I often wonder how in the heck do those people play so darned fast! It seems they make their moves about two seconds before I made mine. Sometimes it seems as though they can make their clocks go slower and mine go faster. Just how do they do it????

I contemplated these questions while participating in a flash tournament on ICC. I decided that I would find the answers to these and similar questions.
I created this site from responses messages sent on ICC and FICS.
I used the following style of message to elicit these responses: 1. wargames (01:22 28-Apr-99 EDT): (from the wargames fan club) What sort of mouse do you use? What kind of net connection? Who is your Internet Services Provider? What is your hardware setup? [I want to know how to play bullet better -any suggestions appreciated.] -Thanks!
In order to qualify for my definition of "Super GM" in bullet, I have arbitrarily chose 2800 as a cut off. Except on Yahoo, and ignoring master-baters (people who play chess with themselves to inflate their ratings), 2800 or above in bullet (2 minute sudden death time control or faster on ICC) is a on-top-of-the-world rating.

1. Dlugy (14:17 26-Apr-99 EDT): 450 pentium, regular mouse, DSL connection
2. Tack (09:32 28-Apr-99 EDT): hi guy! I have a touch-pad, an old computer, and a bad connection, but it seems to work! :-)
1. LarryC (22:27 01-Jun-03 EDT): i use earthlink and have ms optical mouse and windows milllenium with an hp pavilion 128meg pentium3 comp
2. LarryC (22:29 01-Jun-03 EDT): also I advise you to use the early version of blitzin for bullet
3. MTurov (05:02 02-Jun-03 EDT): Unfortunately , there are only one way to play bullet better - play CHESS better. Especially , u'ld improve your tactical vision. I use A4Tech mouse, costs 8 USD :) , 33.6 modem connection ( usually) - cable internet costs much more expensively in Russia , than in USA.
5. Hawkeye (18:59 02-Jun-03 EDT): i use a normal logitech optical mouse .. I have DSL and a 1,7 GHZ computer .. nothing special.. to improve your bullet you have to improve your chess

GM Roland Schmaltz has an amazing blitz rating of 3359. This makes him one of the fastest and most accurate people alive on the internet chess board. I think he should be able to sign a contract with Logitech and whoever his DSL carrier is and the makers of 1.7 MHz PC's. But let's get real, this is chess not Professional Athletics. I think I will buy a Logitech optical mouse. I have lost a lot of games while cleaning my current Logitech wheel mouse. Take my advice, play with a clean mouse at the very least. GM Schmaltz was very kind for responding to my inquiry.

Statistics for Hawkeye(GM)         On for: 3:28     Idle:    3
Hawkeye is observing game 1.

          rating [need] win  loss  draw total   best
Wild        2506  [6]     5     0     0     5                      
Bughouse    2198  [6]   121    68     0   189   2459 (13-Jan-1998) 
Crazyhouse  2180  [6]    17    12     0    29   2210 (24-Apr-2002) 
Bullet      2741      11721  3130   757 15608   3074 (12-Dec-2000) 
Blitz       3323  [8]  3321  1448   462  5231   3359 (26-Mar-2002) 
Standard    2581  [6]    25    13     2    40   2615 (05-Jan-1999) 
5-minute    2643  [8]   631   139    65   835   2643 (07-Dec-2002) 
1-minute    2538       2919   596   188  3703   2796 (01-Jun-2002) 

 1: GM Roland 'left lane driver'  Schmaltz FIDE 2522,USCF 2635 from Mannheim/Germany, age 28, 4 Times world Bullet/Lightningchess Champion, holding 2 ICC records ('help records')
 2: Groups : WFM
 3: general protection fault in brain.exe - press reset to continue
 4: Current hobbies: chess server hopping, censoring (C)s, XBoX, Becks,smirnoff ice, Rum&coke, boredom, desperation, resignation
 5: any computer challenging or talking to me will get censored immediatly.
 6: best chess movie ever http://www.pixar.com/shorts/gg/theater/short_320.html 
 7: for the worst games ever played by mankind check my libary (and dont try this at home kids)
 8:  href="http://hawkeye.darktech.org/iccquotes/"> http://hawkeye.darktech.org/iccquotes/ for over a hundred authentic and almost funny ICC quotes ! If you need more useless information about me --> www.hawkeye.de
 9: Dutch Lightning Chess Champion 2003 -> www.lightningchess.nl 
10: I offer training games with brief analyses and study advice and opening preperation for 40 chekels an hour. I accept ICC currency chekels ('help chekels') or paypal for those who dont have a credit card (www.paypal.com)

 Email  : GM@hawkeye.de

 Groups : Germany GMs

MTurov is a Super-GM with a blitz rating in the top 10 on ICC. He responded quickly to my inquiry and provided excellent advice. He and others prove that high speed connection and expensive hardware is no match against masterful play.

