My Newbie Study Plan

I'm a newbie and I find that I have a very long list of blunders and mistakes that I make over and over. So how to I correct that? I tried making a checklist of things to look at before each move, but face it, checklists are a bother, and in the heat of battle I never remember to look at them anyway.

So I decided to start with my most egregious blunder, the one I make over and over and that costs me the most in material lost: Moving into a square that is under attack and not properly defended. I focus on my attack and move my queen right into a square that's under attack by a bishop from across the board, or worse yet, from a pawn just sitting there waiting for me to be stupid again.

I don't need to learn HOW to defend a piece. What I need is to learn TO defend defend a piece. So for the next 10 or 20 or 100 games, aside from my normal level of play I'm going to add one and only one thing to check every move: Is the square I'm moving to safe. By taking this one precaution over and over I'm hoping that it will become an ingrained habit. I'm hoping that I will reach the point where I no longer need to devote brain cells to remembering this precaution because it will have become second nature. Insuring the safety of the destination square becomes something that "just happens", without conscious thought or intention.

Once the antidote to that blunder becomes so ingrained in my habitual pattern that I can forget about it, then I can move on to the next blunder or mistake I discover and repeat the process.

The point is, I'm going to try to take one single type of error at a time and keep drilling on that error until it's gone. Let's see if it shows up as any improvement to my 822 rating.

Thanks for sharing!    I hope you improve!  Remember to take your time before moving.  One question that might help you is , "If I move here, where is my opponent going to move?".  Strive to not make any silly moves in your games.  

Now that I"m trying this out I still make the same blunder so far, but only once per game instead of 3 or 4 times! And the up side is I'm even enjoying the games I lose since I feel like I have learned just as much from a losing game as from a winning one..

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

Well, I've been focusing only on blunders for my last several games and I'm pleased to report I just won my first blunder-free game. It was cool to watch the analysis key moves pop up with "last book move", "best move" and nothing else for the whole game. Maybe my study method works. I'll keep at it and see if my rating improves at all.