Lightning Milestone

One-minute chess is not chess. It does use chess, however, to help the body manufacture adrenaline. It is a junkie's game. In the past few months, I have been playing bullet on Free Internet Chess Server (FICS), where they call it lightning. Whether called bullet or lightning, it is a game of reflexes and anticipation. Often the winner is the one who uses premove* most effectively.

After several weeks of slowly elevating my highest lightning rating on FICS through the upper 1600s, and then dropping back into the 1500s, I broke 1700 for the first time yesterday afternoon.

My last game ended when my opponent missed my sole threat: a back rank checkmate threat.

He played 25.c4. I expected 25.Qa4+ to which I would have been required to reply 25...Qa5, followed by half a minute of suffering.

The game was over in a few more seconds.

*In online chess, it is possible to move before it is your turn. If that move is legal, it will then be executed by the server or website when it is your turn. Premove reduces the time used on a given move to a fraction of a second. It is also a fine way to set a piece en prise.