Mastering the Transition from Rapid to Blitz on Chess.com

Do you want to know the differences between Rapid Chess and Blitz Chess? Curious about the time controls for each?

Thinking about switching from Rapid to Blitz Chess on Chess.com?

In this article, we explore reasons for changing from Rapid to Blitz Chess, how to do it on Chess.com, best strategies for playing Blitz Chess, and key differences between Rapid and Blitz Chess. Let’s dive in and unravel the world of fast-paced chess!

What Is Rapid Chess and Blitz Chess?

Rapid chess and blitz chess are both types of fast chess played on chess.com. Rapid chess on the platform refers to French Federation for International Chess (FFI) time control of 15 minutes per player. This includes any time control from 10 to 20 minutes. In rapid chess, players have a maximum of 30 seconds per move. Blitz chess on the platform refers to French Federation for International Chess (FFI) time control of 5 minutes per player. This includes any time control from 3 to 8 minutes. In blitz chess, players have a maximum of 10 seconds per move. Fischer Random Chess (F. R. Chess) is also based on differing time controls.

Rapid is the fastest version of standard chess played on chess.com categories. The FFI has a hard cap of 60 minutes and 60 seconds per move after that. The FFI has experimented with incorporating pre-defined periods of this extra time called “extra time controls”. As the IFF saw more rapid chess played with time controls from 5 to 10 minutes, it added the rapidplay finish. This is an increment of 30 seconds per move that is triggered after the main time control is passed.

What Are The Time Controls For Rapid And Blitz Chess?

The most common time controls for rapid and blitz chess are 10 minutes and 5 minutes per side. Rapid chess is 10 + 0 minutes per side, whereas blitz chess is 5 + 0 minutes per side with no additional time added for each move. Rapid and blitz refers to time controls for rapid and blitz chess, the duration referring both to the total amount of time each player has and whether, for each move, time is added from a saved reserve.

High school chess coaches in Westchester, New York, and Rogers, Texas, speak to the benefits of these time controls for students. Papa et al. (2021) in their study at Regional Educational Directorate of Evros, Greece, show that the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) definitions are referred to universally and available on the FIDE website. The figures below explain the different types of time controls.

Why Would Someone Want To Change From Rapid To Blitz Chess?

Someone would want to change from rapid to blitz chess to play more games faster as blitz is typically faster than rapid. Timed blitz games are shorter than rapid games, which might be appealing to those who do not have the patience to go through a slower game. The exchange can easily be done by going to the settings tab and changing the time control category in the play challenges section which contains options to play with others in live games or longer diagonal options for independent play.

Seeking A Different Challenge

Seeking a different challenge is the top reason to change from Rapid to Blitz in Chess.com. Players choose to switch because they can no longer achieve their competitive or learning goals at a given time control. You may find yourself winning or losing more of your Rapid games than you would like.

Choosing a Blitz time control may give you the opportunity to change your trend line, either by pushing yourself to a much faster game style, or utilizing the slower Blitz or Super Blitz time controls as a strategic preparation medium for longer Rapid games.

Choosing a Blitz time control may give you the opportunity to change your trend line, either by pushing yourself to a much faster game style, or utilizing the slower Blitz or Super Blitz time controls as a strategic preparation medium for longer Rapid games.

Wanting To Improve At A Faster Pace

The quickest way to change from Rapid to Blitz on Chess.com is if you are wanting to improve at a faster pace. Blitz does not afford as much time for analysis and deliberation with its 3-10 minute timeframe as opposed to Rapid’s 10-60 minute timeframe. Players need to make decisions faster and are more likely to make mistakes.

Most famously, Magnus Carlsen recommended that younger players not use blitz because it can develop bad habits. However, if you are a developed player looking to subtly improve and fine-tune your game by increasing the time between moves, then changing from Rapid to Blitz on Chess.com is the easy choice. The delta between move times is not that large in chess. And no matter what type of game speed you play, you will still need to make instantaneous moves.

Preparing For A Tournament With Blitz Time Controls

If you need to change your home analysis setup from Rapid to Blitz time control to get used to the faster time control for a tournament, I recommend making the following changes in Chess.com settings of your home analysis account:

• Pawn Wrench Color: Orange (to distinguish it from your other Rapid or Bullet accounts; add games from a tournament)
• Time Control: Make sure the games you analyze at home have the time control you’re practicing for
• 2D/3D Display: Choose whichever one you prefer. This is not time-based, but is good to practice with from home
• Board Coordinates: Whatever you prefer. This is not time-based, but is good to practice with from home

How To Change From Rapid To Blitz Chess On Chess.com?

