
Slow down, you move too fast...
A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.Disclaimer: this blog is for beginner to intermediate players that play ‘classical’ games with a minimum of 30-60 minutes per player where the clock or time management is not an issue. This blog does not apply to ‘bullet or blitz’ players where making fast moves is a necessary part of the game.
Funny, the title of this blog reminds me of the song by Simon and Garfunkel, “The 59th Street Bridge Song”, aka as “Feelin’ Groovy”. Sorry if I’m dating myself. I digress. The reason for the title will become clearer later in this blog.
I wrote a previous blog entitled: “How often do you blunder...and why?”. https://lichess.org/@/mullerrj/blog/how-often-do-you-blunderand-why/n82CN0pT
In this blog, I listed 7 common causes or reasons why we’re apt to blunder in chess. They are:
- Tactical oversight or Tunnel Vision. Players may not consider their opponent’s moves such as Checks, Captures and Threats (CCT).
- Rushing or playing too fast. This just doesn’t apply to timed/clock games such as: bullet, blitz or rapid. This applies to classical games as well with little or no time constraint.
- Lack of focus or concentration, fatigue or carelessness. This usually occurs later in the game when a player loses focus/concentration. When they get tired and/or lazy.
- Miscalculation. Miscalculating a move or combination of moves or capture(s).
- Overconfidence which leads to rushing. Overconfidence and rushing go hand in hand. Usually, when I’m overconfident I’m winning, rushing and moving too fast. This is when mistakes happen.
- Inexperience. Lack of knowledge. Not knowing the right move to make.
- Pressure. Pressure from time constraint or playing a higher-rated opponent.
I want to include an 8th reason to this list. It’s the reason I lost a few games recently. That is:
8. Lack of Board Awareness/Visual Cognition: This is usually from failing to scan the entire board for threats. For some reason, I’m susceptible to long-range attacks from my opponent’s queen or bishops that have been sitting idle near the corner of the board for a while. e.g. a fianchettoed bishop. I’ve heard, as humans, we are better at seeing up and down and side-to-side than the diagonals. This makes bishops potentially powerful in the setting of certain traps around long diagonals. There is also a phenomenon called, “visual crowding”. Here’s a great video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrzblptGNjw&t=805s
If I were to perform a root cause analysis, on why I blunder, I’ll bet the primary reason for most of my blunders (including #8 I just added to the list) is attributed to one thing, and that is ‘rushing and being careless’. Yes, I know that’s actually two things, but I think that they both go hand-in-hand. That is, when I rush I also become careless. If I didn’t rush, I’d also have more time to scan the board and better board awareness.
Let me give you a few examples of my latest blunders caused by rushing. Don’t laugh, they’re pretty bad, especially for a 1700 Elo rated player.
In this game (below), I’m playing white, and its white’s move. White moves Qg6 (green arrow). The idea is mate in 1 (Qg8#), if black doesn’t block with Rg7 or Bg7. Even if black does block, it’s in a losing position.
The problem is, however, in my haste to checkmate my opponent I forgot that after the move Qg6, the d3 pawn is now hanging (unprotected). What’s worse, if Qxh3# it’s checkmate and black wins. That’s exactly what black played (Qxh3#), after white played Qg6. At this point in the game, before the erroneous move by white, white had a big advantage (+5.6) according to the Stockfish computer engine. This is just one example of what will happen if you rush and overlook your opponents Checks, Captures and Threats (CCTs).
I’ll admit, I was playing white in this game. Yes, I blundered ‘bigtime’. Why? I rushed. I was so excited for an imminent checkmate on my opponent. I neglected my opponent’s Checks, Captures and Threats (CCTs). There’s no excuse for it either. I was playing a Classical game with a 60 minute time control. At this point in the game, it was move 29. You can see I only used up 8:22 of my time up to that move. So, it’s not like I was rushed for time but yet I was rushing. There was no excuse for ‘rushing’....none.
Here’s another similar game, where I had a +2.5 advantage on move 39. I rushed and blundered. I was playing the white pieces. Black’s knight moved and is threatening my queen. Can you see where I blundered? Yes, that’s right, I moved Qxb5 to avoid the threat and capture a piece. I didn’t even notice the black queen lining up my g2 pawn and ready to checkmate my king. How bad is that? I definitely overlooked my opponent’s checkmate threat.
