Blunder City

This is typical of my games, lately.  I win sometimes and I lose sometimes, nothing unusual about that, except that when I do win, post-game reveals I blundered all over the place.  I feel pretty bad about it.

Link to today’s fiasco: https://www.chess.com/game/f99e0423-1f84-11ed-bef4-dbed6401000f

I am reading books and watching games of higher rated players, but apart from playing bots (Sven on down - I can’t beat Nelson, really), I’m not sure how to end this nasty habit.  My wins are producing even more blunders than my losses.

I wouldn't say this game was full of blunders, you just both missed that Re8 would've won the queen. If this is all the blundering you're doing, I wouldn't be too worried. You seem to be aware of taking the free pieces your opponent is giving you, which already sets you apart from most lower rated players. 

I seem to play great for a few then blunder city too. 51 move game at plus 90 accuracy this morning. Half the time it just takes one wrong move to sway the whole game. Hence my name, blunders a plenty 😬

Edit 55 move game at 92 accuracy. I just wish I had consistency, poor discipline😃🙌

Looks like a good game to me, it's strange though..... My game would have mostly good moves none of them excellent but mostly good and no blunders just inaccuracies and my opponent would have much the same record and I signed on in late June.... Does no one find it odd to have so many high learning curves piled into one place????

There is no magic formula where you snap your fingers and blunders are gone. The universal recipe is to look at your games afterwards and try to figure out why a particular move is a mistake or a blunder. When you do that, you should try to understand why did you blunder. For instance, missing Re8 might be due to the fact that pins are still not the clearest concept to you, and seeing the same mistake a few times, should make you more alert to it. Then you will try to avoid to leave king and queen on the same file for too long, or you will at least check if it can be exploited. 

On the other hand, 10 minute chess is not the easiest thing to play, and it produces more blunders than longer games. Maybe you are not using your time in the best manner. For instance, you've played 5.Qf3 in 3 seconds.

True, as a beginner, you don't want to play f3 most of the time, but concrete stuff beats general principles. Here his queen is not in the position to hurt you yet, and the enemy knight in your half of the board on move 4 has to draw your attention enough for you to at least calculate what happens after f3. Here it just wins material in 1 move. So concretely you potentially get a decisive advantage after f3. If you see that, you should ponder on that move for some time because it might bring you a win. 

And if you see that it wins material, and you don't see why it is a bad move, you should play it. If it kills you regardless, you at least get to see why. But here the situation is as follows. You have your 2 central pawns out, and he only has his knight badly placed. This alone sounds like he shouldn't be able to hurt you. Perhaps e6 following with Qh4+ after you capture the piece is what frightens you.

Well, in many situations that check is indeed deadly, but here as long as you don't blunder with g6 and lose a rook afterwards, you can move the king and all he has is a queen out with one less piece. You might have to defend the advantage afterwards, but a piece is a piece.

 If you want to improve, you have to consider that unusual f3 move in this position for a longer time. 3 seconds is just not gonna cut it. In the end, you've finished the game in 1:21 minute. 24 moves in that time, that is really fast. Practically bullet match on your part. And playing at bullet speed will not get you better, if that is your goal.

Thanks for the instructive replies, everyone.  Your time and insights are all very gratefully appreciated. 🙏

Leaving my queen in the same file as my king was a disaster in the making.  I got lucky he didn’t see it, either.  Failure to think in defensive terms is a serious deficiency of mine: I just don’t see my own vulnerabilities, I’m embarrassed to tell you. 🙁

Rapid is as fast as care to go, and Guest mode doesn’t allow for a longer time setting - but it’s true, I don’t make good use of the time available.  This has always been a major failure of mine; my discipline is lacking, something I consider a defect on my part (among many others).

Well, technically, rapid is the longest time control on chess.com, and it may mean pretty much any time control 10 minutes or over. In any case, 15|10 is a reasonable time control, if you don't want to play really longer games, but you want more time to think. All the more reason to play on your account instead of guest games. Of course, you will still have to get used to using your time better. 

I am not sure how I arrived at the “10 minute rapid” being the longest time control; I am very much in error.

Played black in a 15/10 setting: https://www.chess.com/game/5d30502a-1fa7-11ed-a0ce-d2191701000f

But I am still moving too fast… 🙁

This game is different, he lost a queen pretty fast, and it was conversion from there. If you've messed up that advantage, then sure, but it wasn't a problem. Sure you've missed to win a pawn, and should take some time there, especially because his Nh4 move breaks principles, puts his knight on undefended square, and is generally an unnecessary move, but sub 1 000 rated people in general have much bigger problems than a single pawn during a game.

The important thing for you is to be aware that you play too fast. Try to set a mental state before the game where you say to yourself: "In this game, I am going to play slowly, and I will aim to have less than half of my time left at the end of the game." It will not happen over night, but it is a skill as well, and if you practice it, you will get better at it. 

Someone on here recently suggested that doing 25 chess puzzles every day would help your game a lot. I didn't believe it, but took the advice and have been trying to do my full allotment of puzzles every day. I think that even though it's very different from a game situation, it programs your brain over time to "think chess".  I can't prove it's helped me, but I definitely believe it has. 
Also, I have never been interested in speed. I only play 60 minute games because I believe that thinking is the whole point....not speed. 

Don't worry about blunders. They're part of the game, and as your game improves, your blunders will become more complex and more difficult for your opponent to capitalize on....but still there. 

Yeah I wonder who?

If that was you, Chuck639, thank you! Good advice! 

Two dozen is a good routine daily number especially if you are trying to break 1200.

Before games, 4-12 is the sweet spot for a warm because you don’t want to over do it.

If you lacked tactical skills like I once had, you can make puzzles a session on its own provided that you can maintain a high level of concentration.

Its important to developed good thought processes, building habits and gaining exposure; puzzles facilitate that avenue.

I can tell when I'm "warm" and on.....I'll get 5-10 in a row. Then I'll go cold and start missing. But I'm pretty sure I've seen opportunities and threats in games that are the direct result of my puzzle practice. 

You get 25 rated puzzles per day with your gold membership regardless, so do them as a daily training routine before all else literally.

The puzzles no matter how frustrating they get because I will warn you, they can get stupid as you advance but are an investment to your live games.

i blunder a lot in the openings

I reside in blunder city too.