>I’ve always been a good deal better (maybe a couple hundred ELO points) at blitz (3+0 or 5+0) than bullet (1+0).
This is the case for EVERY player and the difference can also be seen between blitz and rapid due to how the ELO system works on lichess and chess.com
helloplanets · 3h ago
Touch screens (especially tablets) are also great for bullet because you can just tap-tap move, with as many fingers as you like!
Small unrelated nit: It's Elo rating instead of ELO, as Elo just stands for the surname of the rating system's creator, Arpad Elo.
fasterik · 4h ago
I think this depends highly on your mouse skills. Most of the top bullet players I've seen play on stream (Andrew Tang, Hikaru Nakamura, and Daniel Naroditsky) use drag-to-move.
A notable exception is Magnus Carlsen. He uses click-to-move, but I think his skill in bullet comes from his baseline chess skill and not his ability to move fast.
joeyagreco · 2h ago
on computer, the difference between the 2 is negligible in my opinion, since either way you have to place the mouse at the start and then navigate to the finish with the only difference being if you are holding down left click or not.
on phone/tablet, the difference between the 2 is massive, since you don't have to slide your finger across the screen and can just taptap (and even use multiple fingers if you want.
jpablo · 52m ago
On a computer click click is a lot slower since you have to come to a complete pointer stop in your release. If your pointer is still moving in the release square most interfaces would detect that as some attempt to start a drag
daft_pink · 3h ago
Wow! I play rapid, but I love that trick as I like to premove, but this is a better strategy than premove in many cases. Thanks!
pvg · 4h ago
APM but for chess, outstanding.
snitty · 4h ago
I only use chess tools that allow for vim bindings. /s
wuiheerfoj · 4h ago
Not quite vim bindings, but lichess supports typing pgn for moves (at least for blindfold)
This doesn’t make any sense. Click and click is slower than click+drag, it’s just obviously two extra movements (a full extra press and an extra release).
You can also drag and hover while waiting for the opponent move and release if the expected move shows up or right click to cancel the drag if not the expected move.
Also dragging and hovering over your target square is super useful to visualize your move and catch any last millisecond mistakes.
I do t think any of the top bullet/hyperbullet players does click and click. I think I have seen Magnus doing click and click in very old chess24 blitz videos but I’m not sure he did that in lichess playing bullet orin chesscom scc for example.
Ferret7446 · 3h ago
> Click and click is slower than click+drag, it’s just obviously two extra movements (a full extra press and an extra release).
From a pure physics standpoint, maybe, but humans aren't ideal physics actuators. Your muscles' ability to fire, your nerves' ability to fire, and your brain's ability to drive those (and also recover from each action) affects the dynamics.
In particular, your ability to precisely release heavily obstructs your hypothesis. There's a reason that sharpshooting guns still fire on trigger pull and not on trigger release.
Imagine a game where you need to precisely hit many targets quickly, and you can either click on a target or release a click on a target. You will be much more precise and quick only clicking even though you're doing "extra movements" releasing between each.
tibbar · 4h ago
I never use a mouse, which probably makes a difference here: it's all via touchpad.
jpablo · 2h ago
Not having the right click to cancel a drag would certainly be a huge difference
This is the case for EVERY player and the difference can also be seen between blitz and rapid due to how the ELO system works on lichess and chess.com
Small unrelated nit: It's Elo rating instead of ELO, as Elo just stands for the surname of the rating system's creator, Arpad Elo.
A notable exception is Magnus Carlsen. He uses click-to-move, but I think his skill in bullet comes from his baseline chess skill and not his ability to move fast.
on phone/tablet, the difference between the 2 is massive, since you don't have to slide your finger across the screen and can just tap tap (and even use multiple fingers if you want.
You can also drag and hover while waiting for the opponent move and release if the expected move shows up or right click to cancel the drag if not the expected move.
Also dragging and hovering over your target square is super useful to visualize your move and catch any last millisecond mistakes.
I do t think any of the top bullet/hyperbullet players does click and click. I think I have seen Magnus doing click and click in very old chess24 blitz videos but I’m not sure he did that in lichess playing bullet orin chesscom scc for example.
From a pure physics standpoint, maybe, but humans aren't ideal physics actuators. Your muscles' ability to fire, your nerves' ability to fire, and your brain's ability to drive those (and also recover from each action) affects the dynamics.
In particular, your ability to precisely release heavily obstructs your hypothesis. There's a reason that sharpshooting guns still fire on trigger pull and not on trigger release.
Imagine a game where you need to precisely hit many targets quickly, and you can either click on a target or release a click on a target. You will be much more precise and quick only clicking even though you're doing "extra movements" releasing between each.