How to blunder less in chess?

Be diligent in doing a blunder check before every move you make. Unless you're in severe time pressure.

The key to blundering less is to think less and up your game in board awareness and tactical vision. Basically you can’t come up with any ideas or plans that will help. Actual tactics maybe, reading a forum noooope.

The key to blundering less is to always be searching for ways to improve your worst piece. If you do that, then you will naturally achieve equal and superior positions more often. Tactics flow from (and favor the side with) a superior position. i.e. Positional play improves tactical play by limiting the ability to go wrong. In fact, this often gives you positions with more than one playable move rather than "only moves" which if you fail to find result in you losing. This will not remedy all blunders, and some positions are just very sharp. But, again, if you are always looking for ways to improve your worst piece, you will blunder less. Given that you asked to "blunder less" not "never blunder" (which would be impossible), this is your answer.

thank u @dumb_knight

Blundering increases if you play too much, especially quickly, without analyzing the game after. Or if you’re tired, or burned out from too much chess, need more fresh air, sleep etc. It also happens a lot to people (99% of players) who don’t appreciate value of tactical training. They solve a few puzzles and think their tactics are taken care of. Not so.

Play for money. You'll blunder less.

I probably shouldn't offer advice on this, but it's the internet. lol. I would have a mental talk with yourself about how you must 100% concentrate for ___ minutes and really focus as if it's a super important game. I blunder casual games all the time and I'm only playing casual because I really don't have the time to give the game 100%. i'll blunder in a game as well, but it's not the same blunder over and over. Of course it's mental, so work on your mind. I'm old so I can really only play 1-2 serious games a day.

@Kusokosla what do you say about the theory that doing too much or exclusevely tactics makes you concentrate on attack alone, forgetting about the treats and consequently you blunder more?

Btw, there are two videos by GM Igor Smirnov dealing with avoiding blunders, here is the first part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N0E0eahWnQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xASlcNhMXwg

#18

Personally I haven’t found that to be an issue since some puzzles are defensive, or opponent has responses you must consider, and many puzzles are for black (moving down the board) thus imitating how you would consider opponent’s moves in a real game. In puzzle rush and in books and on this website some puzzles are you must just move out of check or something, but there are 3 squares, and 2 of them lose... so it’s a purely defensive puzzle. I prefer puzzle books that include not only defensive puzzles, but also endgames and positional decisions where there are no tactics.

Generally a good defender is just a tactician, a tactician who is less aggressive to attack, but tactically alert enough to see threats of the opponent.

In a way, missing tactics by your opponent means you should increase tactical training, not decrease it.

It’s like in Combat Sports, when you lift weights, and run, you are not practicing your actual fighting skills, but it’s still as important or more important.

@Kusokosla this is exact the advice given by Smirnov in the second video. To do tactical puzzles but to switch the board so that you have to find the tactics for your opponent. So you always look the board as white, and when black has tactical opportunity you solve it as if he were your opponent? Very good advice!