The vast majority of your games are rapid. You're serious about improvement? Play slower time controls.
Amazes me how often i need to repeat this.
Yes...I see youre playing Daily chess. But even then youre still moving to fast. Your last game:
Buddy, everyone blunders. Even top players , make blunders time to time. My advice for mate in 1s is if their king doesn't look safe or doesn't have many squares, just do a quick double check. As for hanging pieces, just double check everything is safe before you move, or to be more efficient, check if your opponent's last move attacks or threatens anything . Assuming nothing was hanging from before. Also, watch for out discoveries. To stop making obvious blunders, just double check your moves, make sure they work and that you aren't leaving things hanging or that your opponent has a way to win material or Checkmate you.
IMBacon: how long should I be taking for moves? What time controls do you suggest?
Every move be aware of what your pawns and pieces are doing and your opponent's. Every move? Every move.
IMBacon: how long should I be taking for moves? What time controls do you suggest?
Depends on how serious and what type of improvement youre looking for.
At the very least G45, and preferably Daily Chess.
Here is what i do in a 3 day per move game:
Day 1:
Find my Candidate Moves.
Play out each candidate line 3-5 moves deep.
Day 2:
Go back and look at my Candidate Moves again.
Find the mistakes i made.
Find improvements.
Day 3:
Take one last look with "fresh eyes"
Play the move i think is best.
DO NOT rush, or second guess yourself.
You should be using pen and paper or the Notes section in Daily Chess to keep track of your thoughts, ideas, plans, etc.
Blunders happen when we fail to "see" something. It is easier to say than do, but any time you consider making a move take a look at that new position and how it is defended. Is your piece open to attack, being pinned or forked? Have you left any pieces or squares undefended by your move? And when your opponent moves look carefully at why he might be making the move. What is he threatening or attacking? (Is he setting up a pin or fork? Where can that piece move on its next move?) How can you defend? Can you exploit his position because of his move?
As noted above, this takes time. Especially for beginners just learning how pieces move. You need to carefully consider all consequences of your moves and your opponent's. As I said, much easier said than done. Just keep with it.
I likepawnstorm's advice.
"... Most internet players think that 30 5 is slow, but that is unlikely slow enough to play 'real' chess. You need a game slow enough so that for most of the game you have time to consider all your candidate moves as well as your opponent’s possible replies that at least include his checks, captures, and serious threats, to make sure you can meet all of them. For the average OTB player G/90 is about the fastest, which might be roughly 60 10 online, where there is some delay. But there is no absolute; some people think faster than others and others can play real chess faster because of experience. Many internet players are reluctant to play slower than 30 5 so you might have to settle for that as a 'slow' game." - NM Dan Heisman (2002)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627010008/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman12.pdf
Really good advice by Spongy.
True, but for beginner/novice (6 months), that's not enough time for a whole game. There are plenty of daily games to be found; random seeks and clubs alone will offer more games than you can handle. -Pawnstorm (2019)
Don't mind ,why your live chess ratings are beginner like?
Unless youre an established titled player, an online rating means squat.
True, but for beginner/novice (6 months), that's not enough time for a whole game. There are plenty of daily games to be found; random seeks and clubs alone will offer more games than you can handle. -Pawnstorm (2019)
Don't mind ,why your live chess ratings are beginner like?
Unless youre an established titled player, an online rating means squat.
Don't matter. Certain things like blitz, bullet ratings, puzzle rush score and tactics rating do give a general idea of the level of player.
A few reasons this isnt true,
I know a guy that is an OTB USCF 1300, but here he is over 2000.
I know another guy that has a puzzle rush high score of 17, and yet he is a titled player.
My peak tactics rating here was 2700+, and yet im a USCF B player.
Another guy i know is an Expert player, and when he was here, his online Daily chess rating was over 2700.
Sorry but bullet is not chess.
The main thing is to help beginners.
So I've been playing fairly seriously for about 6 months now, and I still make blunders at an alarming rate. I try to do everything that I've been reading about: I play lots of games (not blitz) and review them afterwards, and I do lots of tactics.
And I still leave pieces out there for my opponent to take, or miss really obvious blunders that they have made, I also miss some really clear mate in 1s.
Does anyone have any advice for what to do to decrease my blunder rate?
