If you have time I highly recommend this strategy to eliminate blunder-making in correspondence.
After every game it is critical that you look at it. The theory behind each game, that is to lose, you MUST have blunderred. Positionally, or obviously, you blunderrred. So on these games you lose assess WHERE you blunderred and record it. Record what the blunder was. Do this for every game you lose, and even the good games that you win. Eventually you will build a list of blunders, I.E. - miss a fork, miss a pin. You can find your positional errors through looking at how your opponent takes advantage, I.E. move was too soft allowing opp to gain center, move is unsopported, etc.
Build this list, and apply it to your ongoing games. Check off each one when you are sure it won't occur, such as check to see if you have a hanging piece, or be sure your move will effectively limit your opponent's oncoming move.
This advise was given to me by ceders, who has comfortably improved from 1500-1850 since I met him. I'm just posting it here to allow opportunity, not to debate it. Hope some of you find it useful enough.
ALSO:
Whenever you have a move that is complicated, as common in positional games, and you see little way to get an attack going, that usually means you aren't in a position to attack! So what I do in these situations is I play the role of my opponent. Looking at the board in its present state, I attempt to find the move that will best suit my opponent on his next move - with this move in mind, I can now make the present move as a combat against it; and THEN look to see how the opponent can respond to that, and check for blunders all along the way...
Just felt like posting some of my thoughts about chess rather than reading about cheaters, engines, ratings, general ideas, etc. 🙂
If anyone has further ideas concerning these topics, post them as I'm trying to fortify my ability to evade blunders whilst making the best possible move.
Good post.
Two things I look at when it is my turn to move:
1) Does my opponent have ANY checks? Even if it looks like a stupid check on the surface, I look at each and every possible check he could throw at me. A check demands my plans stop until it is dealt with so I need to make sure I have a response to each one.
2) Where can my opponent's Queen do on her next move? I count them off and look at each possible square. The Q is such a 1 woman attacking machine you must know what she is up to.
On the offensive side I rely on the time honored "Is it safe to move there?" as a final blunder check.
You are right that if you can't see a way to attack, then maybe it is not time to attack! 🙂 The 2 or 3 slower positional building moves that precede an attack may seem to go on forever, but they are necessary.
Best,
Steve
Originally posted by Ramnedrec'd
If you have time I highly recommend this strategy to eliminate blunder-making in correspondence.
After every game it is critical that you look at it. The theory behind each game, that is to lose, you MUST have blunderred. Positionally, or obviously, you blunderrred. So on these games you lose assess WHERE you blunderred and record it. Record what the blund ...[text shortened]... as I'm trying to fortify my ability to evade blunders whilst making the best possible move.
I hope this discussion will go on.
Originally posted by RamnedI think you have pretty much said waht's important in your post. One thing that has to be done in the road to improvement and blunder decrease is to study one's defeat to be able to realise were our weaknesses are and try to minimise them.
If you have time I highly recommend this strategy to eliminate blunder-making in correspondence.
After every game it is critical that you look at it. The theory behind each game, that is to lose, you MUST have blunderred. Positionally, or obviously, you blunderrred. So on these games you lose assess WHERE you blunderred and record it. Record what the blund ...[text shortened]... as I'm trying to fortify my ability to evade blunders whilst making the best possible move.
One other thing is to study our winning games too. This has to be done and I think that it is harder to do than studying losing games. In losing games we are truelu looking for improvements and I think that those improvements stick around our head for much longer. But on winning games things don't happen that way. In my case, just yesterday I was looking to a win of mine that I had already annotated when I realised that I had missed a forced mate. Missing a forced mate during a game is something but missing it during an annotation is just bad and doesn't help my improvement at all. Kasparov said that he remained at the top of the chess world during so much due to the thorough analysis he made about all of his games. Even looking for improvements on his won games. Of course this is very hard for me to do when I have 40+ games... 😞
The final point that I think that helps avoiding blunders is the will to win. Lately I've looking at some of my games and the ones that I like most are the ones I remember I really wanted to win. Most of them I did win but what´s more important is that I played a fairly consistent and decent game through most of them. Once again a few days ago I finished a game on another site were I won and after looking at the game I was so disgsuted with it that I felt I should have lost that game. Games were I win and luck is the determinant factor really don't appeal to me at all.
