Blunders? A passing phase?

After I started playing at chess.com about a month ago, I've been playing and reading (about chess) a lot and naturally my game has improved.

But suddenly, I've started making unbelievable mistakes. Sometimes, I'm walking into traps that I've already analyzed 2-moves ago (so I can't say I didn't see it). Or just missing an obvious threat that is already present. Not just in one game. In nearly every game!

Does it happen to you? If yes, how do you get over it? I was thinking "back to the basics" (somewhat like the standard advice to any out-of-form cricketer); but what basics?

I hope it is only a passing phase.

Play me again, you don't make blunders then............

Yes Darren!  Those were not blunders when I played you.

You just forced those initial errors with your aggressive opening play (watch out! I'm working on it though). Sure, when I got a break in the middle game I used it to win.

Yes, let us play again!

I have found that one makes these blunders when one is in rather good / bad mood. I made those when in particularly good mood (like having won a game just a few minutes back).

So, I suggest you wait for the mood to pass before making the move(s) (or blunder (s))

 I have greatly benefited by using software programs called "chess tactics for beginners/intermediate/CT-Art3.0 (3 different programs). I try to just do tactics for an hour a day, and my rating has gone up. I find the beginner program best for me because i can do many problems quickly and get used to seeing patterns and common setups. 

One aspect of what you mention happens to me all the time, in blitz anyway. I'll see some sort of threat against my knight, let's say, but then work it through and convince myself that it's covered by enough pieces. Three or four moves later my attention is focused in another quadrant of the board; I move one of my pieces toward the enemy king. As I release my hand I notice that I just moved one of the key defenders of my beseiged knight. So in this sort of case I see the threat as it occurs, but don't always retain that memory once play has moved elsewhere.

There's another, similar problem I have which involves seeing the threat, finding the right move to counter it, and then...letting my mind wander onto the moves that will follow after. Sometimes, when I feel like I've let my analysis run on too long, I make some other move from later on in my variation tree, and completely forget to actually counter the threat that spawned the analysis.

I'm not sure that there's much that can be done about these things, which represent a lack of concentration and focus. Tactics training will certainly help basic combinations pop out at you more readily; but if you fail to focus on correctly calculating the ensuing variation, it does you no good whatsoever.

If there's anything to be done about your performance in correspondence chess, perhaps you should carry a lighter load of games. I also find that taking copious notes is helpful in ensuring nothing important gets missed.

This is about a spontaneous lack of ability to think for a fraction of a second.  It happens to everyone and usually when you have thought through intricate tactical variations and have subconciously forgotten the current position which can often lead to you making moves in the wrong order.

The best way to reduce the number of times this happens is to sit and relax for 10 seconds before every move to refresh your brain and then have a quick look at the position again.  Water helps too, BIG time.  I find that when I am playing if I have been drinking water I make far fewer mistakes on average and defeat better opponents (honestly!).

If you can remove blunders by 90% or more from your game you will find that your grade will shoot up rapidly.

Don't be too upset though, no matter how strong you are you can always make blunders, check out this game below between Deep Fritz 10 and the then World Champion Vladimir Kramnik:

Sas, when I hit those phases it's because I'm experiencing a general loss of concentration and patience that I can usually trace to some outside problem that is preying on me--something at work or at home, or a problem with a friend. I stop playing chess when that happens and content myself with "trying" to study chess until I get past the problem phase. At least it doesn't depress me when I lose my concentration during study!

If you do want to keep playing anyway, you might return to this type of basic: After, each of your opponent's moves, ask "What's the threat?" and really look for it. And just before each of your own moves, ask the Marathon Man question: " 'Is it safe?' (Laurence Olivier)."

BTW, I really enjoy watching cricket and studying its rules--LBW, particularly; I used to be a very serious baseball umpire. But I never get to see any cricket on American TV. How about you send me a nice long cricket video file and I'll find and send you a good baseball one? Deal?

it happens to me at times, i lose a hundred rating points, i then get back my rating, sometimes i get more rating if i become better at chess. then i make blunders, i lose a hundred rating points... {loop}