Answers.Body: <p><a href="https://chess.stackexchange.com/users/23229/zacky">Zacky</a>'s <a href="https://chess.stackexchange.com/a/45671/14678">answer</a> gives some fine points. I am listing some points not included in it.</p>
  <ul>
  <li><p><strong>Develop good intuition</strong> (broad idea; OP mentioned this point already)<br />
  Intuition rather than calculation is more important in bullet (and even more so in hyperbullet). For developing intuition, the OP's point &quot;Lots of (preferably timed) puzzles for quick pattern recognition&quot; is a very good way. I am not sure if OP's other idea &quot;Play rapid/blitz&quot; really helps with this that much. For higher rating, in addition to high rated puzzles in chess.com and lichess.org, I recommend chesstempo.com.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p>(Needless to say,) <strong>Never resign in bullet</strong></p>
  </li>
  <li><p>(Especially in and after the 2nd half of middle game,) <strong>Premove carefully</strong><br />
  Hikaru recommends to never assume when premoving. But, there is a tradeoff. For all intent and purposes, consider premove as a very fast move (it is literally the fastest move you can play). Playing a quick mistake than a slow good move may be better at some times, but playing accurately is important at other times. Use your judgement wisely.
  Some bullet experts premove a lot. Some other experts don't. For example, I saw in some article that Hikaru's premove rate is much lower than other bullet experts. So, Hikaru's advice above is in line with his play.
  <em>Stick to what works for you.</em><br />
  See <a href="https://www.chess.com/article/view/what-can-a-grandmaster-do-with-60-seconds" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a> chess.com article to see specific expert players.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p><strong>Choose your opening wisely</strong><br />
  A highly premovable opening could be a bad choice if you are not much familiar with that opening. Accoding to Hikaru, any opening works. But, again, this advice is in line with Hikaru's play style (not too many premoves). If you are not familiar with a particular premovable opening, you can always learn it (including trying that opening out in rapid/blitz), provided you find the time spent worthy. Generally, it is better to play familiar openings than to play unfamiliar ones. One exception is when your opening is not a famous one; the surprise factor could be worth it since it could cost your opponent time. But, I don't recommend playing very bad openings; if you go this route, I recommend to  go for somewhat sound offbeat openings that require unusual moves from your opponent.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p><strong>Learn endgame and get faster at endgame</strong><br />
  For the latter, you can use endgames drills (for instance, available on chess.com at <a href="https://www.chess.com/endgames" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this page</a>; try to beat the records, at least your personal records).</p>
  </li>
  <li><p><strong>Gain upper hand psychologically</strong><br />
  This is more important in faster time controls than slower. For this, being on the aggressive rather than defensive is one way. More importantly, being able to control the game is the goal (even if you play defensively, if you control the game, it is good). An advice from Naroditsky:  It's a lot more uncomfortable for your opponent if you do something that changes the landscape because it forces him to adapt.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p><strong>Know when to simplify/complicate</strong><br />
  As a rule of thumb, when you have a big material advantage or down on time, try to simplify the position as much as possible. In simple positions, premoving is much easier. Similarly, if your opponent is down on time or has a big material advantage, complicate the position as much as possible. In complicated positions, premoving is much harder.</p>
  </li>
  <li><p><em>Stay aware of the clock, but don't focus on it too much</em></p>
  </li>
  <li><p><strong>Play with a purpose and execute simple plans whenever possible</strong></p>
  </li>
  <li><p><strong>Play traps</strong><br />
  In slower time controls, ability to play traps is very important unlike in classical. I call a move a <em>trap</em> if your opponent's move(s) that look good at first impression are actually bad; it is a plus point if several of their good looking moves are bad. But, a trap could be good or bad. A trap is <em>bad</em> if the opponent avoiding the trap leads you ending up with a much inferior position than you started with;  otherwise, I call it a <em>good</em> trap. As a special case, if you are losing in almost all lines, almost all traps are good. In faster time controls, even bad traps are playable; still, ideally opponent avoiding the trap should not lead to a change in the evaluation of the game (e.g. playing a trap in a drawish position and ending up in completely losing position when the opponent avoids the trap).</p>
  </li>
  <li><p><strong>Practice predicting opponent's moves</strong><br />
  If you are frequently playing against an opponent, the ability to predict their typical moves/ideas is a big plus in faster time controls. This is not that important in chess (unless this is one of your main tools); e.g. even if you usually play against the board than the player, you may need to try playing the opponent when playing with faster time controls.</p>
  </li>
  </ul>
  <p>Sources used for this answer include a number of articles:<br />
  <a href="https://www.chess.com/article/view/7-bullet-chess-tips-by-hikaru" rel="nofollow noreferrer">7 Bullet Chess Tips By Hikaru Nakamura</a>,<br />
  <a href="https://www.chess.com/blog/ExtremeLearner/bullet-chess-tips-tricks" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bullet Chess: Tips &amp; Tricks</a>,<br />
  <a href="https://lichess.org/@/VegerenessYOUTUBE/blog/improve-your-bullet-chess-with-these-10-tips/aUIwpQ7n" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Improve your Bullet Chess with these 10 Tips</a>,</p>
  
