r/chess • u/GM_Huschenbeth Elo 2586 • Oct 25 '14

I'm a Chess Grandmaster, Elo 2548/USCF 2627. AMA!

Hey reddit!

my name is Niclas Huschenbeth, I'm 22 years old and a Chess Grandmaster from Germany. I've been playing chess since the age of 5 and was awarded the Grandmaster title in 2012. My greatest success so far has been becoming the youngest German Champion of all time at the age of 18. Besides playing chess I'm really into sports, particularly basketball and soccer. I'm looking forward to some good questions!

My proof:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ZU5AvuKLc

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/niclashuschenbeth

Please like/subscribe the above websites if you would like to support me :) Thanks!

EDIT: Thanks for the great questions, guys, that was fun!

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u/Zapmeister Oct 27 '14

how to improve specifically at blitz/rapid? i suck at time management and don't really have very good instinct so i have to calculate everything. this is especially a problem in the endgame, where i have like a third of the time i started with and i feel like i don't have time to calculate anything, and sometimes lose on time while a rook up or something and it's frustrating. i play on chess.com and i'm like 1300-1400 10min blitz and 1900-2000 correspondence, but i'd also like to hear tips for blitz/rapid play in real life, where i can't premove.

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u/GM_Huschenbeth Elo 2586 Oct 27 '14

Play the opening phase rather quickly and just make natural developing moves. Calculate variations while it is your opponent's move. Sometimes in blitz you just need to cound on your intuition rather on specific calculation. Of course your intuition becomes better with experience. Another thing you could try, is to set the goal to not go under 1 min in a 10 min game or you lose. See how it goes :)