Chess for Beginners

Tag: blunders

  • Chess Blunder Checklist

    To help track the reasons why a mistake was made during the game.

    Health

    1. Not enough sleep
    2. Headache, cold, etc.
    3. Food problem: hungry, ate too much, too much sugar, etc.

    Concentration

    1. External distraction (noise, light, etc.)
    2. Internal distraction (worried about prior mistake, other issues, etc.)

    Lack of familiarity with tactical pattern

    1. Visualization – did not correctly retain piece position in analyzed (possible) sequences
    2. Board vision – did not see entire (current) board properly and missed a move capability

    Thought Process Error

    1. Hope Chess – did not attempt to look for opponent’s dangerous replies
    2. Analytical error – miscalculation/missed sequence
    3. Quiescence error – stopped analyzing too soon
    4. Did not look for all the things a move did
    5. Did not look for a better move
    6. Opponent’s move was forced so did not look for its threats, too

    Time Management Error

    1. Played too fast
    2. Got into unnecessary time trouble
    3. Panicked trying to avoid time trouble

    Psychology

    1. Underestimated opponent
    2. Excessive fear of opponent
    3. Overconfident in winning (drawn) position

    Source: Dan Heisman
    http://www.chesscafe.com/heisman/heisman.htm

  • Why Our Chess Does Not Improve

    Frustration

    Over the last few months while my knowledge of the game has increased my chess skill has not improved. If anything I have suffered a decrease in performance over the last few months. The frustrating part is that I have invested time into my chess improvement plan, and while I feel that both my tactical pattern recognition and strategic knowledge of the game has improved this new knowledge has not translated into increased chess playing strength.

    I have a tournament in 1 month and I am concerned about my plateau. I am nowhere near where I wanted to be 3 years into my chess improvement plan.

    My Downward Spiral

    • ICC standard rating at an all time low of 1330 from a peak of 1663
    • FICS rating temporarily increased to 1350, but over the last few weeks it is back down to 1225
    • ICC Blitz 5 0 dropped from 1250 to 970, it is now back up to 1170 and on the way up
    • USCF rating is the same (1278) I have not played any rated USCF tournaments in several months
    • OTB performance in friendly skittles games is the same as 6 months ago, I still ocassionally lose to players who do not take chess as seriously as me

    Why I am Not Improving in Chess

    • Playing too much blitz versus longer games.
    • Not analyzing (not learning from) my games
    • Theory based learning versus practical learning
    • Faulty thought process

    Getting to the bottom of it

    I selected several of my latest games and anlayzed them looking for the reason I lost the game, and guess what I found:

    Over 80% of the games I lose were because I blundered and not due to knowledge gaps.

    Modifications to the Plan

    • Focus more on my thought process while I am playing in order to eliminate senseless blunders.
    • Begin playing at least 1 non-blitz game every night, which I must analyze before playing any other games.
    • Focus my study time around tactics and topics that I need help on based on discoveries during game analysis.

    I need to strike a balance between blitz versus and standard games, and I must eliminate blitz play several weeks before playing in a tournament. While tactics will be a strong component of my training, I will be more flexible in my training schedule selecting areas of weakness that I uncover during my game analysis.

    The key is to focus on building skills over knowledge, and learning to apply the knowledge I already have. As Dan Heisman likes to say, we need to subtract negatives if we want to get better. I have made the mistake of thinking that studying and reading chess books (adding positives) will make me a better player, and while I am increasing my knowledge of chess this does not translate into improving my performance (because we need to subtract negatives).

    I hope that these modifications to my training plan, which will focus more on ‘skill building’ than ‘knowledge building’ will show improvements in my play. I’ll keep you posted…