mix offense and defense from time to time. Don't just keep pushing your pieces forward without actually think about what you're doing. Be reckless but not stupid.

I'm guessing right now this all seems so abstract or vague. Like, what does it mean to succeed with such a strategy, right? I'll give an example game which I played just awhile ago:

Right off the bat, you saw that I started with a pretty obscure opening, f4. This isn't normally played in high-level chess because it's ridiculous. But not ridiculous enough that it would be considered a completely trashy opening. Rather, it's unusual at best. However, obviously my opponent has had enough of my antics and decided to just throw in the kitchen sink and sacrificed a piece early on. Although I believe they might have been thinking that I was pre-moving all the time and that I wouldn't notice that my queen was under attack. Unfortunately for my opponent, I had already thought about that and I actually expected them to try and turn the tables around me by tricking me with a direct, undefended attack against my queen. Because of my awareness, I gained the upper hand in just move 4. From there, things were already pretty easy.

If you play through the game even further, you'll notice that I was making very weird, amateurish, and sometimes haphazard moves but they weren't completely "bad" at all. Some were passive and awkward but they didn't put me in a terrible position. I made one mistake though which wasn't so big according to the computer which was move 20, e4. Despite that, I was able to recover with several tactics based on the position. The latter part was just a matter of cleaning up. I took all of his pieces that could pose problems in the endgame and left all the pawns then gobbled them all up as well. When you're up several pieces and your opponent only has pawns left on the board, don't be afraid to give away your own to further simplify the position and advance your own pawns down enemy territory in order to promote. I wasn't able to checkmate my opponent because they lost on time but I only needed like two or three more moves to seal the deal.

I have only tried this tactic in succession at this point because I didn't care about the result as much, I just wanted to play the game and hopefully annoy some people I played against, whether I win or not, although it felt great to win. Keep in mind, this doesn't work against masters who have good internet connections. Maybe you can try this against masters who clearly have trouble with computers. Nevertheless, it's fun and I loved just toying with others. As much as I have been toyed around by other people before, I actually do want to turn the tables around them for a change. It's not the time to play nice and bullet is not the game for that. If you want to improve on your chess play, then the best way is to do it over the board and play longer times. Preferably if you can get someone who is clearly stronger than you, all the better because then you could get tips and pointers for improvement.