Here’s an example of overlooking an opponent’s threats. This time it occurred between two grandmasters. Yes, even grandmasters blunder. It’s white to play. Can you find the best move for white?
If you guessed Qd1, you guessed right. The white queen forks both the hanging bishop on d6 and the hanging knight on h5. Black resigned shortly thereafter. I’m not sure why the grandmaster blundered in this particular game. Maybe he rushed too.
So, why do people rush in chess? There’s many reasons, but for me I think the number one reason is that I’m “Impatient”. I just want to finish the game quickly for whatever reason. This is especially true for the Computer games I play at home on Lichess. Although I play classical games with a time control of 30-60 minutes, I normally only use 15 minutes of that allotted time. Having said that, I don’t like playing Rapid games that are 15 minutes long or less. I feel rushed when I play Rapid games. It seems like the only instance where I take my time playing is when I play an over-the-board game at my local chess club. Other common reasons for rushing are: overconfidence, inexperience, pressure and stress.
Also, let me mention one other thing regarding ‘impatience’ and that is: if you’re a ‘Type A’ personality, like I am, being impatient is considered a key characteristic. People with Type A personalities often exhibit a sense of urgency, competitiveness, and a tendency to be easily irritated by delays, making impatience a prominent trait associated with this personality type. Although Type A personalities are often associated with higher levels of achievement and success in life, due to their traits like ambition, drive, competitiveness, and strong work ethic, their intense drive and ambition can also lead to impatience. Impatience in chess can lead to rushing which usually leads to blunders- especially with beginner and intermediate chess players.
How do you avoid rushing in chess? Here are some things that have helped me. I think they’ll help you too:
1. Play on a real chess board. Since I play a lot of 2D computer chess, one way of slowing down and not rushing moves is to play over-the-board. That is, play on a real chess board next to your computer, iPhone, or iPad. Besides, getting used to playing on a 3D chess board versus playing on a 2D computer screen will help your over-the-board play against a human.
2. Record your game. Use chess notation and write down all of your moves. Writing down moves forces you to slow down and think more carefully.
3. Use a thought process such as CCT. First, check to see the reason for your opponent’s last move. What is he/she up to? Are there any immediate Checks, Captures or Threats (CCTs) from this move or their next move? Then, think of your own ideas by checking Checks, Captures & only then Threats. Come up with at least 2-3 candidate moves, then select the best one.4. Pause before making your move. After you trimmed your candidate moves down to the ‘best’ move, perform a last second blunder-check before you make the move.
5. Use a longer time control. For people like me that are impatient when playing against the computer, play a 30-60 minute time control game and force yourself to use most of the allotted time. If you don’t have time to play a 30 minute game, then don’t play. Or, better yet, don't play with any time control at all. That way, if you're interrupted (by the phone, or whatever) you can come back to the game later and not have to worry about time.
6. Scan the Board. Get used to spending time routinely scanning the board. Many times when we play, we concentrate on just one area of the board. We get tunnel vision. I know I do. So, make time to scan the board especially pieces such as bishops and queens along long diagonals.
7. Reduce Stress or Pressure. I’ve played people at my local chess club that like to play fast. When I say fast, I’m talking 15-30 minute games at most. The reason I say, “I have played” people, is because I don’t play them anymore. I just feel like I’m under pressure and have to play fast when I play them. For some reason, they believe that casual classical chess games shouldn’t last more than 15-30 minutes. I believe casual classical chess games should last anywhere between 1-2 hrs. In fact, another local chess club, that hosts tournaments each month, uses the G/90 +30 time control. That is, each player gets 90 minutes (1.5 hrs.) to make their moves plus a 30 second time increment. I believe classical chess games are designed to provide players with enough time for deep strategic and tactical considerations. So, if/when you play someone at your local chess club tell them (before you play) that your games generally last between 1-2 hrs. And, if they don’t want to play that slow, to find another person to play. You’ll both be happy.
Rushing reduces the quality of your moves, and chess rewards careful, deliberate thought. Slowing down and thinking critically about each move is key to avoiding unnecessary blunders. As Jafar said in the movie Aladdin, "Patience lago, patience!".
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