FM Nate Solon - Is Blitz Chess Good for Improvement? 🎙️ [No Board Needed]

In this episode, we explore the age-old debate: Is Blitz chess good for improvement? Joining me is FIDE Master Nate Solon, a chess coach and Chessable author, to discuss Blitz chess's benefits and potential drawbacks.

We discuss how Blitz can be a powerful tool for developing chess intuition, sharpening opening repertoire, and quickly identifying recurring mistakes through high-volume play. Nate highlights the advantages of quick feedback loops and how Blitz can be an integral part of a balanced training regimen.

However, we also delve into the opposing viewpoint: the risks of Blitz creating bad habits, especially for beginners. We discuss the importance of deliberate practice, focusing on slower, more thoughtful games to solidify essential chess processes like deep calculation, positional understanding, and endgame technique.

00:00 Introduction02:58 Nate’s Argument: Benefits of Blitz Chess07:16 Counterargument: What You CAN NOT Do Properly in Blitz Chess09:20 Consistency and Accuracy FIRST Before Speed (Lessons from Other Domains)10:41 Benefits For Different Rating Ranges14:45 How to Analyse Our Blitz Games23:30 Listing Recurrent Mistakes 27:26 Tilt and Breaking the Tilt31:36 Did Blitz Help Nate and His Students?36:24 Grandmasters Playing Blitz46:00 Knowing What I Do NOT Know48:27 How To Steer the Chess Engine For Analysis52:21 Should Chess Improvement be Fun?55:35 Deliberate Practice01:01:31 Mindset