Types of Chess Thought Process Errors

As a full-time chess coach for many years, one of my specialties is finding and correcting thought process errors. It is important to note that a thought process error is different than a thought content error; in the latter, the process is correct but the players makes a mistake in the content of the analysis or the evaluation, usually because humans can often make mistakes, or because of poor visualization. For more on thought process vs content, I refer you to my video on that subject.

But the main subject of this blog is to list many of the possible thought process errors. Some of these errors have had long-standing accepted names, and some I had to give a name because, although they occurred frequently in the games of my students, no author/instructor had ever identified and named that particular error.

Here's a list; I will put links to articles/videos that explain both what the error is and how to mitigate in much more detail than I could put in a short blog:

• Play too fast for the board/clock situation (video on slowing down)
• Play too slow for the board/clock situation (video on speeding up)
• Quiescence Error
• ABC Error
• Hope Chess
• Hand-Waving
• Retained Image Error
• Making an assumption of move when there are reasonable alternatives A common error is to assume a weaker reply for the opponent and thus overestimate the evaluation of a candidate move.
• Acquiescing - The opponent makes a potential game-winning threat & the player quickly assumes there is no defense & just allows it when they had adequate time & instead careful thought could prevent it.
• Not recognizing when a position is critical.
• Wise-adult syndrome - when doing something correctly does not require any chess knowledge or experience, but simply common sense, yet is not followed anyway.
• "Having a Better Idea" - this is knowing a principle & knowing that is applies in the current position, but purposely ignoring it to do something else that turns out much inferior.
• State Errors - these are errors of doing something that makes sense in one state (a phase of the game; an evaluation) but not in the current state. For example, not changing your strategy when you are winning easily or losing badly, playing the opening like it's the middlegame, or hiding your king the corner in the endgame instead of activating it.
• Overestimating/Underestimating Opponents e.g., assuming a lower rated opponent will not stop an easily stopped threat that otherwise does not benefit the position (I call this a "Silly Threat", or fearing a slightly higher rated player so that you offer a draw in a clearly winning position, etc.
• You Can't Play What You Don't See
• Thanks to commenter Osh_Orr, let's add the Purdy admonition "Look Wide Before You Look Deep", the error that you get "tunnel vision" and concentrate too much analyzing the first idea you see and don't first navigate the position to see what are ALL the key ideas/candidates before deciding which one(s) to investigate first.

Finally, I also have a video overviewing many of these errors with further explanation. My Youtube channel, with over 380 instructional videos, including many on the subject of thought process errors, can be found here.

I am sure I missed a couple but I can always come back and edit the blog.

If you have any questions, I can always be reached by landline, email, or Teams via my website www.danheisman.com. I have multiple ways to be contacted so I don't always check my Chess.com messages in a timely manner.