Information about MTurov(GM) (Last disconnected Mon Jun 02 2003 11:43):

          rating [need] win  loss  draw total   best
Wild        1942  [6]     0     1     0     1                      
Crazyhouse  2104  [6]     0     1     0     1                      
Bullet      2624        168    90    18   276   2696 (16-May-2003) 
Blitz       2870        721   509   164  1394   3155 (27-Nov-2001) 
Standard    2192  [6]     0     2     0     2                      
5-minute    2199  [8]    36    14     6    56   2205 (15-May-2003) 
1-minute    2290        880   534    71  1485   2489 (14-Dec-2002) 

 1: I search for the interesting offers of playing in European Leagues. If you want me to play in your team write here or on my email:m_turov@mail.ru
 2: elo (1.04) - 2531
 3: -
 4: -
 5: -
 6: -
 7: -
 8: "Áûëî áû âåëè÷àéøåé îøèáêîé äóìàòü"  Â.È.Ëåíèí , ÏÑÑ, ò.41, ñ.55

Super-GM Larry Christiansen is one of the top ten blitz players on ICC. He responded quick to my inquiry and provided great information.

Statistics for LarryC(GM)         On for:   22     Idle:    0
LarryC is currently involved in a match against mare(IM).

          rating [need] win  loss  draw total   best
Wild        2135  [6]     1     1     0     2                      
Crazyhouse  1911  [6]     6    10     0    16                      
Bullet      2759       7358  1985   499  9842   2893 (21-Jul-2001) 
Blitz       2939       2043   855   263  3161   3150 (19-Mar-2003) 
Standard    2559  [6]     3     0     0     3                      
5-minute    2544        998   337   185  1520   2608 (05-May-2003) 
1-minute    2385       6185  2306   528  9019   2670 (29-May-2002) 

 1: GM Larry Christiansen 2002 US Champ 2
 2: USA Bled white in Bled--41st place
 3: Retired from 6k "running races"
 4: Thanks Ilya (Junior)
 5: Author of Storming the Barricades (Gambit Books) 20 chkls gets u signed copy
 6: LarryChr@earthlink.net
 7: surivivor of 11 Bermuda parties

 Name   : Larry Christiansen
 Groups : GMs

finger Dlugy
Information about Dlugy(GM) (Last disconnected Tue Apr 27 1999 22:36):

          rating [need] win  loss  draw total   best
Wild        1176  [6]     0     4     0     4
Bughouse    2242        180   104     0   284   2337 (18-Nov-1998)
Bullet      2847       3066  1158   242  4466   2982 (23-Mar-1999)
Blitz       3110       2920  1135   377  4432   3127 (20-Mar-1999)
Standard    1854  [6]     3     3     0     6

Variable settings of Dlugy:

   rated=1 wild=0 time=3 inc=0 color=black noescape=1
   minseek=0 maxseek=9999 manualaccept=0 useformula=0
   open=1 ropen=0 wopen=1 ccopen=1 mood=0 seek=0 sfilter=
   shout=0 sshout=0 kib=0 tell=0 ctell=0 pin=0 gin=0 quietplay=1 busy=0
   style=1 width=62 height=24 wrap=0 prompt=0 highlight=0 bell=1
   oldmatch=0 examine=0 unobserve=1 autoflag=1
   who="15" players="19" lang="English"
   messmail=0 automail=1 mailformat=0 addresspublic=0 subscribe=0
   formula = "1"

finger Tack

Information about Tack(IM) (Last disconnected Thu Apr 29 1999 00:08):

          rating [need] win  loss  draw total   best
Loser's     2084  [5]     0     1     0     1
Bughouse    2149         10     4     0    14
Bullet      2823        114    79    15   208   2823 (27-Apr-1999)
Blitz       2947        246   202    54   502   2950 (26-Apr-1999)

Variable settings of Tack:

   rated=1 wild=23 time=3 inc=0 color=black noescape=0
   minseek=1750 maxseek=9999 manualaccept=1 useformula=0
   open=1 ropen=1 wopen=1 ccopen=1 mood=0 seek=0 sfilter=m
   shout=0 sshout=1 kib=1 tell=0 ctell=1 pin=0 gin=0 quietplay=0 busy=0
   style=1 width=97 height=24 wrap=0 prompt=0 highlight=0 bell=2
   oldmatch=0 examine=0 unobserve=1 autoflag=1
   who="" players="ab" lang="English"
   messmail=0 automail=0 mailformat=1 addresspublic=0 subscribe=0