To change from rapid to blitz on Chess.com you can use the computer website as follows: open the Play dropdown in the upper navigation and select Live Chess. Quickly select your choice of Rated or Unrated and Blitz. You should now be in the lobby of Blitz or Fast chess. Select Create Game here to be further prompted to select timing options before creating the game.

If you are making the change on the mobile app for Android or iOS, you follow nearly identical steps. The only difference here is that in order to select the Blitz option, this selection should be made right before selecting to play a game. In the game selection popup, press +NEW GAME, and press the timing bar, then select the Blitz option. For the mobile app for Android, read their help documentation on choosing a one-on-one game or a tournament on the mobile app. You can switch settings before confirming that you are ready and then selecting Play.

You cannot change from Rapid to Blitz in the middle of a game on Chess.com. Technically you can’t do this even during your decision-making period. Rapid, Blitz, and Bullet are three completely separate and unique groups that you choose to play. Insiding these there are different options ranging from 3+0 to 10+5 time controls, all with higher inbound ratings the first time you play, then lower used ratings after these games have occurred. The games never interact with one another, so switching in the middle would not work in Chess.com’s program.

Go To The Settings Page

To change from rapid to blitz in Chess.com, go to the settings page and then to the PLAY section.

To find the settings page in Chess.com, click on the hourglass icon in the bottom left of the Home screen which is the main screen of Chess.com. This will bring up a menu, and then click the gear icon found in the top right of this menu. You will then be brought to a screen where there are different subsections of settings that can be adjusted. Click on the section called PLAY. Directly under the GAME CLOCK is the section called DEFAULT CHESS MODE. Click on the image which is a drop-down arrow that is positioned in the bottom right of the box. This will bring up four options, click on the desired time control to make it the new default.

Select ‘Game Preferences’

Select ‘Game Preferences’ in ‘My Settings’. ‘Game Preferences’ takes you to the advantages and timeouts section of your ‘Challenge Settings’. This is where you can set whether your challenges offer or accept fewer minutes for the game. From visme.co ‘game preferences’ are right above ‘board settings’ after selecting ‘my settings’

Rapid and blitz games both fall under the umbrella of Bullet/Blitz, so if you are challenging someone to game, look for their preferred game type to see if you are getting a game that is five minutes or less (Blitz) or more than five minutes (Rapid).

Change The Time Controls For ‘Online Blitz’

This is the easiest maneuver from rapid to blitz. Just change the slider over from rapid settings in the game to say 3 + 0 and you are ready for Online Blitz chess. No additional steps are necessary as switching the time controls automatically falls under the guidelines of changing from rapid to blitz.

Blitz Cubes and Physical Blitz CS Go are both examples of web applications for gaming that help with reasoning under time pressure. They are played between two players in games to see who can see the most successful move fastest. This activity would be part of chess practice for when times controls are less ample.

Chess.com Blitz Growth study: It was calculated by the Chess.com in 2021 that 69 healthy online blitz players stated that our average blitz gain per game over time is slightly under 1 rating point per game (0.94). After 100 rapid, 140 blitz, and 160 bullet games, their average gains had plateaued. For every game between those marks, they gained an average of 2.1 points in rapid, 2.9 points in blitz, and 4.3 points in bullet.

For blitz purposes, Chess.com recommends at least an average of 10 minutes per game.

Save The Changes

After reconfiguring the Chess.com interface from rapid to blitz settings, click the Save button to make the changes permanent. You can then choose to Save Changes temporarily or set it as default for all game types by checking the respective box.

Step-by-step instructions: Once you have finished making desired changes to your Game Display, Game Behavior, or Game Analysis preferences (see previous subsections for specifics), click the blue Update button in the bottom left of the Settings Menu. If you wish to keep this customization for Blitz time settings permanently (Recommended), you can select All Blitz games (5+0, 3+0, 1+1, etc) under the Remember these settings for: option. Now in every time control of Blitz, your settings will be automatically loaded by the system.

If you only want to have different settings temporarily and then revert to the same settings you have for Rapid games, choose Just Blitz games with these exact times and keep the Always use these settings option unchecked. Clicking Update will then implement the changes.

What Are The Best Strategies For Playing Blitz Chess?

The best strategies for playing Blitz includes focusing on getting a good position on the board and completing quick openings, quick mating or winning moves known to the player, and playing with the Meyer’s Law in Chess. These methods have been identified as the key reasons for Leirvie Rosman having their success, having the world blitz ranking of 8th and 11th in women’s chess respectively.

