On chess.com I predominantly play bullet chess as it takes little time and is most fun! I recently wrote a blog about psychological effects of being a diamond member, supposedly evident upon my own increase in rating during the time I received free diamond membership. However, that hypothesis is false. My rating has remained in around 2000. Unless it is rating inflation, which is unlikely as my rating increase was from 1500-2000, I think it might have been result of me getting a new laptop. Now how does logic fit in?

Well, the laptop touchpad is the keystone. It is considerably slower than the mouse on a normal computer, because obviously it is harder to operate. Yet, I think due to this slowing down, my rating increased as I had more time to think about my moves rather than enter every game with the mentality that I shall beat my opponent with crude attrition of time. Now, if you have played me you probably think I move pretty fast, but that's premoves' fault as I slot lots in not just at the beginning and end but also the mid-game. 

Curiously my premove ability has improved with a slower mouse and I think if you look at the stats you would still see me winning on time (though I do not adhere this as the best way to win, far from it in fact).

Still, the touchpad had made me win more games on checkmate and this made bullet chess much more enjoyable, for me it was originally a contest for Who has the Faster Mouse to who actually win on thought.

The practicalities of getting a laptop mouse is not the theme of this post, it is rather, think more about each move than just swish swoosh and slide the mouse.