Help, how do you train against simplest blunders?

I feel your pain!

I suffer from this kind of chess blindness too (but at lower rating). I would love to know “thing/method/website/app/process/exercise” that addresses this problem more directly too. Anyways here’s what I’ve tried:

Play against a bot. On every move write down the move in a note pad and write down the idea/threat/possible responses. Before I play my move write down why it isn't a blunder. My hope is that if I build the habit by doing this slowly, deliberately and laboriously when there’s no stress it might become something that I do without thinking in a really game. I try and do it once a week.

Also, I’ve noticed that I blunder more if I drill lots of easy tactics. I guess that the pattern recognitions part of my brain takes over and I move without calculating. I still think that doing simple tactics is a net plus but for a portion of the time I’ll:

flip the board and do them from the defender’s point of view (sometimes I even put by monitor on its side just to get a different kind of view)

Use text input rather than the mouse

Do puzzles from books/kindle rather than online

I don’t know if any of this helps, I still blunder loads but I’ve decided not to get too upset about it.

I would love to hear what other people do.

@yuckychicken I think I will try something similar to your suggestion. I'll play against engines and use a checklist to make sure I do a blundercheck before every move. With full attention on this. Maybe it helps, if done often.

But still, as you, I would love to hear what other people do.

From my point of view, playing puzzle streak (perfect mixture for training) is the best way to get rid of commiting blunders. But only if you play it correctly.

Force yourself to calculate the complete winning line (s) before you make your first move.
If you do it this way, you will learn automatically to find out the best moves of the computer/opponent.
Creating a "hanging piece" as you did in your shown game, will never ever happen to you again.

@Alakaluf said in #9:

I blundered away 14! Not complicated tactics. Not positionally outplayed. Simplest tactics.

Alakaluf said in #1:

I am blundering away many rapid games, even without time pressure, even in won positions. Like this
What can I do to train against these simplest blunders?

My Approach: Avoid Low Ply Blunders!

1. Play a game versus an engine at a suitable level and just focus on trying NOT to make say any low ply type blunders. Do a calculation and play out your sequence versus the engine and note if your moves contain a blunder. If you do make a blunder within say 5 ply, you takeback the offending moves and try again. A ply is a half move. You can select the initial moves of the opening so that you play within typical positions for you.

2. Your aim is to reduce blunders (Make less blunders / mistakes than your opponent and you win more games!) Avoid LOW PLY BLUNDERS especially since you may not be able to reduce the damage. If you do say a blunder at 10 ply in your calculation, you can probably avoid most of negative consequences of your initial calculated move sequence by playing some better moves that reduce the harm.

3. Myself I focus on low ply blunders and their prevention. (start with say 5 ply = 2.5 moves and adjust so that you are challenged). We are focusing on the first part of calculation with the aim to have a good start to calculation.

• Part of it is your move generation process and quickly seeing the main changes from the previous position. What is the purpose of your opponent's move - a real threat? - if not ignore the move and push your agenda.
• Be conscious of forcing moves such as checks or opponent capture sequences.
• Watch for hanging pieces if your opponent (or YOU!) has 2 or 3 hanging pieces then there may be a tactical shot such as a simple double attack to win a piece the game.
• You can use a check list at first but with blitz and rapid, you mostly focus on changes from the previous position, checks, forced move sequences and hanging pieces. As you practice, it becomes less verbal and more unconscious and you just notice that your opponent threatens to take one of your pieces or you have several hanging pieces.

4. This gives some very rough idea of the relationship of ply depth of calculation and rating. A one ply increase in calculation depth has a big effort on your performance. Note that the effect of a one ply increase is lessened as the number of ply increases.
   Ply Approx ELO (LiChess -?400)
   3: 900 (1300 LiChess) 4: 1250 5: 1500 6: 1680 7: 1850 8: 2000 (2400/2500 Lichess)
   9: 2120 10: 2215 11: 2310 12: 2380

Train using the woodpecker method, do easy puzzles and get them right and do it fast to train you pattern recognition skills

I looked up the game. You spent 30+ seconds on the move, and still blundered... so it's not a time issue, nor is it a tactics issue. I bet you would spot it instantly of the opponent hung a piece, but it's always more difficult to spot our own mistakes. We must see one move further than our opponent, and we must visualise the resulting position correctly.

What helped me the most was playing otb and solving puzzles for accuracy. I don't know how many times I've missed a simple move at the end of a long sequence because I relaxed or lost focus. All you can do is stay focused, and remind yourself to look for your opponents tactics.

I hope this helps.

@Alakaluf said in #9:

I am still looking for some thing/method/website/app/process/exercise that addresses my problem more directly.

While not exactly what you asked for since it does not train spotting trivial blunders, there is this puzzle format: https://tailuge.github.io/chess-o-tron/html/blunder-bomb.html?p=QRRqrr
where you are like observing a game and your task is to spot a blunder when it is played.

Take my advice with a grain of salt as I'm a much lower rated player. I've been struggling with this problem myself, and its the number one thing I'm working on. Here are my current techniques to try to train this kind of blunder prevention:

1. Play slower games. Use the keyboard input function on lichess (chrome plugin for cc). It makes you slow down a bit and before your arms reach for the keyboard you do a blunder check. The theory is, if you do something often enough, it becomes automatic.
2. Record yourself and speak out loud about your thought process - you can go back and see if you did a blunder check.
3. Keep track of your blunders. I save my positions where I blundered a piece in a document and review them before important games or playing sessions. You also start to notice patterns. Long distance attacks (bishops, queens, sometimes rooks) and backward knight moves seem to be the source of the most blunders for me.

There's is also a theory that if you do an enormous amount of puzzles, your board vision just gets better. I'm not at that point yet, so I can't verify if this works or not.

I continue to make simple hanging piece blunders in time trouble or in fast time control games.

I suspect that the best way to not blunder is to slow down

Which will lead to time pressure

Which in turn will lead to ......... blunder

Something of a conundrum, which I have not been able to resolve, hence I suck at chess, but still enjoy it immensely.

The trick is to enjoy the game even when you lose, which for me is more important than anything else. Getting frustrated/mad at yourself defeats the object of playing the game (thats kinda why I gave up golf years ago). This is supposed to be fun after all.

@Alakaluf said in #1:

What can I do to train against these simplest blunders?

You can study the correct thought process and apply it on practice.