First, stop playing blitz. Play an online game with a 3 day time control. Or two or three games, if you want some moves to think about. In my experience, most people I play online with make multiple moves a day, so you will have several opportunities in the day to think about your next move. Then, start with simple counting techniques..... he is attacking my bishop twice, but I have it defended twice. Also, the material trade would be even if he traded now. On to the next threat. Look at every single piece on the board. Eventually, you will have pattern recognition to notice threats more than one move deep, and won't have to spend so much time on that, but until you do, you will have to look at each piece and pawn ....... for yours, are they safe enough? For his...... what is each one attacking? Are there any forks or discovered attacks /checks he can make that would win him a piece? You have to put in some slow time so that you can play fast later. After each game where you gave yourself time to think, analyze that game. If you lost, go back in the game to where it was still equal. Can you find where you became worse? If so, can you pinpoint the exact move that made you worse? Learn the lesson from that and try to be on watch for that in future games. If you follow those steps, I believe you will become a much better player.
Taking advantage of mistakes
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hmmm....... thanks, i'll keep that in mind.
Well, I've started playing chess and my rating is pretty low(blitz-around 600). So, obviously I play with people who make mistakes often. So, I just wanted to know how to identify common mistakes and capitalize on them. Examples would be nice.
Thanks.