These are exactly the things that make it more &quot;real&quot; of a game, to me. It encourages guessing, yes, but it also encourages snap-shot pattern recognition, quick decision making, bluffing, calmness under pressure, and as you say, is great fun when the heart gets pumping in a close game as time runs out... In other words, it&#x27;s less theoretical, and more like life.<p>&gt;Good blitz players are good chess players who happen to put their skills to a use by playing blitz, but they haven&#x27;t developed these skills just by playing blitz<p>I&#x27;m a class A player, and I&#x27;ve probably played &lt; 20 slow chess games over the past 15 years.