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Answers.Body: <p>Beside what OP already mentioned, here's some other tips:</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- Playing highly premovable openings is great, but get ready to punish your opponents that do this.</strong></p>
  <p>Many players tend premove everything in a few seconds and it's easy to punish them with a surprise move. A concrete example is if they play king indian's defense and you fianchettoed the bishop on b2, then if you grab their knight on f6, most likely they won't capture back because they're busy premoving.</p>
  <p>There's of course a lot of such tricks (even more dirtier, like <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/mavnma/whats_the_origin_of_the_term_lefong/" rel="noreferrer">the <em>Lefong</em></a>) and even top players fall for them. Note that if you don't try to punish them, you'll just end up way down on the clock. Simultaneously, be aware not too fall yourself into this trap.</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- Become an <em>one trick ponny</em> in the opening, even better if it's something dubious that you're familiar with.</strong></p>
  <p>By this, I mean to pick one or a small set of openings that you get extremely comfortable with. You don't have time to calculate and pattern recognition is the most essential thing in bullet, so naturally if you are familiar with your position, then moves come naturally.</p>
  <p>Additionally, the hardest time I usually have is when my opponents play dubious opening that I never encounter before (e.g. they start with 1. a4 or something that isn't standard). Typically they are comfortable playing this, even though they are worse out of the opening (which in bullet doesn't matter that much).</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- A fast inaccuracy is typically better than a great move that burns a lot of your time.</strong></p>
  <p>The clock is an extremely important factor, usually as a rule of thumb I try to not waste more than 5 seconds on a move, unless I have a big time advantage or I'm about to get mated.</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- Predict your opponent's next move</strong></p>
  <p>For example, players in time scrambles will randomly give up their pieces just to give a check, and you should anticipate and premove to capture such a check, but in the same time hover your next move in case they don't.</p>
  <p>Additionally, since you know that they will check you, try to walk on squares that your opponents can't give you check. E.g. if they're left with a light square bishop in an endgame, then just move you king on black squares. If they give a check with the knight, putting your king diagonally with one free square between, will require 3 more knight moves before they can check again (and so on).</p>
  <p>This is of course not specific for endgames, making safe premoves followed by hovering next moves amounts to a lot of time saving.</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- Analyze your games</strong></p>
  <p>Might be funny to hear about analyzing your bullet games, but this is extremely helpful. Of course, not in the same style that you would analyze a long-time format game. I typically tend to look at a single move or one position that made me think during a game. Or if I fall for some trap in the opening I'll check it afterwards to see how to avoid it.</p>
  <p>Looking at one move for a single game might not be too much, but if you add them up for the amount of bullet games that you play - then it's a lot.</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- Attacking is way easier than defending in bullet</strong></p>
  <p>I often observe that I have such a hard time defending if the opponent makes a bold sacrifice and goes straight for the checkmate. So if you have the chance, don't be materialistic.</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- Avoid trading all major pieces if you're defending</strong></p>
  <p>Perhaps one simple way to end the game, if you're on a material advantage is to trade all major pieces and the premove the pawns to get a new queen(s). In the same time, if you're on the defending side avoid trading all the pieces - even if it means getting for example a queen for a knight and they're left with another piece (because your knight might do some damage in time scrambles).</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- Go for dirty tricks in time scrambles</strong></p>
  <p>One such examples that is extremely effective in time scrambles is to offer an undefended queen trade (place your queen so that it can be captured by your opponents queen and when they don't capture you'll just end up a queen). <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1jtUd91RIY&amp;t=20s" rel="noreferrer">Here's</a> a clip of Magnus falling for the trick.</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- Keep the same playing environment</strong></p>
  <p>You definitely don't need an expensive mouse to play fast, but having a decent one that you're comfortable moving fast is important. Needless to be said, playing on a phone will slow you down.</p>
  <hr />
  <p><strong>- Don't play when you're tired or tilted</strong></p>
  <p>I find it impossible to play on my highest level after a full day of work or when I'm tilted. To avoid this I have a smurf account that I use just to enjoy the game during these times- typically I end up losing a lot, but in the same time I can keep my main account intact (when I'm tired, I can't focus, I can't play as fast as I usually do and I also lose my pattern recognition ability).</p>
  <p>In the same spirit, I also observed that rating matters a lot. If I play on my lower rated smurf - then my opponents play better against me, as opposed to when I would play on my main account (I feel like there's some sort of fear here). I also play worse if I see a higher rated player.</p>
  
