How do I stop missing hanging pieces?

Sort:
Avatar of Irongine

a simple way to avoid hanging your pieces is to ask 2 questions before moving a piece. 

1. What is this piece doing? (What is this guarding? If a rook on the back rank is all thats keeping you from back rank checkmate, don't move it)
Are all my pieces guarded?
At the start of the game, no chess piece is hanging.
Remember, a piece is only hanging if your opponent can attack it. your pawn can be surrounded by 1 million dark squared bishops but it's safe on a light square
Whenever they make a move, look at the squares it used to guard.

Avatar of catmaster0

https://www.chess.com/game/live/27659364447 Flipped the board to view it from your side. 

You only spent 10 seconds on the move and didn't look for all of the pieces currently under attack before moving. So two suggestions.

1. Slow down. If you need to, play a slower time control, exiting 10-0 and going to 15-10 worked for me. Give yourself time to check for the obvious stuff first. 

2. Look for all of the checks and captures on the board. There are only so many of those. Nice attacking ideas are also a staple of tactics, but you add to that list you move along. If you observe all of the pieces currently under attack then you've observed all of the hanging pieces within that group. The checks also tend to be big for tactical ideas/free material, etc. It takes time to do that each move, hence the first piece of advice mentioning to slow down your time control. 

It's not a bad idea to see all of the checks/captures that will be available on your opponent's side as a result of the move you made as well. Just try to make a habit of getting as much of that as you can in. 

Avatar of wyoav211933
ClassicGamersen wrote

I find chess puzzles frustrating because the goal is never clearly defined. Take Sudoku for example, you know what you're going for: get the numbers into their correct boxes. But chess puzzles don't tell you whether you're supposed to find a checkmate or fork a queen or get yourself into a position that's good even though it seems like you just lost your bishop for no reason. It seems like I'm expected to think like a computer and get myself into a position that's good 10 moves down the line. I don't understand what I'm meant to be doing and so I don't play them all that much.

In this forums, I expect to find a nudge, a direction, a "hey, check this out", or "you should try this".  Something to help me find a path.

If you get a puzzle wrong and still don't understand the solution, then copy the PGN, paste it in the analyze feature on chess.com and the engine can show what is going on. I find that for most missed puzzles under 1300, the issue isn't so much figuring out why the answer is a good move, but rather why other moves wouldn't be as good, the engine could tell you that.

Avatar of ejkilroy

@ClassicGamersen what was the time control

Avatar of catmaster0
evanthewalrus wrote:

@ClassicGamersen what was the time control

https://www.chess.com/game/live/27659364447 10-0, I pulled it out of their history for my own post to see the time control and the time they spent on their move(s). 

Avatar of ejkilroy

Yeah thats too fast .. probably 15 10 at least

Avatar of 1eliminator

Ciaooo

Avatar of SlimO1
Thanks for the info
Avatar of Rakshan-Nandakumar

You must think and see what move to do so the piece is not hanging.