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
16. “By all means examine the games of the great chess players, but don’t swallow them whole. Their games are valuable not for their separate moves, but for their vision of chess, their way of thinking.
Anatoly Karpov
I enjoy it when I see my opponent really suffering when he knows that I’ve outsmarted him
Magnus Carlsen 2012
” The fact that a player is very short of time is, to my mind, as little to be considered an excuse as, for instance, the statement of the law-breaker that he was drunk at the time he committed the crime.”
Alexander Alekhine
Good players actually use their long-term memory much more than inexperienced players, who use their short-term memory. Good players try to recall patterns.
Magnus Carlsen 2016 2016
Carlsen: “I ran out of steam towards the end but fortunately I played better than he did”
Magnus Carlsen 2017
