From the German Blitz – lightning, a play with moves made in a rapid manner under a short time limit.
In the late 19th century such games are said to be played in London: each player had 30 seconds for one move, later it was reduced to 5 seconds. As the clock technology progressed, another time condition came to popularity: each player had 5 minutes for the whole game. Rules used for such games are almost the same as for a regular one, except for some minor alternations.
FIDE started to published a blitz rating list a couple years ago, before that some tries where made by Walter Browne in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Before 2006, two unofficial world championships were organized: the first won by Mikhail Tal in 1988 and the second by Robert Fischer in Herceg Novi in 1970, both tournaments included the best world players. More recently, in 2016, Sergey Karjakin was crowned World Blitz Champion in Doha.
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Quotes of the Day
Now, at 51, in my life I have reach the stage between the middlegame and the endgame. But I don’t have the feeling that I am in the endgame already.
Boris Spassky 1988 NIC
In chess,honestly,nobody cares how beautiful you play,if Morphy would be 2710 today,he would not get a single invitation.
Teymur Rajabov 2017
Everything is very concrete nowadays. The computer often gives unnatural moves which are correct, but sometimes hard to remember. You know a line is correct, but then your forget something and lose terribly.
Daniel Stellwagen 2010
I give 98 percent of my mental energy to Chess. Others give only 2 percent!
Robert Fischer
If the FIDe elections were not decided by the votes of the delegates but by the world’s chess society as a whole, there would not even be a competition.
Anatoly Karpov NIC 2010
