Bullet Session 3: Time Trouble
| Time Control: 2 min + 1 sec increment (Bullet) | Games: 5 | Record: 2W / 3L |
Overview
Five bullet games in an afternoon session. At the time I wasn’t completely happy that I lost three games in one sitting, but looking at the quality of my play, only one game was lost because of a blunder. The other two I got into good or winning positions and lost on time. That’s something I can work on.
All Games
| # | Color | Opponent | Result | Moves | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ⏳ | White | nosnotna (336) | Loss (time) | 41 | 311 |
| 2 | 🏳️ | Black | nosnotna (343) | Loss (resignation) | 33 | 303 |
| 3 | ⏳ | White | Ka1que (349) | Loss (time) | 28 | 296 |
| 4 | ⏳ | Black | Gwu4po (317) | Win (time) | 40 | 305 |
| 5 | ⏳ | White | MRDEVIDAWAT (294) | Win (time) | 30 | 313 |
Highlight: Loss vs nosnotna (336) as White
A Colle-Zukertort game where I was in a completely winning position and lost on time. Black castled queenside on move 9 which shifted the game to the queenside.
1. d4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. e3 Bf5 4. Bd3 Bxd3 5. Qxd3 Qb6 6. O-O Nf6 7. b3 Nbd7 8. Bb2 e6 9. Ne5 O-O-O 10. Nd2 Bd6 11. c4
The c4 pawn break is thematic for this opening when Black castles queenside. It threatens c5, forking Black’s queen and bishop. Black has to retreat a piece because even if they take on c4, there is Nxc4 which also forks the queen and bishop.
11…Bxe5 12. dxe5 Nxe5 13. Bxe5 Nd7 14. Bd4 Qc7 15. b4 e5 16. Bc3 e4 17. Qd4 Rhg8 18. Rab1 Kb8 19. b5 c5 20. Qxd5 Ne5
I could see that Black’s queen and king were on the same diagonal, and I could bring my bishop to e5 pinning the queen to the king. With accurate play this leads to a queen trade, but Black played inaccurately and went from being down a piece to being down a piece and a rook.
21. Bxe5 Rxd5 22. Bxc7+ Kxc7 23. cxd5 Rd8 24. Nxe4 Rxd5
From here I’m up a rook and a knight. But this is bullet, and I ran out of time trying to manoeuvre my knight around Black’s rook. The knight bounced between f8, g6, h7, h8, g6, f8, h7, f8, e6 over the next 17 moves without making progress. Being up a rook and a knight, I should have been willing to sacrifice the knight or force a rook trade. It was time to cash in the material advantage and go for checkmate, not hang onto every piece.
Highlight: Win vs Gwu4po (317) as Black
This game was quite messy. White had successfully dismantled the pawns around my king, and the only thing keeping my king safe were the pieces I’d moved to the kingside: the bishop, knight, rook, and queen.
1. e3 Nf6 2. Qf3 g6 3. b3 Bg7 4. Bb2 O-O 5. d3 d6 6. Nd2 Nc6 7. Be2 e5 8. e4 Nd4 9. Bxd4 exd4 10. g3 Bg4 11. Qg2 h5 12. f3 Be6 13. h4 Bh6 14. Nc4 Nd7 15. g4 Kh7 16. gxh5 gxh5 17. f4 Rg8 18. Qf3 Bg4 19. Qg2 Bxe2 20. Qxe2 Bxf4 21. Qxh5+ Bh6 22. Nf3 Nf6 23. Qxf7+ Rg7 24. Qe6 Ng4 25. Rg1 Qg8
I’d invited a queen trade with Qg8 to simplify the position so I wouldn’t need to worry so much about my king safety. But rather than accept the trade, White simply hung the queen.
26. Ke2 Qxe6
White played Ke2 and the queen on e6 is just hanging. I took it and was up a queen for nothing. White eventually lost on time in a hopeless position.
The Other Games
Game 2 vs nosnotna (Black, Loss): I auto-piloted a knight move on move 7 and lost a piece in the opening. By move 30 I had won the material back, but I failed to defend a three-on-two pawn push on the queenside. I needed to blockade the c-file, but instead of focusing on the threat of promotion I got greedy and went pawn grabbing. My opponent was able to promote a queen and I resigned.
Game 3 vs Ka1que (White, Loss): An interesting game with a somewhat ill-conceived kingside attack by me. Had my opponent played accurately they would’ve been fine, but they made a mistake and I was able to collect both rooks, leaving me up 10 points of material. However, I needed more time to get my rooks into the game to convert the win. Lost on time from a completely winning position.
Game 5 vs MRDEVIDAWAT (White, Win): My opponent blundered their rook on move 12 by leaving it on h8 where my bishop could grab it with 13. Bxh8. From there I was up a rook and the game was just a matter of converting. My opponent eventually lost on time in a position where I had mate in six, up 12 points of material.
Reflections
Three losses in one sitting looks bad on paper, but I’m encouraged that only one loss was due to a genuine blunder. The other two were time losses from winning positions. That’s a solvable problem.
What went well:
- Getting into winning positions. In 4 out of 5 games I had a significant advantage at some point.
- Opening play was solid. The Colle-Zukertort is serving me well as White and the King’s Indian/Pirc setup is reliable as Black.
- Spotting opponent blunders: the queen capture in Game 4 and the trapped rook in Game 5.
What to work on:
- Avoiding auto-pilot. The Game 2 blunder was a familiar-looking capture that I played without thinking. Every move deserves a quick check, even in bullet.
- Converting winning positions faster. In Game 1, the knight manoeuvring wasted 17 moves. When up a rook and a piece, go for basic reliable techniques like a ladder mate with the two rooks rather than shuffling pieces around looking for more.