When playing my games I either take it one move at a time and have trouble seeing a few moves ahead to see where positions could be in later moves, and when I do attempt to do so and put together an attack I always seem to miscalculate or not see a counterattack or I blunder a piece stupidly, how should I get better at this.
Practice
Judging by your level and your honesty in admitting the fact that you hang pieces, try doing puzzles here and try to reach a rating of 2000 (or 2100!), maybe do specifically hanging piece puzzles (any non-mating motifs.), and I can definitely guarantee improvement. I think I read a book like where it said more than 80% of the games or something high in 2000 FIDE, not Lichess, FIDE, are decided by tactics, but like a minute level. Winning a pawn, using a tactic to get rid of an outpost defender etc.
Well practice is the answer. Yoy just need to calculate more. There is no magic formula. solving puzzles might help. Or you just become better puzzle solver.
@Fenamer said in #3:
> Judging by your level and your honesty in admitting the fact that you hang pieces, try doing puzzles here and try to reach a rating of 2000 (or 2100!), maybe do specifically hanging piece puzzles (any non-mating motifs.), and I can definitely guarantee improvement. I think I read a book like where it said more than 80% of the games or something high in 2000 FIDE, not Lichess, FIDE, are decided by tactics, but like a minute level. Winning a pawn, using a tactic to get rid of an outpost defender etc.
When playing against stronger or equal players.
Also ims blunder against gms, gms against stronger gms.
Also it would be interesting what the positional pressure was Prior to blundering.
You know like humpty dumpty, when suddenly a crack appears..
> Judging by your level and your honesty in admitting the fact that you hang pieces, try doing puzzles here and try to reach a rating of 2000 (or 2100!), maybe do specifically hanging piece puzzles (any non-mating motifs.), and I can definitely guarantee improvement. I think I read a book like where it said more than 80% of the games or something high in 2000 FIDE, not Lichess, FIDE, are decided by tactics, but like a minute level. Winning a pawn, using a tactic to get rid of an outpost defender etc.
When playing against stronger or equal players.
Also ims blunder against gms, gms against stronger gms.
Also it would be interesting what the positional pressure was Prior to blundering.
You know like humpty dumpty, when suddenly a crack appears..
At the beginning, it is important to choose very long time control (even as long as correspondence, actually! ).
Forget about any time control faster than 20+10.
You need to take time to check for all tricks, and be sure at the very least not to hang pieces in an obvious way. As you get stronger, that kind of check will get more and more automatic, and you'll thus be able to play blitz effectively.
Then yes, as other people mentioned, puzzles are also important.
But I believe that the general idea that will make you improve a lot at this stage is that you need to be patient and be willing to think a lot over a position.
You need to get used to some patterns, and train your calculation skills.
Forget about any time control faster than 20+10.
You need to take time to check for all tricks, and be sure at the very least not to hang pieces in an obvious way. As you get stronger, that kind of check will get more and more automatic, and you'll thus be able to play blitz effectively.
Then yes, as other people mentioned, puzzles are also important.
But I believe that the general idea that will make you improve a lot at this stage is that you need to be patient and be willing to think a lot over a position.
You need to get used to some patterns, and train your calculation skills.
@MrmoreOil Visualizing the position a few moves ahead is a crucial skill for calculating longer lines.
The book "Cognitive Chess: Improving Your Visualization and Calculation Skills" by Konstantin Chernyshov is a great tool to practice this skill (everywhere/without a board, how cool is that?).
www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/1949859444
There's a "look inside" you may check before deciding wether to buy the book or not.
Good luck and have fun on your lifelong chess journey!
The book "Cognitive Chess: Improving Your Visualization and Calculation Skills" by Konstantin Chernyshov is a great tool to practice this skill (everywhere/without a board, how cool is that?).
www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/1949859444
There's a "look inside" you may check before deciding wether to buy the book or not.
Good luck and have fun on your lifelong chess journey!
Think about the most forcing moves that the opponent can make.
- checks
- captures
- attacks on undefended pieces
- attacks on pieces of greater value (pawn vs piece, bishop vs queen, etc...)
After choosing a move - see which types of moves the opponent has in response - among the forcing moves. Don't worry too much about the non-forcing moves.
Some positions - you don't really have to calculate much, because the position is quiet - no possible checks or captures. But in situations when lots of pieces are making contact and when lots of pawn breaks are possible, that's when you have to calculate lots of variations.
Strategically, it's hard to calculate non-forcing moves, because there can be so many. As you get better at chess and start learning about standard plans in certain openings, then you start to anticipate those types of moves. For example, if you play the dragon sicilian, you can often expect the opponent to start going h4-h5 and attack your kingside.
Watch youtubers like John Bartholomew - especially his "Standard Chess" series (also "Climbing the rating ladder". When he starts drawing arrows - that's him calculating. Try to adopt that logic.
- checks
- captures
- attacks on undefended pieces
- attacks on pieces of greater value (pawn vs piece, bishop vs queen, etc...)
After choosing a move - see which types of moves the opponent has in response - among the forcing moves. Don't worry too much about the non-forcing moves.
Some positions - you don't really have to calculate much, because the position is quiet - no possible checks or captures. But in situations when lots of pieces are making contact and when lots of pawn breaks are possible, that's when you have to calculate lots of variations.
Strategically, it's hard to calculate non-forcing moves, because there can be so many. As you get better at chess and start learning about standard plans in certain openings, then you start to anticipate those types of moves. For example, if you play the dragon sicilian, you can often expect the opponent to start going h4-h5 and attack your kingside.
Watch youtubers like John Bartholomew - especially his "Standard Chess" series (also "Climbing the rating ladder". When he starts drawing arrows - that's him calculating. Try to adopt that logic.
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