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Answers.Text: It's a good list, I'm going to keep this open for a couple more days then accept it. (P.S. there might be some better way to format your post. Currently the points don't stand out from the text as much as they should. I can edit it for you when I have time, or you could do it yourself)
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Answers.Text: Touchscreen might be a possibility for fast moving.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Lucenaposition
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Answers.Text: I think there has been extensive discussion about touchscreen vs mouse, and has mixed opinions. So I don't feel it should be included.
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Zacky
Body: <p>I have reached 2200 bullet on Lichess, and want to start preparing chess specifically to get better at bullet. Just like chess as a whole has strategies and techniques to learn, I wanted to know what sort of strategies (tricks?) bullet has.</p>
  <p>Some strategies I am already aware of are</p>
  <ul>
  <li>Playing highly premovable openings</li>
  <li>Giving and repeating checks when possible to run down time (blocking premoves basically)</li>
  <li>Capturing all the pieces when winning to guarantee a draw</li>
  <li>Lots of puzzle storm for quick pattern recognition</li>
  <li>Keeping up rapid/blitz to build intuition and thought out chess</li>
  <li>Forcing opponent to move different pieces to force mouse movement</li>
  </ul>
  <p>What other strategies and tricks are present, especially those highly specific to bullet rather than other formats?</p>
  
Tags: <strategy><learning><online-chess><bullet-chess>
Title: Strategies specific to bullet chess
ThreadText: # Strategies specific to bullet chess
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2024-06-09)
  
  I have reached 2200 bullet on Lichess, and want to start preparing chess specifically to get better at bullet. Just like chess as a whole has strategies and techniques to learn, I wanted to know what sort of strategies (tricks?) bullet has.
  
  Some strategies I am already aware of are
  
  * Playing highly premovable openings
  * Giving and repeating checks when possible to run down time (blocking premoves basically)
  * Capturing all the pieces when winning to guarantee a draw
  * Lots of puzzle storm for quick pattern recognition
  * Keeping up rapid/blitz to build intuition and thought out chess
  * Forcing opponent to move different pieces to force mouse movement
  
  What other strategies and tricks are present, especially those highly specific to bullet rather than other formats?
  
  **Tags:** strategy, learning, online-chess, bullet-chess
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2024-06-15. Score: 8 | Accepted answer
  
  Beside what OP already mentioned, here's some other tips:
  
  ---
  
  **- Playing highly premovable openings is great, but get ready to punish your opponents that do this.**
  
  Many players tend premove everything in a few seconds and it's easy to punish them with a surprise move. A concrete example is if they play king indian's defense and you fianchettoed the bishop on b2, then if you grab their knight on f6, most likely they won't capture back because they're busy premoving.
  
  There's of course a lot of such tricks (even more dirtier, like [the *Lefong*](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/mavnma/whats_the_origin_of_the_term_lefong/)) and even top players fall for them. Note that if you don't try to punish them, you'll just end up way down on the clock. Simultaneously, be aware not too fall yourself into this trap.
  