Good point on looking over won games (something I don't currently do very much), given so much emphasis is often placed on the concept of learning the most from games you've lost. I think many of us figure "Hey, I won, what's to improve?"
But what about those games that end up as wins merely because you were able to sieze upon your opponent's blunder? I know I have many. What if they didn't blunder? Was your position sound? Could you have forced that mate without their help? Worth thinking about.
I recently ran an OTB game that I had won through the computer...
Mating Opportunities: 7
Hmmm...
Originally posted by RamnedGood posting. I wouldn't name all weaker moves 'blunders' though.
.... After every game it is critical that you look at it. The theory behind each game, that is to lose, you MUST have blunderred. Positionally, or obviously, you blunderrred. So on these games you lose assess WHERE you blunderred and record it. Record what the blunder was. Do this for every game you lose, and even the good games that you win. Eventually you ...[text shortened]... s advantage, I.E. move was too soft allowing opp to gain center, move is unsopported, etc. .....
When I used to coach others, I would start by analysing as many games of my coachee as possible and do exactly that: categorise the weaker moves, and use that list to prioritise the areas for improvement. I found it harder to apply this on myself because for some weaknesses I would be limited by that same weakness to find it.
Originally posted by xnomanxAnd at each mating opportunity that one misses is just one mating opportunity that we are offering the other side. What if after the second mating opportunity slipped by you you make a bad move and you're the one that gets mated? This is the kind of stuff we have to try to avoid.
Good point on looking over won games (something I don't currently do very much), given so much emphasis is often placed on the concept of learning the most from games you've lost. I think many of us figure "Hey, I won, what's to improve?"
But what about those games that end up as wins merely because you were able to sieze upon your opponent's blunder? I k ...[text shortened]... ran an OTB game that I had won through the computer...
Mating Opportunities: 7
Hmmm...
But I think what you said is the normal frame of mind: "I won didn't I? So what's there to improve?" Well if Kasparov found things to improve on his games I'm sure we can find too.
Blunders occur and since we are humans the most we can do is to minimise them but I think that a critic attitude to onself must be sought.
Anyway here is the game I was talking about. I started by losing at move 12. But I threw the kitchen sink at him and things were more or less equalised by move 17. At move 19 right after I made my move I realised I've just lost a fork to queen and rook bia bishop. At move 21 I looked at the sac 21. ... Rxf2 but didn't calculate till the end cause I was lazy and lost a forced mate opportunity. The only time I think I didn't suck at this game was at move 23 and that one decided he game.
[Event "Online Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2008.03.20"]
[Round "1"]
[White "bedrosa"]
[Black "Nezhmetdinov"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1479"]
[BlackElo "1475"]
[TimeControl "1 in 3 days"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. Nxe5 Nf6 6. exf5 Bxf5 7. O-O
Bd6 8. Nc4 Be7 9. d3 O-O 10. c3 b5 11. Ne5 Bd7 12. Qb3+ Nd5 13. c4 Bd6 14.
Re1 Bxe5 15. Rxe5 Nf6 16. cxb5+ Kh8 17. bxc6 Bxc6 18. Bg5 Qd4 19. Re6 Ng4
20. Be3 Nxe3 21. Rxe3 Rab8 22. Qc2 Rxb2 23. Qc3 Qxe3 24. fxe3 Rxg2+
0-1
Originally posted by RamnedIts my theory that when it seems that there is little way to attack then its time to sac!
If you have time I highly recommend this strategy to eliminate blunder-making in correspondence.
After every game it is critical that you look at it. The theory behind each game, that is to lose, you MUST have blunderred. Positionally, or obviously, you blunderrred. So on these games you lose assess WHERE you blunderred and record it. Record what the blund ...[text shortened]... as I'm trying to fortify my ability to evade blunders whilst making the best possible move.
Originally posted by RamnedHow to avoid blunders? Don't play the game...otherwise you should be happy you see your mistakes..gives u a chance to get better... 😛
If anyone has further ideas concerning these topics, post them as I'm trying to fortify my ability to evade blunders whilst making the best possible move.
