constantly blundering

Here is yet another example of when I'm ahead in a game and end up losing.

Cave man - I am motivated. I play every day. Motivation has nothing to do with ability!

Motivation has everything to do with ability.  If youre not motivated, youre not going to improve.  You have to be motivated to study, learn from your mistakes, and listen to advice.

This was a surprisingly good game for 900 vs 900. If the blunders are all toward the end of the game that's called being behind and eventually falling. What moves did you consider blunders, Dan? Did you us a computer to find them or did you analyze it yourself?

Why not analyze the game with us to help with your vision?

Dickonia I see motivation as the willingness to learn. I am willing to learn. I go over my games and look at blunders I make and what I need to try and remember for the next time I'm in a similar situation. However if I am motivated it doesn't always mean I will get any better if I don't understand what I'm doing wrong!

Here is something that works for me (seriously):

I tell myself I will be going over this game with my Russian chess coach who, in the event of serious errors will berate me ceaselessly.

I don't have  a Russian chess coach, I just imagine it.

And...it actually helps.

You neglected Queen side development before the e5 push. Only good reason to rush it is if he looks like he's about to play d6 i guess.

The basics of each phase of the game

Opening:

Follow the Opening principles:

1.      Control the center squares – d4-e4-d5-e5

2.      Develop your minor pieces toward the center – piece activity is the key

Ø  Complete your development before moving a piece twice or starting an attack.

Ø  Move pieces not pawns.

3.      Castle

4.      Connect your rooks

Ø    By move 12, you should have connected your Rooks, or be about to do so.

Middle game:

When you have completed the Opening Principles, you are now at the middle game.  Now you need to formulate a middle game plan.  The middle game is a very complicated part of a chess game.  A simple way to develop a middle game plan is to perform the following steps.

1.      Scan your opponents 5^th, and 6^th ranks (3^rd, and 4^th if your black)

2.      Look for weak pawns, and or weak squares.

Ø  Weak pawns and squares are Pawns, and squares that cannot be defended by another Pawn.

Ø  Knights are excellent pieces on weak squares.

Ø  When deciding on weak squares, and weak Pawns to attack, the closer to the center the better

End game:

Start with the basics:

1.      Learn basic mates – KQ vs. K, KR vs. K, KRR vs. K

2.      Learn Opposition, and Key Squares

3.      Learn basic King and Pawn endings

Pre Move Checklist

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.

2. Look for forcing moves: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) this will force you look at, and see the entire board.

3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.

4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece.

5. After each move by your opponent, ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do?"

My input might not be to the taste of high rated players, but it has worked for me:

When you look back into you games, don't look for blunders. Look for every move, and try to find alternatives, other options that were possible and try to think about the differences between them, what you like and dislike in each, and then choose if you chose the one you prefer. Do this through the whole game. When you do that, you will notice that the blunder did not really occur because you didn't see one thing, but it occured because there were things you didn't understood a few moves earlier.

This way of working on my game is how I improved a lot in a very few amount of time in a lot of different games/stuff.

I'll put a little example using your game, keep in mind I'm not familier with that opening as I don't play 1.e4 and I don't answer 1.e4 with 1....e5, so I'll do with your game as I would do with one of mines

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5Nf6 4. d3 Bc5

I'm not sure if this move is the best for black, as it tries to put pressure on the f2 pawn but when white will castle the bishop wont put any pressure there anymore unless white decides to move his rook. It is good that it controls the d4 square to make it more difficult for white to gain the center. We also need to see if after this move, 5.Bxc6 Xxc6 6.Nxe5 is good or not for black. Maybe playing 4....d5 is another possibility that is more dynamic and can put white a little bit offguard. (and then proceed to calculate, or open another board and try out the variations to see what I think about the different positions).

5. Bg5 b6 6. O-O

We have looked in the move before if Bxc6 dxc6 Nxe5 was working or not for white, so it will be pretty fast to see how it works not with b6 having been played. If anything, I like a little bit more this sequence now since black played b6 to put his bishop on b7, and if I exchange the bishop for the knight it will put a pawn in front of the bishop, forcing him to move his c5 piece, then the c6 pawn for his Bishop on b7 to see something. Also, with the pin on the knight black might have less options to find counterplay in the center after we echange then win the pawn. So maybe I like more to take the knight here. 0-0 is perfectly fine as well.

6..... Bb7 7. c3

Exchanging is less attractive now than the move before because he can recapture on c6 with the bishop and have his pawn structure good. So if we decided not to do it last turn I see no reason to do it now. Our plan is to push d4 and strike the center, So we are preparing it with c3. Another possibility could have been to play Nc3 with the idea of playing Nd5 next turn to put pressure on his Nf6 knight. If we do that, we will have more pieces in play, but d4 will take longer to come, we need to wonder which is better. Another possibility is to try play with Nbd2-c4 to have both our knights putting pressure on the e5 pawn. This is possible in conjunction with the move c3 which eithe prepares d4, or to push b4 to make the Bishop move back to e7 before playing Nc4 and force d6 which could lock his bishop behind his pawns.

...etc...

These are just ideas, but I found that it is by trying to understand what is going on, what is possible, and trying to be curious about the game halps a lot more than staring at my mistakes without understanding how I came up with this stupid idea. So instead of focusing on my bad ideas, I try to find how to find good ideas.

As you saw, I made the above work without an engine or a good player helping me, and while having a good player help me on this would result in a better analysis of this game, it would likely not result in me having a better way of thinking in my next game.

Now that I have embarassed myself by exposing the world how pityful my knowledge about the game is by throwing my thoughts above, I will let the internet community spank me for being a noob giving bad advices. But still please, keep that methodology in mind, it works for anything you want to learn (chess, poker, chemistry, martial arts, video games are some areas in which I managed to get an average level VERY fast thanks to working this way).

Something else that may help is this:

Dont look for moves...Look for ideas.  

i think maybe you should play an opening

You think it just may be a problem with concentration? I'm new also, and around the same level. I find when I'm up a few pieces I'm more likely to blunder. I'm slowly getting the hang of being more calm and calculated. A big factor is knowing when to attack and when to defend.

Yes! Someone finally points out playing on a phone and complaining about blundering!  

Good Job pfren.

WoW, really impressive you kind of dressman like profile picture or stone age style ... I'm not quite sure. But one thing is for sure that scary picture will scare your opponents such that they resign just to get rid of this "impressive" profile picture.