Allow me to begin with the disclaimer that I am not a good chess player. I am at best a 1500 strength player whose time would be better spent studying positions than playing blitz. Unfortunately, I’ve chosen to spend the past decade playing cute blitz openings on chess.com and have completely atrophied my chess brain. Some folks like crosswords, others video games – analogously, chess has become my mindless, mechanical exercise. Let my experience be a tale of caution: don’t let your kids play blitz unsupervised.

That being said, one of the advantages of melting your chess brain with blitz is learning the lines of your favorite opening inanely well. My favorite has always been the Réti opening: Nf3. Czechoslovakian player Richard Réti popularized this opening as part of the hypermodernism chess school of thought (I admit I always chuckle to see the term hypermodernism used in reference to a movement that started post WWI). Often considered a “complex” or “system” as opposed to an “opening,” Réti is fairly uncommon with a <5% play frequency. The system is flexible with several themes and nuances that strong players can appreciate.

The Réti opening can take several lines that are all complex beyond my ability to explain. You’re best served studying the opening theory elsewhere. My favorite variations of the opening revolve around the traps set in Réti Gambit Accepted. Trap 1: queen sack for Bxf7# – so satisfying, yet will only ever work in blitz. Trap 2: greedy chess players try to hang onto the black c4 pawn – anyone who has studied Queen’s Gambit openings knows that pawn is a lost cause. Keep in mind that your mileage may vary – the success of these traps is largely a reflection of my opponent’s strength (and by association my own strength as well).