Flowchart I made

Howdy all...I am kind of newer to chess and new to the website...recently I found myself making my moves without checking every possiblitly and often making bad mistakes that I knew were there the whole time.  I was hoping to share my little move system that I made in mindjet on my phone while at work one day.  I know it doesn't flow perfect and I know it needs something else to it.  Please share your thoughts or things I should change.  Basically each move I make I start out looking for any checks/captures/threats that can occur to me...once I feel safe or am aware of those 3 I then move onto offensive thinking...I look to attack the king or a piece or find some tactical combination just as you would solving a chess puzzle.  Once I am aware of all of that and have nothing else I then look to set up for a tactical sequence or set up to attack a piece..if nothing then I just generally try to improve my position and find a long term plan.  Any help or advice would be appreciated.  Ive just recently tried using this every game I play now to force myself to slow down.  Plz share any thoughts or advice to help me out here...and feel free to use the chart yourself if it helps.  I should still have the file for mindjet if anyone wants it to edit for themselves.  Thanks for the help mates.

Very nice flow chart! Dan Heisman once said in a video that there's 5 questions you should ask on your turn:

1. Why did the opponent make that move? What's going on? 

2. Keeping in mind the opponents plan, what do i want to do? (tactics, positional improvement ect) 

3. After making candidate moves, what's the best move?

4. Is the move i'll make safe? **this is a very important question**

5. don't remember 5, lol.. 

What if your move is not safe?

Excellent points guys....ya the chart sort of neglects my opponents "plan" and i guess if my move is not safe im really just trying to improve my position the best i can at that point.  Also I forgot to add ...I originally put the number 6 as a reminder for me to always attempt to look 6 moves ahead...3 per opponent and myself.  I often catch myself only looking at 2-4 moves sometimes :(  I'll re edit it.

great thread- a seem to be stuck around 1000 and am looking for methods of improvement. I try to start by fighting for the center, peice development and early castle ( and i know it has something to do with the king thingy, but not sure what )  but still my middle/end game strategy is flawed, so i appreciate this thread and am curious to see what other players have to contribute.

Nice one. Here's mine: (close eyes)->(hope opponent knocks over his king)->(roll the dice)->(throw a piece)->(hope it lands on the board)->(hope it lands on a legal square)->(offer opponent a 5 dollar bill)->(glare menacingly into opponent's eyes)

Very nice, I do see one major omission from your scheme however, most chess masters I've read suggest that you cross your fingers before throwing a piece as it's been shown to greatly increases your luck.

Seriously though, to the OP, thanks for sharing your efforts on this.   It's good to have a system like that and make it a habit to apply it consistently, I'm definitely guilty of making hasty moves without thinking through the possible outcomes.

You should spend heavy amounts of time in the tactics trainer. Chess is mostly tactics, and at that level, your losses are coming from piece captures and other blunders. 

if by heavy amounts- you mean the three daily problems for free players- yes that has occurred to me- thanks- and it sounds like peices captures and other blunders would pretty much cover all explainations for a lost game- thanks

Since you've gone and been a dick, I'll just return the favor. It's "piece capture". I before E. Now you're doing it right.

wow- someone is supper senssative, but i do appreciate the help i hearby promote you to captain obvious

Seems offense should be first.  Because it's your move you should see if you can win on the spot before checking to see what threats your opponent has.

Thanks for the help guys and Reason what do you think its missing or do you just not like the idea in general?

Yes I actually considered this..since in many of the puzzles I come across either side could win depending on whos move it is.

Young man, *nobody's thinking is that methodical*, IMO the great players simply

learn to understand the fluctuations of the mind and steer it in the right direction.

In my limited experience, no one thinks systematically all the time. However, having a set of questions you ask yourself can help fix serious habitual problems (like moving before establishing there is not a tactical refutation to the move). 

It's not that a systematic thinking method "fixes" the problem, rather ANY psychological ploy that breaks the bad habit will suffice. The benefit a systematic thinking method brings to the table is that it is at least related to the game and helps focus one's mind on important questions one should be answering if one hopes to get better. 

But ultimately, what everyone needs to get better results is to play to one's strengths and to study to shore up one's weaknesses. 

As to the suggestion to study tactics, beginning players are weak everywhere, so really any amount of study in any area will be being put to good use. The benefit studying tactics brings is that a good tactical eye will also help one avoid bad moves because moves are often bad for tactical reasons. 

Then you discard the candidate and chose another one going through the loop again ... his chart misses some feed back loops. 

Certainly, but the thing is we should nevertheless at least try to. The reward is that we will get less and less surprised by what our opponent plays on his next move.