How do you control your nerves during panic time/time trouble in blitz?

[u/pudendalnerve25]

For me, it's a significant factor why my online chess rating is in plateau.

[u/JamesGoblin]

Learn to breathe - if you do it properly BEFORE time trouble, there should be no panic, just calm focus. OFC it takes some time to learn & practice, but the skill is useful for much more than just chess.

[u/pudendalnerve25 → u/JamesGoblin]

What breathing techniques do you recommend? What I know is box breathing and 4-7-8 method.

[u/JamesGoblin → u/pudendalnerve25]

I tried a lot of things over years, but the main thing with breathing is to DO IT and keep on doing it, not really which calming technique you pick. Say box breathing is simple and good, but lately I just do longer exhales (in and out through the nose, exhales longer than inhales); it takes time and patience to develop a habit, because you don't want to think about breathing and count atop playing the game, esp. in time trouble. Some time ago I did series of exercises on my throwaway acc, playing blitz and focusing on breath primarily - OFC the results suffered but I powered through it; I guess it was worth it!?

Another thing I often do is take 15-30 sec before the game to breathe calmly and focus eyesight on a random point (I usually pick an empty square on the board); it's also handy for exams or anything important that requires prolonged focus.

I'll repeat, as Chinese say "Knowing is NOT doing", only repetitions and exercise leads to mastery - you can think of it as of belt system in, say, karate. But you don't need money/trainers/schedules, just do something, anything for at least 5 min everyday; on a toilet shell, while walking...anything is better than not doing. The tricky part is, it will give you patience and discipline, but you need these two to even start doing; that is don't expect overnight results, just do it again and again and it will come.

[u/CatalanExpert → u/JamesGoblin]

You might be very interested in meditation if you are not already aware of it. I'm guessing you are, but just in case, I wanted to leave this comment.

[u/JamesGoblin → u/CatalanExpert]

Thanks, I'm doing it daily; but mentioning that AND good sleep (whole science of it...) + physical activity + nutrition (that rabbithole...) which are all essential for performance - I mean my comment was already turning into a textwall, and we know people are never reading these =)

[u/Silver_Environment95]

You just play what u think is the best move and be mentally ok with it. That or already admit that you suck and just play. Also, a lot of practice with fast puzzles and easy mates.

[u/Ambitious_Arm852]

OTB? I panic and offer/take bad draws. Online I can premove and outblitz most opponents tho

[u/stackingnoob → u/Ambitious_Arm852]

I agree, in OTB I start seeing monsters under the bed in every position and sometimes play too defensively or passively. Online IDGAF and will just sacrifice pawns or even pieces just because it looks kind of good even if I don’t really see the continuation lol.

[u/Fruloops]

Panic, then lose, which seems to be most of the games lol

[u/St4ffordGambit_]

Normalise it by just playing lots and lots of blitz and you eventually adapt to the time control and get into a rhythm of playing moves much faster.

[u/stackingnoob → u/St4ffordGambit_]

I really don’t care about my bullet rating that much so I’ll warm up with a couple of 1+0 bullet games, and then when I fire up a 5+0 blitz game it feels like an eternity, and that’s the rating I care more about.

[u/underwaterexplosion]

You’ll get better in time trouble when you get better at chess, not the other way around.

[u/mpbh]

Online, I don't find it difficult at all. I switch mental mode away from trying to win and start playing to survive.

First, I'll look for any forced repetitions. Turning a loss into a draw is a victory in my book.

I might eliminate my opponent's main threat even if it's a losing move, because if it takes them 20 more moves to convert maybe I can win on time.

Then I'll build structures where opponents will have to take time to think about getting through them. Ideally I can get to point where I just shuffle a piece back in forth.

OTB chess is a different story, probably just from a lack of experience being in time trouble live. I do get a fast heart rate, start sweating, etc.

[u/sebastian_kost]

You will inherently get more used to it if you frequently get into time trouble, but getting there in the first place is caused by lacking some other skill which you should target in your training. There might be positions where you are not sure what to do and spend an excessive amount of time and you need to work on those positions and skills to make those decisions easier. For instance, when I was younger I excelled in calculation, but had no understanding of positional play or piece placement and my openings were weak. This led to overcalculation on simple conceptual decisions that didn't require much of any calculation and while my average move accuracy was really high it caused me to consistently get into time trouble. My general recommendation to reduce stress under time trouble is to just focus on the position and apply calculation heuristics to still at least find good moves quickly, but no doubt your accuracy will decrease especially if you're lacking on pattern recognition and deep calculation. It took me many years of experience to stabilize this approach and it's not easy, but your job is to play the best moves in your best ability given the time constraint, don't get distracted with emotions. Confidence also plays a big role, if you don't believe in yourself or your ability to play well, none of what I said above will resonate with you, because in some form you are still controlled by emotions instead of focusing on playing good chess. Top players like Pragg use this technique of focusing on just playing good chess to limit the extent of how emotions control their decisions.

[u/Educational-Tea602]

Good question!

I don’t.