I blunder because....

I’ve just recently gone over the games from my last over the board tourney. Not a very pleasurable experience for me as my play had a lot of blunders. I don’t mean little blunders, but great big fat pendulous ones. I've noticed a pattern in these mistakes. Every time I knew it was wrong before I played it.

http://chesshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/lothians-minor-2013-r1.html



Here I’m black and I play Qe5?? Now to blunder like that is bad enough if I never saw that the knight could fork my king and rook, but I did. I also remember thinking that I must keep the e7 square guarded against the fork with my queen, but then offer to exchange her. Madness.

http://chesshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/lothians-minor-2013-r3.html



This ones even worse. Black again, I play e3??? Yeh I seen the pawn attacking my queen and looked for the best square to move it. But then I started looking at other aspects of the position. Finally concluding that if I could lure the white queen to the e file, a lot of tactical tricks are in the offing. So I came up with the great move e3 to bait white’s queen. Lunacy.

Is there any hope for me? Or am I destined to make these sort of moves forever?

Originally posted by hedonist
I’ve just recently gone over the games from my last over the board tourney. Not a very pleasurable experience for me as my play had a lot of blunders. I don’t mean little blunders, but great big fat pendulous ones. I've noticed a pattern in these mistakes. Every time I knew it was wrong before I played it.

http://chesshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/lothians- ...[text shortened]... een. Lunacy.

Is there any hope for me? Or am I destined to make these sort of moves forever?

I do that too - I will be aware of a possibility like the N fork in your first example, but then later I will get caught up in an interesting idea and forget about watching out for it. I think the psychology is that you keep something defended for a few moves and then start to feel safe and maybe even like it's your turn to have some fun now.

I'm trying to get in the habit of doing a blunder check before I submit a move, but a quick scan of my recent RHP losses will show that I am not always successful. 😞

Originally posted by SwissGambit
I do that too - I will be aware of a possibility like the N fork in your first example, but then later I will get caught up in an interesting idea and forget about watching out for it. I think the psychology is that you keep something defended for a few moves and then start to feel safe and maybe even like it's your turn to have some fun now.

I'm tryi ...[text shortened]... t a move, but a quick scan of my recent RHP losses will show that I am not always successful. 😞

yes I have started blunder checking in my blitz games, but its not an easy habit to adopt, i simply look at my half of the board and try to consider all of my opponents 'tempo', moves, checks first, captures second and attacking moves next, then i do the same for my opponents half of the board looking for attacking moves, it doesn't always work and my mind wanders but its a good habit to adopt i think. Another technique is to try to play against a computer , dont try to win, simply see how long you can go before you make a blunder.

Originally posted by hedonist
I’ve just recently gone over the games from my last over the board tourney. Not a very pleasurable experience for me as my play had a lot of blunders. I don’t mean little blunders, but great big fat pendulous ones. I've noticed a pattern in these mistakes. Every time I knew it was wrong before I played it.

http://chesshed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/lothians- ...[text shortened]... een. Lunacy.

Is there any hope for me? Or am I destined to make these sort of moves forever?

i think this last example highlights the folly of abandoning a plan simply to create a trap. I think we have a tendency to focus on trying to find the right move rather than the right plan, for it seems to me , that if we have the right plan, it should be easier to find the right moves. Focusing on a plan has helped me to a degree avoid blunders, not entirely, but some, for even if i make a suboptimal move, it usually doesn’t lead to total disaster, just some heavy pressure.

Originally posted by SwissGambit
I do that too - I will be aware of a possibility like the N fork in your first example, but then later I will get caught up in an interesting idea and forget about watching out for it. I think the psychology is that you keep something defended for a few moves and then start to feel safe and maybe even like it's your turn to have some fun now.

I'm tryi ...[text shortened]... t a move, but a quick scan of my recent RHP losses will show that I am not always successful. 😞

Perhaps it is down to blunder checking and having the discipline to do it every move. Something I'm gonna have to work on.

It's a pity the rules have changed regarding writing the move down before playing it. Although I never did it when it was allowed, it would be a big help in developing the habit.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
i think this last example highlights the folly of abandoning a plan simply to create a trap. I think we have a tendency to focus on trying to find the right move rather than the right plan, for it seems to me , that if we have the right plan, it should be easier to find the right moves. Focusing on a plan has helped me to a degree avoid blunders, n ...[text shortened]... f i make a suboptimal move, it usually doesn’t lead to total disaster, just some heavy pressure.

It has been said that having a bad plan is better than no plan at all.

Though it has also been said that whoever comes up with a plan first is lost.(that one reeks of a Greenpawn quote 😀)

Originally posted by hedonist
It has been said that having a bad plan is better than no plan at all.

Though it has also been said that whoever comes up with a plan first is lost.(that one reeks of a Greenpawn quote 😀)

yes its true, sometimes players win because they have a bad plan but are the most vigorous in carrying it out, you see this happen a lot in mating attacks that should fail but dont for some reason, usually bad defense.

The craziest things have been written about planning, ever read Jeremy Silman? his books are peppered with examples that just lend themselves to good planning, but practical chess is not like that, you can only plan when the situation is stable.