  ---
  
  **- Become an *one trick ponny* in the opening, even better if it's something dubious that you're familiar with.**
  
  By this, I mean to pick one or a small set of openings that you get extremely comfortable with. You don't have time to calculate and pattern recognition is the most essential thing in bullet, so naturally if you are familiar with your position, then moves come naturally.
  
  Additionally, the hardest time I usually have is when my opponents play dubious opening that I never encounter before (e.g. they start with 1. a4 or something that isn't standard). Typically they are comfortable playing this, even though they are worse out of the opening (which in bullet doesn't matter that much).
  
  ---
  
  **- A fast inaccuracy is typically better than a great move that burns a lot of your time.**
  
  The clock is an extremely important factor, usually as a rule of thumb I try to not waste more than 5 seconds on a move, unless I have a big time advantage or I'm about to get mated.
  
  ---
  
  **- Predict your opponent's next move**
  
  For example, players in time scrambles will randomly give up their pieces just to give a check, and you should anticipate and premove to capture such a check, but in the same time hover your next move in case they don't.
  
  Additionally, since you know that they will check you, try to walk on squares that your opponents can't give you check. E.g. if they're left with a light square bishop in an endgame, then just move you king on black squares. If they give a check with the knight, putting your king diagonally with one free square between, will require 3 more knight moves before they can check again (and so on).
  
  This is of course not specific for endgames, making safe premoves followed by hovering next moves amounts to a lot of time saving.
  
  ---
  
  **- Analyze your games**
  
  Might be funny to hear about analyzing your bullet games, but this is extremely helpful. Of course, not in the same style that you would analyze a long-time format game. I typically tend to look at a single move or one position that made me think during a game. Or if I fall for some trap in the opening I'll check it afterwards to see how to avoid it.
  
  Looking at one move for a single game might not be too much, but if you add them up for the amount of bullet games that you play - then it's a lot.
  
  ---
  
  **- Attacking is way easier than defending in bullet**
  
  I often observe that I have such a hard time defending if the opponent makes a bold sacrifice and goes straight for the checkmate. So if you have the chance, don't be materialistic.
  
  ---
  
  **- Avoid trading all major pieces if you're defending**
  
  Perhaps one simple way to end the game, if you're on a material advantage is to trade all major pieces and the premove the pawns to get a new queen(s). In the same time, if you're on the defending side avoid trading all the pieces - even if it means getting for example a queen for a knight and they're left with another piece (because your knight might do some damage in time scrambles).
  
  ---
  
  **- Go for dirty tricks in time scrambles**
  
  One such examples that is extremely effective in time scrambles is to offer an undefended queen trade (place your queen so that it can be captured by your opponents queen and when they don't capture you'll just end up a queen). [Here's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1jtUd91RIY&t=20s) a clip of Magnus falling for the trick.
  
  ---
  
  **- Keep the same playing environment**
  
  You definitely don't need an expensive mouse to play fast, but having a decent one that you're comfortable moving fast is important. Needless to be said, playing on a phone will slow you down.
  
  ---
  
  **- Don't play when you're tired or tilted**
  
  I find it impossible to play on my highest level after a full day of work or when I'm tilted. To avoid this I have a smurf account that I use just to enjoy the game during these times- typically I end up losing a lot, but in the same time I can keep my main account intact (when I'm tired, I can't focus, I can't play as fast as I usually do and I also lose my pattern recognition ability).
  
  In the same spirit, I also observed that rating matters a lot. If I play on my lower rated smurf - then my opponents play better against me, as opposed to when I would play on my main account (I feel like there's some sort of fear here). I also play worse if I see a higher rated player.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: It's a good list, I'm going to keep this open for a couple more days then accept it. (P.S. there might be some better way to format your post. Currently the points don't stand out from the text as much as they should. I can edit it for you when I have time, or you could do it yourself)  
  > **username_3**: Touchscreen might be a possibility for fast moving.  
  > **username_0**: I think there has been extensive discussion about touchscreen vs mouse, and has mixed opinions. So I don't feel it should be included.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2024-06-27. Score: 3
  
  [username_2](https://chess.stackexchange.com/users/23229/zacky)'s [answer](https://chess.stackexchange.com/a/45671/14678) gives some fine points. I am listing some points not included in it.
  
