I won a bullet chess tournament. 60 second no increment.

[Voran]

I have never found anything so nerve wracking in my life yall. [redacted; no one needs to read my squealy hyperbole

The REALLY ironic thing is that this happened on my spare account where I go by the name 'chronic blunderitis'. It's my backup account where I go to play when feeling tired or hazy.

Please be proud of me. A 60 sec no increment win is beyond my wildest dreams. Surely that was for boys and men and maybe some mutant women...but me? I never thought of myself as having a fast reaction time.

 

[Voran]

For anyone wondering what increment is...it's where you can earn spare time to think after X number of moves in some time controls.

I don't go in for it much.

I like having the option to flag people.

 

[Jan D]

I’m not sure I completely understand what you did, but I’m proud as heck of you having accomplished it.

 

[Voran]

I’m not sure I completely understand what you did, but I’m proud as heck of you having accomplished it.

Okay so...

Lemme try and be as jargon free as possible.

There are extreme forms of speed chess where you get one minute or less for each player to think and after that someone loses on time.

The event I won was an under-1500s (basically a kind of low intermediate/advanced beginners' division) bullet chess arena meaning we had just 60 seconds to think and after that whoever ran out of time first lost.

There's even more ridiculous stuff such as hyperbullet and ultrabullet but that's REALLY pushing the outer limits of my reaction speed. I might seriously try those some day but I want to study seriously and improve so the fast-and-furious stuff is taking a once a week back seat for now. For anyone who doesn't know hyperbullet is 30 seconds and ultrabullet is 15 seconds. (If that's not extreme enough there's even some weird time controls such as 0|1 where you start out with one second then you have one second to make each move and after that you earn another second. If you can't think that fast...bye bye no laurels for you.)

 

[Voran]

In case anything else wasn't clear let me re-read my OP...

 

[Voran]

Ok wait - some other terms.

'Increment' in chess is basically where after a certain number of moves you earn a bit of extra time to think. I'm not sure why we have this in the chess world but I think the point is to keep some precision and artistry and not just have things be a raging nuclear maelstrom. (Nothing wrong with raging nuclear maelstroms if you ask me. I don't really play with increment much. I prefer the no-increment events.)

Also 'blunderitis' is a slangy expression chess players sometimes use which basically means 'I am mentally tired and cannot stop making stupid tactical mistakes'.

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

This is awesome! Congrats on the W!!

 

[Voran]

I played vs my grandmaster friend in a simul recently. I lost but I put up quite the firefight. He jokingly said 'Hey Voran stop using an engine.'

I'm getting that quote engraved on a stainless steel ring.

Perhaps that's a bit silly and sentimental but the fact that a GM even jokingly accused me of using an engine made me so choked with pride I was tempted to cry.

 

[Mike $]

Is Bullet Chess anything like Russian Roulette? Sounds exciting!

 

[Voran]

NO lol it's just 60sec chess

 

[rainbow21]

Congrats!

Added: Having to play so quickly is a variation of chess that is somewhat more removed from chess as I think of it. It is almost more like playing a video game than engaging in deeper positional strategy.

 

[Voran]

I am a bit more wound up than I realized from competing in events where I have to react to things in 0.1 of a second.

I don't feel up to doing anything except sitting on the net and laughing at fart stories on reddit lol

 

[Gress]

Congrats!
I like speed chess, mostly play what they call Blitz i.e 5 (or 3) minutes per player.
3 minutes imo is already beyond thinking

I guess 1 minute game requires lots of chess theory study and such. In any case it is a nerve wracking sport.

Anything below I would not call "chess"

 

[Gress]

BTW, according to Scientific American: On average, reaction time takes between 150 and 300 milliseconds.

 

[Voran]

Congrats!
I like speed chess, mostly play what they call Blitz i.e 5 (or 3) minutes per player.
3 minutes imo is already beyond thinking

I guess 1 minute game requires lots of chess theory study and such. In any case it is a nerve wracking sport.

Anything below I would not call "chess"

Ooooo do you play regularly?

 

[Voran]

BTW, according to Scientific American: On average, reaction time takes between 150 and 300 milliseconds.

Yeah the 0.1 was hyperbole that's 100 milliseconds. I can do 150 if I'm amped up on enough Red Bull.

 

[Gress]

That was simple reaction to a stimulus time. No analysis or thinking involved

 

[Gress]

Ooooo do you play regularly?

Amateurish, with couple of coworkers at what we call a Blitz lunch Unfortunately, much less these days

 

[Voran]

Amateurish, with couple of coworkers at what we call a Blitz lunch Unfortunately, much less these days

Ooh fun. I pretty much only play online although me and a friend are planning to someday meet up and play some otb 1|1 and just have fun knocking over the pieces and laughing at both our blunders.