🧠 Recognizing Your Opponent’s Threats – A Key to Avoiding Blunders

📈 A guide for 800-rated players on Chess.com

One of the biggest steps you can take to improve your chess is learning to ask one simple question after every move your opponent makes:

❓ “What is my opponent threatening?”

At the 800 level, many mistakes happen because players only think about their own plans and forget to check what the opponent is trying to do. But remember — chess is a two-player game. If you ignore your opponent’s ideas, you’ll often fall into traps or lose pieces.

🔍 Here’s How You Can Improve:

1. Pause after every opponent move
   Before you move, stop for a few seconds and look at what changed on the board. Is one of your pieces under attack? Is there a hidden tactic?

2. Look for checks, captures, and threats
   Go through this mental checklist:

   • Can my opponent check me next move?

   • Can they capture one of my pieces?

   • Are they planning to fork, pin, or trap something?

3. Defend before you attack
   If you see a threat, deal with it first. Don’t rush to launch your own plan while leaving your pieces hanging!

🛡️ Example:

Your opponent just moved their queen to a square near your knight.
Instead of ignoring it and going for an attack, ask:
👉 “Is my knight in danger?”
👉 “Are they lining up a fork on my king and rook?”

Spotting this in time could save your piece and the game.

🏁 Final Tip:

Before making any move, do this:

✅ Look at your opponent’s last move and ask: What are they threatening?

This habit alone can stop a ton of mistakes and help you reach the next level.

Good luck, stay alert, and remember: Every move has a purpose – find it! ♟️💪

If you want to improve your game please contact me for details - dpolimac@gmail.com 

I've had many games where I won out of nowhere with a sneaky and not very obvious checkmate threat while down a massive amount of material.

That brings me to my own tip: The better your position is, the more careful you should be. 

When you're obviously losing, you can't do much but hope your opponent plays a terrible move that brings you back. But when you're winning, you have to be very careful to make sure that you stay winning. Too many times have I had games where I was losing (or winning) pretty decisively until the winner got extremely complacent, causing the tables to turn in the blink of an eye.

Tactics play a crucial role in the game; they can help you win even from completely losing positions. That is why I assign my students tasks to find moves that can equalize in the lost position