Cannot get rid of making blunders

Hello everybody!

I'm trying to play chess more seriously slightly over a month - before that I played very occasionally and without any knowledge of the game except its rules.

My problem is, similarly to many other questions on this forum, making terrible blunders in almost every game and not knowing, how to get rid of them. The point is, I know, what I'm doing most of the time (sometimes I don't ), I'm obviously winning and then I make something really stupid, like "walking" into a one-move mate or so, which I do not see at the moment.

I've already paid for golden membership and I'm doing problems everyday (basic puzzles, fast puzzles, puzzle fights and also custom puzzles, as they're unlimited...). Also, I tried to learn something about London and Caro-Kann openings, as I prefer to be safer in the beginning. Finally, I'm analyzing basically all my games won or lost. And I'm trying to focus on longer rapids supplemented by daily games.

That said, when playing, I tend to get nervous and get and an extreme tunnel-vision, overlooking many things even when I'm winning, even if the blunder is obvious to me after the game (or sometimes right after making the move) - many games become a result of pure luck then, depending on when my blunder comes... Which effect is minimized, while still present, when playing daily instead of rapid.

Could you, please, give me some tips? I'd extremely appreciate somebody to look  at few of my games, especially from the last two days - being very strong yesterday and beating stronger opponents around +100 rapid rating, while today making stupid mistakes and losing one game after another, even if winning in some part of it.

Thank you very much both for your advice and understanding.

@1

"making terrible blunders in almost every game" ++ After you have decided which move to play, imagine it played and then make sure it is no blunder, only then play it.

"I tried to learn something about London and Caro-Kann openings"
++ You do not need to learn those, just play, think, analyse.

"I'm trying to focus on longer rapids" ++ 15|10 is best, it is the official rapid time control

"daily games" ++ Daily is inhomogeneous. Some play 1 game and analyse for hours, some play 100 games simultaneously and think for seconds.

"the blunder is obvious to me after the game (or sometimes right after making the move)"
++ Do not make the move. First imagine your move made and check it is no blunder.

"a result of pure luck" ++ It is a matter of mental discipline.

Thank you very much @tygxc! I'll definitely try more "blunder-checking" to make it a habit...

The problem is rarely a lack of blunder checking. At least for me, it's knowing what makes a 'good' move and when to make certain moves. Following basic principles (control the centre and key squares, don't hang pieces, castle early) isn't enough cause even when I follow them, at least half of my moves still end up being blunders with no explanation why. Defend a bishop in opponents territory? Blunder. Move a pawn into the central 4 squares? Blunder. Even a good chunk of my castling moves are blunders, for frick sake...

Not to mention that despite one move at, say, move 7 is a blunder, playing it one turn earlier or later ends up being the best move. I'm sick of it.

@YellowVenom Yeah, that's also my feeling about this pretty often. It'd be nice to have some "heuristics", as to what check the most often to cover the most frequent cases...

Exactly that. It's utterly soul-destroying to spend several minutes checking a move to ensure there are no errors, only to be told it's a blunder.

@YellowVenom Yes, exactly! Sometimes I also try to spend a lot of time analyzing something, only to overlook a bishop on the edge of the board or something like that, while my opponent makes similar-quality moves in 5s... Hard to say, probably it would help to find something like check a) this thing, b) this thing...

#4: Analyse your matches to work out why your blunders are blunders. If it's not obvious at first then keep analysing. Try different routes forward until you've learned what you missed the first time around. Blunder checking doesn't require deep calculation. The error will reveal itself after a few moves otherwise it's not a blunder.

Any principle should only be followed if it doesn't result in the unintentional loss of material. Even losing a pawn is a blunder if you're not getting something back for it.

#5: The difference is what your opponent played in between. Analyse to work out why your opponent's move precludes your move.

#6: Blunder checking isn't about heuristics. That's much more advanced analysis. It's related loss of material, missed opportunity to win material or checkmate.

Yeah, if only it was as simple as you make it sound. But as I said, following principles and blunder checking rarely works like that. It's like at any given move, only one principle matters above everything else, whether that's defending a piece, attacking an opponent's piece, controlling territory, or anything else, and you just have to guess what it is. Seriously, it's so fricking dumb.

I would first get rid of unrealistic expectations. It is almost impossible to play a game without blundering, or at least making a mistake. As you get better you can cut down the number of blunders to the point where you don't make massive blunders, but there's always errors in a game.

So a good goal would be to try to minimize the number of a certain type of blunder, while being able to maximize the amount of times you take advantage of such a blunder when your opponent does it. 

You have gold. Great! Go to the puzzles, custom, and set ONE theme, and practice it. Over and over and over again. Don't worry about the others. One thing at a time. And try to recognize when you capitalize on a tactic you learned! It's a very rewarding feeling.

Unrealistic expectations, right... Even though the concensus in this community is that you can't get above 1000 without stopping your blunders. In other words, quit now cause we're just that pathetic.

I know a lot of people say to "oh, just blunder check, think and see if your opponent can capture your piece." etc, etc. 

The problem is, and I know this because this used to be me, is that I cannot do the part where I just "see if my opponent can capture my piece". It's like the difference between halfheartedly searching for a coin behind the sofa, compared to knowing you just dropped the coin behind the sofa.

Such a skill has to be trained, preferably by "deliberate practice". This all stems from beginners simply not being aware that if white plays his queen to g4, it will always be in the line of fire of a bishop on c8. Or if you play pawn f4 as white, you should always check for ideas like Qh4, Qb6, and Bc5, to make sure you're not losing something.

I said "unrealistic expectations" in response to the OP's title, "cannot get rid of making blunders". Nobody can completely get rid of making blunders - they are like roaches.

#10: I don't intend to make it seem simple. Blunder checking is difficult to train, but it must start with learning to identify why a blunder is a blunder.

If after careful analysis, you have blunders which you can't understand post them on this forum. You're very likely to receive help quickly.

This is what analysis is for.

Why was my principled move, castling, a blunder? Well, let's check with the computer. It doesn't tell us in text, but it tells us in moves. We look at the first line. Black plays a queen check. So naturally, we move our king (or block, or something). And then the computer suggests black to take our bishop. Ah, so now we see that our move allowed black to fork our king and bishop, thus giving black a free piece. That is why it is a blunder.

I agree. Identifying why a move is a blunder is the hard part. Perhaps the easiest way I can think of to learn how to identify blunders with the computer is to pretend you don't believe the computer. 

"Why is my move a blunder?" 

(play the computer move). 

"Ok, so now I defend this."

(play the computer move)

"Oh, so it was a fork."

Am I missing something dumb here? Because analysing my games DOES NOT help, because it doesn't explain WHY a move is bad and why a different move is better. And that's why I've just had enough, when a move that clearly defends a key piece is a blunder, while moving another piece to an undefended spot is the best move in the exact same situation.

The only explanation at this point is that my blunders have no effect at the time, but will put me in a bad position in 4-5 moves time. And how are beginners supposed to know that?

The point of analysis is not for a computer, or a friend to TELL you what you did wrong and why. The point of a computer analysis is for the computer to tell you that "hey, this move was bad". And YOU have to figure out why. Nobody's going to do your work for you.