We could do this all day, buddy

Hey guys, welcome back! It's been a long time since I published a blog, and today I've made this on a growing topic - flagging.

Flagging? Whossat?

Flagging is defined as the win on time. It's mainly seen in the less-time-control games, like ultrabullet (1/4+0), hyperbullet (1/2+0), bullet (1+0), slow bullet (2+0) and SuperBlitz (3+0). Flagging is rather dangerous to the slow, soothing mentality of normal chess.

Being somewhat a flagger myself, I find it rather addicting. Flagging results in the increased depending on time and decreased depending on your own chess skills. I could give you countless examples of games of mine where I was losing but won on time control:
Here's an example.

Problems of flagging

The main point is to improve your chess. Being flagged is extremely frustrating. You spend all of your time crafting an excellent win. Just at Mate in 1, you somehow lose. "Ah", you scream. "^%!*@#$ time control!" And then they wonder why ragequitting occurs.

Some people say, "That's the point of fast time controls. Time control is the heart and soul of fast chess!"
I beg to differ. Bullet is like gambling. And I've lost a lot, my range being 1700-2100. Yeah, I go from 2092 to 1888 in a couple of days! It's totally ruined my chess. I've squandered a lot of rating points in SuperBlitz too.

Some advice

Play bullet for fun. Don't get addicted to it. And don't depend on flagging, a very fickle friend. Instead, play rapid, classical, slow down and improve your chess. There's absolutely no hurry.

Oh, and don't get me started on about ultrabullet. Here, flagging is your only path to salvation. I hate it, but I can't leave it! There's an added thrill while gambling. "Perhaps I'll win this one! Oh, I didn't? I ought to win the next one!" and on and on and on.

The end

In conclusion, I hope you understand the dangers of flagging. While it's fun, it's really addictive and may ruin your chess learning curve. It's also a reason why most players plateau over a certain rating level.

That's all for this blog. If you like it, do consider giving it a heart! Follow me for regular notifications on my blogs. Thanks for reading!

Yours,
Ayushman_C

(Photo courtesy of unsplash.com, met with the etiquette of lichess.org blog)