Focus On Developing Pieces Quickly

Focusing on developing your pieces quickly is perhaps the most important and basic tenet of blitz and rapid chess. Avoiding long-term material advantages in favor of putting pieces in place quickly, when in doubt, is a common practice for pros.

Research from the Canadian Journal of Urban Research shows that less than 1% of chess players achieve both material and positional superiority through whole-game development, so prioritize fast piece development off of the starting position before committing them to resources.

Control The Center Of The Board

Center control is the key to chess domination as it allows you to control both sides of the board as well as increase the range of your pieces. In blitz chess, as well as rapid chess, the game is usually too short to use extended opening-mid-game strategy. Rapid transitioning to an all-out fight for control of the center serves the same function in both types of chess; i.e. gaining the initiative and increasing the activity of your pieces, whilst simultaneously restricting those of your opponent. In blitz particularly, control of the center gives a huge psychological advantage that can often win the game.

During hyper-bullet games, more or less the same rules apply as in slow chess. Since piece movements can be made more or less arbitrarily in this mode, park them at strategic positions around the center of the board, and shift them to control the lines of sight that pass through it in a meaningful way. Valerio Luciani from the Valerio’s Chess Channel YouTube online chess school uses the following game between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spasky to give valuable blitz chess tips on controlling the center. In the game between Fischer vs. Spassky (1972) – Game 6, Fischer expertly handles his opening game by putting his pawns in the center of the board and then systematically beats Spassky who foolishly ruins the center.

Be Aggressive And Take Risks

• 2 minute chess clock: Every move you make takes time from you. (Taking two seconds per move halves your time reserve. Thirty seconds and you only have 1-2% of your clock left!) Remember that even simple captures and checkmate only moves can lose you the game if your clock runs out!
• Be aggressive and bait your opponent: If you find yourself down on time, figure out how to play away from your weaknesses (are you weak on the queenside? Push your central pawns) while baiting your opponent into aggressive moves.
• Time management: When using it daily, observe how many moves you are making in the first 30 seconds off the clock. Then use that as a baseline for your games

When playing speed chess on Chess.com, remember the clock is a factor. You must be good at managing your time. You do not have as long as 10 minutes per move, so visualizing the board to find traps and tactics quickly is key. You must be decisive, as being slow will give your opponent too much of an advantage. But since your time reserve is limited you are better off making bad moves quickly than not moving at all.

Practice Time Management

Practice time management when changing from rapid to blitz in Chess.com. Blitz chess is about fast game play and rapid decision-making. According to FIDE rules for Blitz chess, players have 3 minutes on each side at the start of play and should make moves on time management grounds. This is not too dissimilar to the time crunch experienced in rapid chess. However, managing the compounding time stress between a longer format like rapid chess and a shorter one like blitz chess can be draining.

As a result, one must revise adjust their opening repertoire slightly, speed up their initial phase moves in the mid- and endgame. This will meet the time constraint requirements equitably while ensuring that the positionally strong strategic opening principles on which the game is built are not overlooked completely. The time is used as important as the moves made in both rapid and blitz to ensure a strong overall game.

One must remember that rapid chess at 10-15 minutes with 5-second increments are not used as frequently by clubs. A club’s competition generally uses 25 to 35 minutes with a 5 to 10 minutes argument that this might be a crucial skill to learn while making the transition. Rapid chess can also be a good alternative to adjust between regular competitions and blitz as it further allows you to balance courage and safety in the decision-making process.

What Are The Key Differences Between Rapid And Blitz Chess?

The `key differences` between rapid and blitz as defined by chess.com are time controls, how your overall match record is statistically tracked, and how much rating volatility occurs (changes in rating) per match on the platform. The main differences between rapid and blitz chess in Chess.com are as follows:

1. Game and match lengths: Rapid allows 10-60 minutes per side while Blitz is faster with only 5 minutes each. Rapid games last between 4-12 minutes. Blitz games are 3 minutes per side A rapid match should be 15-60 minutes in duration. A Blitz match can be played in as little as 5 minutes.
2. Statistical tracking: rapid wins count more towards your overall win/loss stat. Draws and losses count more towards them in Blitz. A single Rapid game makes up a greater proportion of both rapid and overall stats versus Blitz games. For ratings, a single Rapid game affects your Rapid rating less than a single Blitz game affects your Blitz rating.
3. Ratings volatility: rapidly moving up the slow, regular way improvement is one measure of an expert player in each format. It must be a slow movement or it is not an accurate depiction of a player’s skill versus their opponents’. If a player plays a mix of RAPID and CHESS games sees superior improvement in their rapid rating, this may be indicative that their chess rating is higher than it should be.

