Though I play blitz on a regular basis, I'm not really a fan of using it for training purposes. I mostly use it to relax and clear my head (i.e. it's like watching TV for me). Anyway, I wanted to share another similar experience here:
- A couple of weeks ago I played 2 rapid games (20'+10'') in a tournament. I started well and when my clock was at about 5', I got nervous and completely blew the positions (both times). My blitz experience didn't help a bit as I was unable to make the 'switch' in my head.
- Yesterday I played an important OTB game which involved lots of manouevring and deep thinking from both sides. Though the position was equal, near the end I overpressed and started to lose ground, while simultaneously ended up with 7' on my clock (my opponent had 20' left!). I then woke up and said to myself that I won't panic like in those rapid games, managed to make the 'switch' in my head and ultimately held the game.

My point: Try first to find the real reasons for your problem. You said you got nervous too while approaching time-trouble. Maybe you are experiencing a problem that has more to do with psychology than training (like myself). What can improve your psychology I don't know. Could be blitz if it makes you feel 'quicker', could be better time management (i.e. side-stepping the problem itself), could be encouraging yourself (like I did) when things start to get out of hand, etc.  

Quote:


Indeed there were decisive tactics in the position. But it was not absolutely necessary to embark into them. There were ways to play for a solid positional edge, but of course I didn't want to give away my attack. So I tried to calculate everything.
You are right, 9 mins should be enough time, but I guess I was afraid to provoke a tactical struggle when time trouble is just ahead, then miscalculated and played some meek and inferior moves, even though I technically had enough time to find the best continuation.

So the problem doesn't exactly begin with the actual time trouble for me, I starts as soon as I begin to smell time trouble.

I fully agree that playing thousands of bullet games just with the rating in mind (as many do) is a waste of time. But as a time-trouble addict, around the same time I started playing a lot of bullet my focus in those stressful otb time troubles (and my results) improved. I personally think there was a connection. After a year or so I realised that bullet was not helping me improve anymore, and I cut down on it, happy with the training effect I had achieved.

About blitz and bullet not giving you time to think and plan:
This is of course true, but to my mind this is exactly what makes it valuable as a training tool! After all a big part of playing strength comes from absorbed and unconsciously recognized patterns ("chunks" in the scientific terminology), which then form the starting point for planning and calculation. By storing and analyzing one's blitz games, noting when mistakes occured and the position worsened, one can get some insight into which patterns are lacking and should be "strengthened". As an example, I noticed that in blitz games I repeatedly made the error of underestimating the value of an active king in the endgame, even as compensation for material. This is very useful information for finding training exercises! Similarly, one can pinpoint tactical errors that recur, and discover that one should work on for example "the overworked piece" or "the weakness of the back rank" or whatever. Finally blitz is useful for quickly gaining experience with an opening one is learing.

Of course, all this presupposes a) that one is conscious of blitz/bullet being used for a purpose, not for its own sake, and b) that blitz should never be the only kind of training (or play) one engages in.

Edit: I suppose the debate of blitz versus bullet as time-trouble-training depends on just how extreme one's time troubles are. I for one am not unfamiliar with having to make 10-15 moves in a minute, when focus, swift reaction and avoiding blunders is everything, so bullet made sense

Meat, you are contradicting yourself a bit. If you have a crushing attack, you should not look for favourable simplifications, but for decisive tactics. You have spend 9 minutes for three moves, which should be sufficient to calculate those tactics. As I see it, there were two possibilities:
1. the decisive tactics were not there, so you misjudged the position at move 30. Here Eric's advice applies.
2. the decisive tactics were there, but you could not find them. In that case a moderate form of Stigma's advice applies: no bullet games, but five minutes blitz, to train calculating under time pressure.

Meat: I wouldn't try bullet games personally; I think they're a total waste of time.  I'd recommend a different approach: learn to shuffle wood.

If you truly have a crushing positional advantage, in most cases you can play a la Capablanca or Petrosian or Karpov and make a couple of rook moves (or maybe slight pawn moves) that don't really alter the position at all and help you get closer to the time control.  Then after the time control you can look for a win.

Think of that famous Fischer-Spassky game where Fischer played 1.c4 and the game became a very beautiful Tartakower QGD.  Fischer made about 4 or 5 moves that emphasized his advantage without really changing the nature of the position.  In fact, I think he made 3 rook moves to put the rook on a square that it could have gone to in 1.  Maybe this was partly psychological, but I bet it was also partly to give himself more time to think.

A very strong player (I don't remember who) said that the art of maneuvering your pieces without really changing the position at all was a very important skill, and the mark of a great player.

Meat, have you tried using bullet games (internet or otb) to practice making reasonable decisions under strong time pressure? I used to think of ICCs 1-minute games as just a meaningless waste of time, until I started using them as special training. Now I still get into a lot of time troubles, but I am far mor likely to keep my cool and not throw the game away. I know several writers (Kotov? Tisdall?) have mentioned how skills in blitz and time trouble are not that related, but for me it helped. Just a thought.

I always leave the board after I moved to free my mind,
sitting all the time at the board I get exhausted quite fast,
sometimes I get into timetrouble, sometimes not,
but it is not because of leaving the board, that i get into timetrouble,
you really have to concentrate good and calculate effective when to move, 
and not getting lazy, and calculate the same variation over and over again ...
it is also dependable from the 'will' I think ...

but of course if you are unfamiliar with the position, you naturally need longer time,
to get a feeling for it ...

JonHecht wrote on 10/30/07 at 16:41:55:


As you no doubt know, the usual advice is that when it's not your turn to move, you should study the "features of the position."  What I often do is scan the board and dream up all sorts of funny possibilities for both sides' pieces.  These weird ideas sometimes turn out to be not so weird.

I wonder if your compulsion to rise is stress-related.