First off, have you got a tactics book and went over it multiple times? Or are you just doing tactics on tactics trainer? If you haven't already, you should get Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, then after your done, winning Chess, by Reinfeld. Get the newer version if you can. Also, if you want to get the even more tactical improvement you can get the book I am working on, Sharpen your tactics. That's 3 books, a lot of puzzles, and you'll have fun doing them if you like learning new chess concepts. The trick is when you are doing these to try and do them faster and faster timing yourself to know if you have done this set faster than last time, etc. Keep doing them in this manner until you can do them in your sleep, then go back to tactics trainer, and hopefully, your rating will improve drastically.
Also, I say this a lot, but I noticed you didn't say you are going over annotated master games. Even if the games are not annotated, and they are master games you do not understand, you will still get something out of those games regardless. But, if you can, try and get a copy of Logical chess move by move, and find other books like that later. A good source of books is Dan Heismans website.
You can study openings and take most of your time on them, and probably get better, however, the real meat of chess is studying master games. I know I've put that off myself, but I'm telling you, I just got told by someone who is a lot higher rated than I, that Studying master games, is how you will improve drastically. I've said before that beginner should have at least some opening practice, but now I say forget what I said. Don't even bother with openings. Study Master games instead. Even if you lose to opening traps from time to time, you will get more bang from your buck studying master games than studying openings.
… You can study openings and take most of your time on them, and probably get better, however, the real meat of chess is studying master games. ... Don't even bother with openings. Study Master games instead. ...
Some opening books are mostly collections of illustrative games.
I'm doing the typical routine of tactics, master games, opening principals. But when I play live rapid games 15m + 10s, I still fail to see basic checks, captures, threats and lose miserably as soon as the position isnt recognizable. So I'm failing my own premove checklist and mental process...
What if I play first 10 moves against a computer set at increasing difficulty, and try and get to move 10 without a blunder and repeat. Once i can survive a beginner to average difficulty game, then it's time to play real people in real games again.
Think that would an efficient exercise to reduce blunders caused by bad mental processes?
Most people say it isn't a good idea to play against a computer. Computers don't play like people. You have to get better at playing people, not computers.
Yeah, the normal routine is tactics, master games, and opening principles. I did a quick look at your ratings. If you only have about 500 in blitz then probably the solution is to play much longer time controls. Maybe like 60 minutes long at least. Granted those types of games take longer to pair because most people don't want to play for that long, you are shooting yourself on the foot if all you do is play 15|10 games and you only are a 500 at blitz. You don't have many patterns in your head you don't play fast enough nor have the good thinking skills required for a longer game so you need to build them by playing games with much longer time controls than 15|10. 15|10 is very fast. When I play longer games I play 15|10 or 30 but only because when I play longer games I end the game with only using 5 minutes on my clock whether I win or lose. But your brain isn't damaged like mine was from playing too much blitz, so there is hope for you!
I shouldn't take you too long to get to 1000 rating in blitz after getting 1600 hundred on rapid time controls. I would say play 60 minutes. I tried playing a 60 minute game yesterday, and beat him after 5 minutes, so yeah my brain damage is huge. Don't become like me. Learn chess the right way, by playing longer time controls. You can learn by playing fast, but it is a much longer process. It took me 15 years to get where I am now, which isn't very good. I have a lot of knowledge on openings and whatnot, but I just don't have the skill to get higher rated, so it seems. I will try and improve in the next couple of months, I'll see how it turns out.
Anyway, the best exercise you can do to improve in chess is to play games with longer time controls, and really think about your moves when you play them. If you make mistakes that's okay, try to figure out why you made those mistakes when you are analyzing those games, and try not to repeat your mistakes or your thinking.
... when I play live rapid games 15m + 10s, I still fail to see basic checks, captures, threats and lose miserably as soon as the position isnt recognizable. ...
"... Most internet players think that 30 5 is slow, but that is unlikely slow enough to play 'real' chess. You need a game slow enough so that for most of the game you have time to consider all your candidate moves as well as your opponent’s possible replies that at least include his checks, captures, and serious threats, to make sure you can meet all of them. For the average OTB player G/90 is about the fastest, which might be roughly 60 10 online, where there is some delay. But there is no absolute; some people think faster than others and others can play real chess faster because of experience. Many internet players are reluctant to play slower than 30 5 so you might have to settle for that as a 'slow' game." - NM Dan Heisman (2002)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627010008/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman12.pdf
So I've been playing fairly seriously for about 6 months now, and I still make blunders at an alarming rate. I try to do everything that I've been reading about: I play lots of games (not blitz) and review them afterwards, and I do lots of tactics.
And I still leave pieces out there for my opponent to take, or miss really obvious blunders that they have made, I also miss some really clear mate in 1s.
Does anyone have any advice for what to do to decrease my blunder rate?