Hello All. I am wondering if anyone can throw something useful of an idea out there about advice of a frame of mind so to say, when it comes to avoiding blundering.
Or: what (if anything) does a learned player have to say about the transition in thought from breaking the barrier between commonplace blundering and clear sightedness (advanced and above players)?
This question might sound odd or obvious to many yet considering the variety of people, like my psychiatrist who tells me I have adhd. Frame of mind can matter.
Thank you in advance for any advice.
@Kanaan92 #1
A friend of mine told me that he was at a chess training with GM Timman, where Timman said something like : "To play a good game of chess you need peace of mind". And of course that is true. If we get distracted easily by our ongoing thoughts like for example about our grocery list then it is likely that it is more difficult to fully concentrate on the chessboard.
That actually makes a lot of sense. I should get back into my athletic lifestyle. I used to be very active in a martial arts federation, became an instructor after graduating my black belt. Was somewhat of a star winning tournaments and earned a reputation. But became quite arrogant. And left shortly after a dispute with one of the masters and other authorities.
It was a big part of my life and I've slumped ever since leaving. I believe I can make a comeback. I have the will and energy to get back in shape and most of my broken bones have healed, I feel I've learned an important lesson out of the whole situation. Thank you
@achja that maybe exactly what I needed to hear. I'm already itching to jump up and streach the old muscles.
Eventually (within a year or two) if I am back into my instructor rank, I'll post some videos of how sifu Kanaan reveals to the indestructible young ambitions of those bully like noobs that signs up just to show the teacher whose boss, that 15 years of getting beat down getting back up until one day learning how to stand your own ground compares to how reality is not always what it seems, often clouded in hormones.
I am a natural sceptic, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. A 70 year old man, not fat but large, with a belly. Beat an entire seminar of students and instructors in an exercise competition. The man could do airborne flips. And was stronger than anyone could compare.
Two things you need to do to avoid blundering.
1. You should always be aware of as much on the board as you can. This means you should be aware of which pieces are defended, which are undefended, are attacking which, including possible checks (even ones which give up material), possible discoveries, noticing when two pieces are in line for a skewer (even if there is not yet a skewer available), noticing when two pieces are in position to be forked, and so on.
This takes a lot of time and practice. Personally, spent some quite some time just looking at random positions (just look at puzzles) and literally counting as many things as I could, e.g., there are this many minor pieces on the board, this many pawns, my opponent has this many legal moves, and this many captures available, and there are this many possible checks, and so on. Eventually I got better at automatically keeping track of the most important things, because I had spent enough time looking for them that I had finally seen the patterns. It's much harder to remember patterns that you haven't looked for. (Of course, you don't have to do this during games, it's just a training exercise.)
2. Every move, you should ask yourself "what is my opponent trying to do?" That is, your opponent has just made a move; why did they make that move? What is their plan, and can you stop it? How many ways can you stop their plan? If you can't stop it, what hope do you have for counterplay? Ask yourself these things every move (if you're playing Black, then even on move 1!). This is a matter of discipline, or, if you prefer, making it into a habit.
If you try to always do these two things, then you will blunder a lot less often. For example, you'll almost never hang pieces, because you'll be making the effort to keep track of what is attacking what; and you'll never miss when your opponent is threatening to directly win material, because you'll have asked yourself "what are they doing?" and you'll have done something to prevent it; and you won't hang mate-in-one, because you'll be keeping track of all the available checks (for both sides).
None of the above. I almost quit chess because I couldn't stop blundering. There is a thing where older people blunder even if they are good. The only way to stop is to get your brain programmed to see the board. This takes alot of tactics training and alot of play. You must saturate your brain in chess patterns and get it to see. The only way after 20 years old is total immersion. Young players have a plastic mind and can quickly learn patterns. If your older you need to force these patterns into your mind.
Call it chunks, experience, strength. Of course adults are still capable of learning, but every ten years it will cost your dearly (more). An order of magnitude every couple of years if you start late.
So, things look gloomy starting not early. Good luck!
@biscuitfiend I think I'm going to copy that and read it over thank you for the advice.
@ChessGodExtreme none of the above? I really don't see how your advise differs from biscuitfiend. It just seems a bit more compact or direct. Thank you though it all helps.
@Sarg0n chess became a passionate hobby for me. I'm 27. Have much to do. But I believe I'll get to a satisfying rank, close to if not master, in my mind it shouldn't be any different from learning an instrument or obtaining my instructor rank in martial arts. I'll make it my goal for the next decade. Then I'll check back in with you and throw a challenge your way and you can wipe the board with me. : )
By the way, I started at 16. Now 30 years later, some tens of thousands of hours in the chess monkey business, winning many decent competitions...
It‘s a tough job, you will have tons of work in front of you. Good luck!
There's no way to avoid blunders. One reason is that, as you improve, what you consider a "blunder" becomes ever more sophisticated. That, mixed with our expectations being invariably ahead of our actual capacity, means there can never come a point where we are consistently playing as well as we think we, at least in theory, should.
That said, one way to improve the general tactical accuracy of one's play is to budget time well. Also, over time, developing our positional judgement can allow us to sense tactical motifs in positions that might otherwise surprise.
In short, however, blunders are inevitable. But don't despair - your opponent is also making them. :)
Thank you
@ZugAddict.
There are some realy good words of advice here. Ill definitely come back to this thread as a study.