  * **Develop good intuition** (broad idea; OP mentioned this point already)  
    Intuition rather than calculation is more important in bullet (and even more so in hyperbullet). For developing intuition, the OP's point "Lots of (preferably timed) puzzles for quick pattern recognition" is a very good way. I am not sure if OP's other idea "Play rapid/blitz" really helps with this that much. For higher rating, in addition to high rated puzzles in chess.com and lichess.org, I recommend chesstempo.com.
  * (Needless to say,) **Never resign in bullet**
  * (Especially in and after the 2nd half of middle game,) **Premove carefully**  
    Hikaru recommends to never assume when premoving. But, there is a tradeoff. For all intent and purposes, consider premove as a very fast move (it is literally the fastest move you can play). Playing a quick mistake than a slow good move may be better at some times, but playing accurately is important at other times. Use your judgement wisely.
    Some bullet experts premove a lot. Some other experts don't. For example, I saw in some article that Hikaru's premove rate is much lower than other bullet experts. So, Hikaru's advice above is in line with his play.
    *Stick to what works for you.*  
    See [this](https://www.chess.com/article/view/what-can-a-grandmaster-do-with-60-seconds) chess.com article to see specific expert players.
  * **Choose your opening wisely**  
    A highly premovable opening could be a bad choice if you are not much familiar with that opening. Accoding to Hikaru, any opening works. But, again, this advice is in line with Hikaru's play style (not too many premoves). If you are not familiar with a particular premovable opening, you can always learn it (including trying that opening out in rapid/blitz), provided you find the time spent worthy. Generally, it is better to play familiar openings than to play unfamiliar ones. One exception is when your opening is not a famous one; the surprise factor could be worth it since it could cost your opponent time. But, I don't recommend playing very bad openings; if you go this route, I recommend to go for somewhat sound offbeat openings that require unusual moves from your opponent.
  * **Learn endgame and get faster at endgame**  
    For the latter, you can use endgames drills (for instance, available on chess.com at [this page](https://www.chess.com/endgames); try to beat the records, at least your personal records).
  * **Gain upper hand psychologically**  
    This is more important in faster time controls than slower. For this, being on the aggressive rather than defensive is one way. More importantly, being able to control the game is the goal (even if you play defensively, if you control the game, it is good). An advice from Naroditsky: It's a lot more uncomfortable for your opponent if you do something that changes the landscape because it forces him to adapt.
  * **Know when to simplify/complicate**  
    As a rule of thumb, when you have a big material advantage or down on time, try to simplify the position as much as possible. In simple positions, premoving is much easier. Similarly, if your opponent is down on time or has a big material advantage, complicate the position as much as possible. In complicated positions, premoving is much harder.
  * *Stay aware of the clock, but don't focus on it too much*
  * **Play with a purpose and execute simple plans whenever possible**
  * **Play traps**  
    In slower time controls, ability to play traps is very important unlike in classical. I call a move a *trap* if your opponent's move(s) that look good at first impression are actually bad; it is a plus point if several of their good looking moves are bad. But, a trap could be good or bad. A trap is *bad* if the opponent avoiding the trap leads you ending up with a much inferior position than you started with; otherwise, I call it a *good* trap. As a special case, if you are losing in almost all lines, almost all traps are good. In faster time controls, even bad traps are playable; still, ideally opponent avoiding the trap should not lead to a change in the evaluation of the game (e.g. playing a trap in a drawish position and ending up in completely losing position when the opponent avoids the trap).
  * **Practice predicting opponent's moves**  
    If you are frequently playing against an opponent, the ability to predict their typical moves/ideas is a big plus in faster time controls. This is not that important in chess (unless this is one of your main tools); e.g. even if you usually play against the board than the player, you may need to try playing the opponent when playing with faster time controls.
  
  Sources used for this answer include a number of articles:  
  [7 Bullet Chess Tips By Hikaru Nakamura](https://www.chess.com/article/view/7-bullet-chess-tips-by-hikaru),  
  [Bullet Chess: Tips & Tricks](https://www.chess.com/blog/ExtremeLearner/bullet-chess-tips-tricks),  
  [Improve your Bullet Chess with these 10 Tips](https://lichess.org/@/VegerenessYOUTUBE/blog/improve-your-bullet-chess-with-these-10-tips/aUIwpQ7n),
  
  
  ---
  
  