Hello John, even though I haven't been coached by Dan Heisman in awhile, I still enjoy his teaching. One of the most fundamental thought process mistakes he says amateur players tend to make (including at your level) is once they reach a position they calculated, they immediately make the move they already planned the move(s) before (as in your case). Heisman's antidote to making this kind of mistake is when you calculate a sequence that seems to win, don't play it right away, recalculate it multiple times before playing into it to make sure you didn't miss anything (such as hanging your queen, or an opportunity to checkmate him in one move, or stuff like that). Also do this in every position of the sequence you play into. If you play out the sequence automatically, you might miss that your previous calculations were wrong, and lose as a result (like you showed here). Look up Dan's youtube channel and listen to the live games he plays against the intermediate level computer Betho on ICC (as well as his other videos on there), and I believe that will really help you to put into practice effectively all that you've learned and experienced here on chess.com.
Game analysis or Brain analysis??? Board blindness to the extreme.
Strange. The image with annotations seemed to work. The link to the game is below:
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/4211414444
Hello John, even though I haven't been coached by Dan Heisman in awhile, I still enjoy his teaching. One of the most fundamental thought process mistakes he says amateur players tend to make (including at your level) is once they reach a position they calculated, they immediately make the move they already planned the move(s) before (as in your case). Heisman's antidote to making this kind of mistake is when you calculate a sequence that seems to win, don't play it right away, recalculate it multiple times before playing into it to make sure you didn't miss anything (such as hanging your queen, or an opportunity to checkmate him in one move, or stuff like that). Also do this in every position of the sequence you play into. If you play out the sequence automatically, you might miss that your previous calculations were wrong, and lose as a result (like you showed here). Look up Dan's youtube channel and listen to the live games he plays against the intermediate level computer Betho on ICC (as well as his other videos on there), and I believe that will really help you to put into practice effectively all that you've learned and experienced here on chess.com.
Okay Shane, I hear you. I watched my first Dan Heisman video just now. You would be so proud of me! 😆
Seriously, the video was on board vision, and I completely failed the basic board vision problem. Obviously something I need to work on. Thanks for the advice.
"It doesn't matter how many books read, coaches hired or puzzles and games are played: improvement will not happen until this sort of thing is cleaned up."
I don't agree. Everybody goes blind for a moment once in a while--including geniuses.
it happens enough for me that I recognize it as a problem. But thanks for the input.
Hello John, even though I haven't been coached by Dan Heisman in awhile, I still enjoy his teaching. One of the most fundamental thought process mistakes he says amateur players tend to make (including at your level) is once they reach a position they calculated, they immediately make the move they already planned the move(s) before (as in your case). Heisman's antidote to making this kind of mistake is when you calculate a sequence that seems to win, don't play it right away, recalculate it multiple times before playing into it to make sure you didn't miss anything (such as hanging your queen, or an opportunity to checkmate him in one move, or stuff like that). Also do this in every position of the sequence you play into. If you play out the sequence automatically, you might miss that your previous calculations were wrong, and lose as a result (like you showed here). Look up Dan's youtube channel and listen to the live games he plays against the intermediate level computer Betho on ICC (as well as his other videos on there), and I believe that will really help you to put into practice effectively all that you've learned and experienced here on chess.com.
Okay Shane, I hear you. I watched my first Dan Heisman video just now. You would be so proud of me! 😆
Seriously, the video was on board vision, and I completely failed the basic board vision problem. Obviously something I need to work on. Thanks for the advice.
Your welcome friend.
[insert description here] https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-micro-drills
I have the same problem and lose almost all games due to huge blunders like this. The horizontal moves are harder to spot, especially if the queen is at the edge of the board, and the action is on the central ranks - 4 or 5. Here it should have been easier to see that the pawn was defended, but it happens. The best to do to avoid such blunders is to ask each and every time whether some of your pieces is hanging and whether the piece you are taking is really hanging, but as the game progresses and things fire up, it's hard to keep the discipline of doing this routine on each move, or combination.
[insert description here] https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-micro-drills
Do you have a link where the images show up? All images are broken in this one.
I find this happens to me much more on a computer board than a real chessboard. Something about the 3D larger pieces makes missing a Queen much harder on a real board. I find I have the same trouble with unusual chess pieces (i.e. very non-Staunton pieces); it is much more likely that I will blunder because I don't see an attack by a piece onto a square I am moving.
On the screen they are all just the same except for the actual symbol itself.
I find this happens to me much more on a computer board than a real chessboard. Something about the 3D larger pieces makes missing a Queen much harder on a real board. I find I have the same trouble with unusual chess pieces (i.e. very non-Staunton pieces); it is much more likely that I will blunder because I don't see an attack by a piece onto a square I am moving.
On the screen they are all just the same except for the actual symbol itself.
I have the reverse problem. On a real chessboard, my board vision is even worse, because I feel distracted by a board that's much larger than the digital board on my iPad.
This is a strange problem for a 2100 to have...
Daily games are really different for me. Daily games erases a lot of the problems i have with timed games. When im not sure of a move, i can just walk away and come back to it. When im fatigued and not seeing things well, i can walk away. I calculate slowly, but thats okay in daily games. This is huge for me.
Having access to opening books also erases any faulty memories of opening lines.
Im actually halting doing daily games because they im using these tools as a crutch. Im realizing that im having difficulties translating daily game skill to a more timed game ability.
obviously, any advice will be welcome.
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A few things about me. I'm about a 1500 player, give or take, over the board. My daily game rating is higher, My chess.com puzzle rating peaked at over 2600 before I reset my stats. I wasn't under time pressure, but yet I made the move immediately thinking that the pawn on c6 was hanging. In fact, I was thinking for a couple moves previously that the pawn would be hanging if the knight moved (which obviously is incorrect).
How does a blunder like on move 19 ever happen???
I put this out to any chess coaches out there, or experienced players that have suffered from extreme board blindness in one form or another, and whether there's a cure for it.
It would seem to me that a 1500 player should never ever make that sort of mistake, even if tired, drunk or even concussed. (which I was none of those... I think).
It doesn't matter how many books read, coaches hired or puzzles and games are played: improvement will not happen until this sort of thing is cleaned up.
Thanks for your thoughts!