Getting better at the game Part 3

I started reading the second chapter of chess improvement.  I now realize my biggest problem.  Over the years, since I only played blitz often never did I play slow chess, I developed the bad habit of not considering all of my "candidate moves," and never really looking at what my opponent can do in most games I play.  The reason for that is simple.  There is no time to do all of that in speed chess!  Speed chess is all about using previously memorized patterns to guide you in making fast moves.  Ever hear the phrase, "Monkey see a check, he gives a check!"  Well, giving pointless checks is actually a thing to do in speed chess because you can gain time in doing so.  Of course you shouldn't do it blindly, as I've learned over the years of playing speed chess, but don't think too much about it either! hahaha!

Here all a long I thought the problem was that I didn't know enough openings, but the real root of my problem is I need to start thinking a lot longer about my moves, and play more slow chess, thinking of my opponents resources, and considering all of my candidate moves.  I actually do do that to some extent in speed chess, just not as much as I should, especially in slow chess...

So yeah, playing 800 live chess games is going to be a big part of what I will be doing in the next 80 days.  I will play 30 minute standard with no increment.  While I am doing that I will try and make time for tournements on chess.com, and play games with much longer time controls with increments to get a feel for it.

I will be reading the same books though, that hasn't changed.  Actually nothing has changed, just that I have a better idea on how to improve.  I already knew this though, however, it has become more clear to me that my problem is that I do not often think of all my candidate moves, and that I often do not check for tactics on my move, nor do I always check to see what would my opponent responses would be.  I do that sometimes but not all the time, and oftentimes I skip out on all the possibilities, which often lead me to being faced with tactics that I did not even see, being surprised, and lose the game.