Originally posted by egsmithYea, yea, what he said!
I am willing to bet you spend little or no time thinking of what is going on in your opponents head. Not just replies, but what thier plan is. For you, evey move accomplishes something. Your opponent believes the same thing. So when you ...[text shortened]... lay relize your opponent did not randomly select that last move.
The following thought is a flawless signal that I'm about to make a game-losing blunder:
What a stupid move! Take that, rabbit!.
(Or equivalent).
The "take that, rabbit" move INEVITABLY loses.
Whenever your opponent makes a move that looks really dumb, or just pointless, it should set off gigantic alarm bells. Although there is always a chance that their move is pointless, there is an equal or greater chance that you simply don't immediately see the point.
Recent case-in-point: Game 701154 where I didn't even begin to see my opponent's "discovered pin" on move 22. I had disregarded the very important 21. Bd3 as a pointless "stupid move," because it attacked a well-guarded knight.
"Stupid moves" often set up combinations.
There has been a scientific study regarding what good chess players think about in a game.
A link that discusses it is:
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1847
Basically, very good chess players act like scientists. When they think of a move, they try to "fasify" the notion that the move is a good one. In other words, they try to find out what is wrong with the move, to disprove the notion that it was a good one, in the same way scientists try to disprove a theory to see if it stands up or they are going to make fools of themselves.
I believe the gist of it is that the more time you spend thinking about your opponent's good moves, the less you will blunder or otherwise make weak moves.
After reading the article, I realized that this is just common sense, but it is not commonly obvious. I've been trynig to apply it, and I think it's helping me avoid those disasters I create for myself.