Please help me avoid blunders!

Hi all,

Throughout my chess life my games have been dogged by blunders and near fatal mistakes turning won positions in to lost and so on....

To demonstrate my latest here we go (League match tournament time controls):-

These mistakes are creeping in far too often. Eradicating blunders is like finding the Holy Grail, I know.

Can someone give me some hints to avoid these mistakes, thought processes etc.

Thanks in advance

I wish I could help but I need some of the same advice.  Take a look at this.  We are even on material (but I am behind on position).  What is my brilliant move?  ...Rxh4???  Bye-bye rook!  I looked at that position for a good five minutes and still made the move.  It was so bad I actually laughed out loud to myself.  I saw it about two seconds after but just didn't see it beforehand.  So...I'll take some suggestions too.

I think blunders are just a part of the game.  We all make them on occasion, but avoiding them is the key to winning.  I'm definitely no expert, but I'd say improving your board vision would be a major key.  Looking at each piece & each possible position you could move is time consuming, but essential.  If I want to attack a particular piece, the first thing I look at is if it's defended.  I would guess that failing to see this clearly is the major cause of most blunders.

Thanks for your comments guys, and I take take some solace in the fact that I'm not alone. Gimzodeus, I think you have hit the nail on the head in that you can be too 'overly focused' on a position or combination. Most of my blunders have been mid flow, during a tense part of the game where I am either on the attack in a good position or have just weathered the storm and there seems to be a some relief that i'm still alive. I have used the phrases 'tunnel vision' or 'blinkered' to describe how I think my thought processes are at these vulnerable times.

I think finding a reliable mental checklist prior to making the move could be the answer....I have even read a suggestion in a book that prior to the move, all pieces on the board should be examined for being left 'en prise', but not all blunders are as blatent as that?

I think the answer is a complex one, but must involve thought process and mental checklist.......I battle on!

Cheers Steve

1. The simplist method is to first decide what move you want to make...2. Now, before making the move, ask yourself, have I missed a check or a capture after I make the move.

Ruffsteve,

I also have tunnel vision when I'm playing, and I'm learning the hard way.

Imagine that you have made your move.  Now pretend you are your opponent.  How will he/she respond to your move?  In your example ... "ah yes, my king will take the queen!"  Always ask yourself what your opponent will do next, before you make the move.  And also before making your move, always ask yourself: Is there anything else I can do besides?

Perhaps there are 2 differents things.

One is your emotion (subjective). If this, just before play your move force yourself to take a 10 seconds break before check your move, why not close your eyes your breath out slowly.

Second is if you don't see the blunder. Here right a check-list is interresting to have.

I do the same and on the top of the list are :

- is there check possibility

- is there pieces en l'air

for both side we have to do this.

Thanks djort,

I'm sure in some instances my tunnel vision could be deterred by simply looking away from the board. I've found the same with chess puzzles, I look long and hard at it, but go away and come back to it and the answer jumps out at me. I hope with your idea, it would be the 'blunder' that would jump right out at me. 

I think most of your blunders occur when you are in an attacking position, so you get ove-excited and can't wait when to paly the decisive move. Just try to calm down.

I wish you good luck.

If even the giants of chess sometimes blunder what hope do the rest of us have ?  

I wanted to post some older games but this is the creation I had today,

I am still able to find a move, not piece losing blunder, just bad move, that loses a game, when I am in far better position, in only 2 moves.

I guess it is just natural.

In this game there is simple pattern that gets you to the goal.

And you need Q+N, your opp must castle, short would be nice, and f pawn should not be there.

And the pattern goes like this, now white can break this any moment but he dont want to lose his rook.

Simple as that. But I just decided to skip all that and just play Qg1+??? Now I knew that something is terribly wrong with what I am going to do, but I could just not see that at the moment. At least I had that bad feeling, and that is improvment of sort.

Now I must say that I'm glad you created this forum so we can share, and that I can know I'm not only person rated 1800+ on the internet that can do something like this.

Nice example, these blunders seem to follow a theme, like hassanbahaa says 'over excited!'.......we need to cool it when faced with the prospect of a win!

I wish I could do more to help, but all I can offer is that you take an extra moment's thought and another glance around the board before fully deciding on a move.

I notice I blunder more when playing my on-line games with my phone app.  I just lost my queen with such a blunder on a game with mru_wacks23 if you want to look at it for a good laugh.

So my suggestion, don't play on your phone, assuming you do.  I find I'm usually doing other things and not really concentrating.  I'll also move faster on the phone, which is never good.  For online games: 1. Don't use your phone; 2. Take your time and;  3. Use the analysis board.

Oh...and 4. Do whatever Reb says.  He's REALLY good, and from Georgia!

Ruff:

There are no guarantees, but it generally helps to:

1. Take in the position as a whole before deciding on your move

2. consider your opponent's possible responses to that move; and

3. consider your response to your opponent's response.

Best of luck in your struggle to reduce blunders in your game; if you figure out how, be sure to let me know--I could use the help! I'm not there yet, that's for sure...

For me taking more time does not totally prevent blunders. In the past year I have blundered at least two Queens and some other pieces by simply overlooking that they were attacked. All without (too much) time pressure.

Another mindset is needed to prevent those blunders, but somehow I don't have the discipline (yet) to do a blunder check before every move.

I hope I'm not too late to add to this thread -- that some people are still tuned into it.  I think more should be written about why people make blunders.  Besides helping to develop checklists and personal repertoires of habits to avoid them, finding the reasons for our blunders helps us understand ourselves more deeply, which can be an important goal in chess.

Here are the reasons that I see behind my blunders, and what would probably help.  Do you have any additions?

1.  I'm too focused on my plan, not thinking about what the opponent might do or what else I might do (hence missing big opportunities, another kind of blunder).  Solution (as several others have written):  before every move, remember to ask:  What would I do in response, if I were the opponent?  Do I have a better move than what I'm considering (esp. important when I think my move is a good one)?

2.  I am too focused on one part of the board and miss a long-distance attack.  Solution:  before every move, check the whole board for what bears on the critical situation as well as anything else; maybe look away from the board after concentrating hard and then return to it.

3.  I rush the move, which can be for many reasons:  squeezing a game in between other activities, poor time management (running out of time), playing a faster time control format than I am used to, or playing a slower one and still moving as though it's a fast game.  Solutions:  play only when there is time; consciously adjust my speed to the time controls pertaining to the particular game.

4.  I am distracted, e.g., because someone comes into the room, I'm reading news while playing a game.  Solutions:  play only when undistracted time is available; or learn to deal briefly with unavoidable distractions and return to the game in a focused way.

5.  I don't look far enough ahead to see certain common attacks coming (e.g. knight forks, forced mates).  This verges into the gray area between blunders and strategic weaknesses; where one draws the line between the two will depend on how good a player one is.  Solution:  improve knowledge of strategy and apply it.

What does everyone think?

I think, that when I get to no. 3 I already lost the game on time.