I don't know how often I already posted on the dreaded topic of making damn stupid blunders (And quite frankly I don't even want to know). Anyway, there is no way around this. If I want to become better, I have to eliminate my biggest single weak spot: making very simple tactical mistakes. I am not talking of missing a brilliancy, I am talking of such very very basic things such as to not leaving my queen en prise (yes, I still do this even though it becomes less frequent) and missing basic tactics my opponent can apply to snatch my pieces up. I strongly believe that this is the hardest part in chess improvement.

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It is human nature that it is quite easy to form a habit but much harder to get rid of a bad habit. I need to figure something out that reminds me to be careful before I make a chess move. I had to do the same thing for learning to drive with automatic transmission. Switching from manual to automatic sounds as easy as stopping to hang your queen, but it was actually not that simple for me. While approaching a red light, I used to stomp on the clutch - only problem was there is no clutch in a car with automatic transmission, so my left foot made the decision to use the next best available pedal, the brake. I am still surprised that none of the people driving behind me rammed me in the first week I drove with automatic transmission. What did I do to brake that habit? I simply removed my left shoe before I started to drive. Something was feeling a little different then, and this little, almost unconscious, something was enough to remind me of not using the "clutch". Luckily I am now used to automatic transmission and don't need to remove my shoe any more and interestingly enough I also did not develop problems for driving with manual transmission.

Anyway, let's get back to chess. What can I do to get into the habit to check for threats before I make a move on the chess board? Play with a glove? I don't really like that idea although it might cause me to chuckle a lot during chess games (probably not a good idea during OTB games but the glove might give me a psychological edge over my opponent who will be tempted to stare at it). Currently, I am trying less radical options like sitting on my hands (apparently a classic) and telling myself constantly "be careful". Good ideas and reports of personal experiences are very welcome - please leave comments!

In addition to make being careful a habit, I will move my chess tactics training regimen back to the basics. I plan to do a set of one move chess tactics problems over and over again. These problems also have the advantage that half of them are shown from White's perspective with the task to find out what Black can do to win. I will cycle through these problems and try to play some medium speed chess games at the Internet Chess Club (ICC), like in the new 15-minute rating class (G/15), to form the habit of blunderchecking. I expect this to take a while though...

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written by Christian, November 03, 2007

I suffer from blunder blindness myself. I like the idea of a physical reminder -- maybe a band-aid on the click finger for something a tad less obtrusive than the glove?

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written by ookwelbekendalsemc, November 04, 2007

When i play chess on the Internet i constantly keep telling myself: Keep your hands of the mouse, keep your hands of the mouse. And i find that it helps. I leave pieces enprise a lot less then before with this method. So my advice is, try something similar. Like sitting on your hands as you mentioned. It is a matter of turning that into a habbit. That's my 2 cents.

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written by ookwelbekendalsemc, November 04, 2007

That should read: Keep your hands of the mouse while waiting for your opponent's move

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written by Sciurus, November 04, 2007

Thanks for the ideas! I like the idea of the band aid.

I also agree with the point that it is necessary to form a habit. Actually I think that this is exactly my problem: I tolerated the bad habit too long, even though I was aware of it. Now it will be even harder to correct that, but there is no way around it if I want to become a better chess player.

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written by Atomic Patzer, November 05, 2007

Sciurus,

Wie gehts? I am having the same problem. Especially the last two tournaments I lost 7 games in row. I have gone over these games as you recommended and find that I am lazy with my thought process. I saw that I must make this a habit every move. But how do you train for something like this? Here is what I've been doing the past two weeks: I wrote out my 3 step thought process on an index card. Then, while playing over master games and training games with Fritz, with card in hand, I say the thought process out loud every move. Speaking the process every move may help make it habit. So I read somewhere.

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written by Sciurus, November 05, 2007

AtomicPatzer:
Gut, danke! Und Dir? The thing with the "cheat sheet" sounds like a good idea, particularly to use it also during postmortems. I would be interested to learn what your 3 steps are!

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written by Atomic Patzer, November 05, 2007

Ich bin auch gut, Danke. I'm trying to practice my Deutsch. Here are my steps: After my opponent moves.

Step 1. I ask these questions: How has the position changed? What can be done to me now? What has the move weakened?

Step 2. In response,look for candidate moves based on Tactics or Position or General Principles or Plan Consistency or fix worst piece. Analyze/Evaluate each candidate.

Step 3: Before making the move look for a better one. One last blunder check - then move.

Asking the first three questions has helped to force me to pay attention to my opponents last move and to survey the board for tactics. lately my laziness at the board has caused me to only pay attention to what I wanted to do. Doing it out load is helping. I think!

I got this stuff from a book by Soltis - How to Choose a Chess Move (or similar title)

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written by Sciurus, November 05, 2007

lately my laziness at the board has caused me to only pay attention to what I wanted to do.

SAme here. And now I have to get rid of that nasty habit.

Thanks for the 3 steps. I guess I will try something similar, but reduced even more:
1) What is my opponent threatening? Special emphasis on the "big 3" checks, captures, and threats.
2) If there is a big threat, do something about it and do not get distracted by some "great" strategic plan.
3) Before I move, visualize what changes after I make my move? Will my move enable my opponent to do checks, captures, or pose other threats that I cannot refute?

This is largely passive, but I am sure I won't be able to suppress all thoughts of "brilliant" attacks anyway.

To get back to German, you probably wanted to say "Mir geht es gut." "Ich bin gut." means that you are good in the sense of a good chess player (not that I doubt it, after all you won most of your games against me).

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written by Atomic Patzer, November 06, 2007

Thanks for the correction! I need a refresher course in German.

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written by Samuraipawn, November 07, 2007

When I find a really cool move, I take a step back and try to calm down. The better the move, the more excited I get and the more clouded my thought process becomes. So these days I tend to be extra careful when I find a really good move, combination et cetera.

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written by Sciurus, November 07, 2007

Samuraipawn:
I know what you mean. It is really strange how emotional a quiet board game like chess can be. I still have to make it a habit to check for dangers in these situations, though.

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written by Blue Devil Knight, November 08, 2007

A wonderful topic! Great suggestions here. I used to yell at myself 'Do not blunder!!!' internally right after my opponent moved. This really forced me to look for simple captures, the simplest of threats first. I am seeing more and more that it's key to not be deep as much as consistently looking shallowly in my games. I'm getting better at it by playing lots of slow games, and doing the techniques advised here: sitting on my hands.

Now, instead of yelling at myself I just don't let my hand go to the mouse button until I am actually ready to move (that is, after I've blunderchecked). I've trained myself now so it is almost a habit that if I reach for the mouse I sit on my hand, and ask, "Did you blundercheck?" Having a hand sitting on a mouse is too much of a temptation to move (I think it was Margriet that suggested this). I imagine, when my hand is moving toward the piece (or mouse), that it is sign language for the word 'blundercheck finished'. And so I don't make a liar out of myself, I take my hand away.

Incidentally Big Five Chess had a nice discussion of habits and the stages in changing them a couple of posts ago at his blog.

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written by Sciurus, November 08, 2007

BlueDevil-
I tried the yelling and it did help somewhat However, I guess I'd better find a different method because I might get into trouble with this during OTB games or, even worse, with my better half...

Anyway, I really cannot repeat it often enough: Reducing simple blunders is probably the single most important thing to learn for becoming a better chess player and, like you wrote, it has to become a habit. Unfortunately, it is way too easy to neglect this and form a sloppy habit that is hard to get rid off. I start to believe now that this is probably the reason why so few people improve even though they put an enormous effort into improving.

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