For me, it's BE CAREFUL!
I had some recent games where I was dominating and all of a sudden I made one stupid move - which was totally avoidable and unnecessary - and all of the momentum and piece equality shifted to the other side. I think "silly mistakes" are the bane of a chess player's existence.
I can kind of understand why Wesley So would think it to be important to double and triple check his moves (as he recently wrote on a piece of paper in one of his tournaments that got him kicked out of that game for rule violation). It's such an important virtue.
For me, I've come to rank it as the #1 most important chess virtue.
What about you guys? ...Is it patience? ...Focus?...
(By the way, sorry for the W. So side discussion. That was not at all what I wanted this thread to be about, but it came to mind since it happenend recently and had some advice I think all players could never drill into their minds enough. Be careful, be careful! Unneccessary mistakes, where you had a win or advantage locked up and didn't have to give it away, but did so from a lapse in carefulness are just painful and even embarassing.)
For me, it's BE CAREFUL!
I had some recent games where I was dominating and all of a sudden I made one stupid move - which was totally avoidable and unnecessary - and all of the momentum and piece equality shifted to the other side. I think "silly mistakes" are the bane of a chess player's existence.
I can kind of understand why Wesley So would think it to be important to double and triple check his moves (as he recently wrote on a piece of paper in one of his tournaments that got him kicked out of that game for rule violation). It's such an important virtue.
For me, I've come to rank it as the #1 most important chess virtue.
What about you guys? ...Is it patience? ...Focus?...
(By the way, sorry for the W. So side discussion. That was not at all what I wanted this thread to be about, but it came to mind since it happenend recently and had some advice I think all players could never drill into their minds enough. Be careful, be careful! Unneccessary mistakes, where you had a win or advantage locked up and didn't have to give it away, but did so from a lapse in carefulness are just painful and even embarassing.)