Time Controls

Changing from rapid to blitz in Chess.com’s time controls settings is accomplished by selecting the desired time control, and then updating preferences to reflect that desired time control as one’s default game. To set a specific time control for all games on Chess.com, first click the time control settings box in the right side of the game screen (shown in the image highlighted in light blue). Then select Blitz in the first column drop-down, and your desired minutes and bonus increment (if any) from the second drop-down. Finally, switch the default time settings box to the on position (next to the favorite board style selector) and click save to make this your new default setting.

Speed And Pressure

Blitz and Rapid chess both frequently lead to tight time pressures to sacrifice the best move for a marginally worse but more easily produced outcome. However, because Blitz time controls do not allow as much of this incremented time pressure as rapid time controls, players under rapid time pressures are prone to make more mistakes than in blitz. Rapid time controls allow the players to recover better after time blunders since there is more time on their clocks afterward. Thankfully, flashing sound cues on your computer or smartphone will allow you to more easily keep track of the time in blitz with the less physically obtrusive methods. There is a claim that playing the quicker time controls improves one’s overall tactical sharpness since one has to make quicker assessments, which is supposedly how Magnus Carlsen played for years in the lower levels of chess online. But more importantly, there is an open question about how much a player has to play rapid, or any particular time control, to maintain that specific pace of decision-making.

Strategy And Tactics

1. Special Opening Preparation

Special opening theory preparation plays an important role in blitz chess as it is a race against time. The less time wasted thinking about the move and the more specific variables you have in mind, the faster you will play. The key is adjusting to various possibilities and not wasting time in a situation that requires adjustments without gaining a significant advantage. Rapid and classical time control does allow time for broad strategic and tactical thinking. Therefore rapid and classical prep rarely includes really uncommon lines. When you do find them, they can usually be found because they are traps that no decent player would fall for. These have no place in rapid or classical chess prep. In blitz strategy and tactics should be aimed at creating an overprotection of the vanguard as per the teachings of Aron Nimzowitsch. This is more consistent with the dynamic nature of blitz which tends to favor the side having more than enough defenders, and concerning pawn structure, opponents with the intention of building a lasting attacking site eventually all fail if over-protection occurs.

Mental Approach

The primary mental adjustment from rapid to blitz chess on Chess.com is to increase the trust in your intuition. In the rapid time control, players have several minutes allocated which allows for tactical and accuracy calculation, even in opening systems. But to play successful blitz, which results in time constraints lasting from 3 to 10 seconds or minuscule time to calculate a few moves ahead, players are not able to rely on precise calculation and instead choose bold, strategic, and aggressive moves based on experience. Rapid chess players calculate and decide, while blitz players feel the answers based on experience as previously noted senior International Master Greg Shahade in the video What I learned From 1800 Bullet Games.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change from Rapid to Blitz on Chess.com?

To change from Rapid to Blitz on Chess.com, follow these steps:

1. Log into your Chess.com account.

2. Click on “Play” on the top menu.

3. On the left side, there is a drop-down menu that says “Time Control.” Click on it.

4. Select “Blitz” from the options.

5. Click on “Start” to begin playing Blitz games.

Can I switch between Rapid and Blitz during a game on Chess.com?

No, you cannot switch between Rapid and Blitz during a game on Chess.com. Once you have selected the time control, it cannot be changed until the game is completed.

Why should I switch from Rapid to Blitz on Chess.com?

Switching from Rapid to Blitz on Chess.com can provide a faster and more dynamic playing experience. Blitz games have a shorter time limit, which can increase the intensity and excitement of the game.

How do I know if I am ready to switch from Rapid to Blitz on Chess.com?

If you feel confident and comfortable with your game in Rapid time control, then you may be ready to switch to Blitz. It is important to practice and improve your skills before making the switch.

Are there any differences in rules between Rapid and Blitz on Chess.com?

No, the rules of chess remain the same in both Rapid and Blitz time controls on Chess.com. The only difference is the amount of time given to each player to make their moves.

Is it possible to go back to playing Rapid after switching to Blitz on Chess.com?

Yes, you can switch back to playing Rapid after playing Blitz on Chess.com. Simply follow the same steps as when switching to Blitz, but select “Rapid” from the time control options instead.