Blunders, Human Mistakes and training brain incorrectly

I am rated appr. 1100. I used to be a bit higher long ago, but rediscoving chess  Tactics around 1750. Most games I loose due to common Human mistakes that apply not only in chess. For example as human we are notorious bad in risk assessments. And we always think it will not happen to us. Wishfull thinking is another. Not handling time stress well increases the blunder rate. Main cause for me loosing is going into focus mode instead of scanning mode, i.e. focus into finding some tactic for myself. Obviously your pattern recognition comes in to get better in that. The biggest problem however is that you do not see tactics of your oponent. Of course this is known and that is how I play, I always try to be the attacker and try to push my opponent into defensive thinking mode. Very often they then miss their attacking options.

Tactics training here seems to be promoting that attacking focus. Most tactics (at my level) have no valid tactics for the opponent, So you start to ignore. So instead of training my brain to learn 100% of the attacking tactics method/ patterns, I need the puzzles to train my focus also on opponent tactics to an equal level as attacking. Because I need to avoid blundering that way.

I am wondering if puzzle difficulty rating is automatically based on attacking focus because we all go into that focues mode? So it is promoting the incorrect balance in thinking pattern? My assumption is that I would be stronger with a different puzzle rating system, also at my level.

I assume that at higher level the puzzles become more balanced (unfortunately I can only assume...)

Any thoughts? Is there a place where you can train more balanced puzzles? 

Make it a habit to consider what forcing moves your opponent may have in reply to the move you are about to make.  Look at checks, captures, and threats(threats may not be so easy to see, but checks and captures will be.) That should help with detecting your opponent's tactics.  The better you become at tactics the better you'll see your opponent's tactics, as well.

Dan Heisman has a couple of books related to this subject: Is Your Move Safe? and Looking for Trouble.  Looking for Trouble has about 300 problems.  I have that book(Kindle edition) but haven't read it yet.  I'll probably buy Is Your Move Safe?, too, then decide which one to work through first.

Thanks for confirming that it will do so at higher ratings. However, my point is that I would like to see that at my current rating of tactics. I know there are some, but my brain is not seeing the need yet to really calcuate these, because most is attacking.

Part of your recommendation is kind of what I am doing in Tactics. I try to force myself to understand the tactics and consider countermoves before I move. Still I get more quick braincandy on going for easy attacking tactics without considering all defensive countermoves to my tactics (the risk taking). But I do see that I improve quicker when I do. So that will drive my Human nature characteristics in the right direction.

I agree that pattern recognition of tactics is key. However, the problem is that I only consider that from my side. Due to that focus mode I am not even looking for reverse patterns and I notice my brain is not training that, and not rewarded for doing so. I will get better when doing tactics, but my level of play could increase much faster is my feeling.

On a seperate note: some tactical patterns I keep missing and some of these are not shown often. The engine should recognize that and feed me more often the problems that I miss, even if these patterns are less common.

I actually think that a tactics engine could be designed to most effectively train your brain, using "human performance" as basis.

Not familiar with the book you mention, seems to address the issue. The big thing for me is training via computer tactics. Using modern technology you can really train your brain.

You might take a look at the Chessable website. It looks like they are trying to improve chess study through the science of learning.

https://www.chessable.com/science/

I'm not very familiar with the site and am not sure what's available there. I've never used their courses, but I did notice a tactics course that includes dealing with threats. It's by a club player, but it's only $4.99 which is quite a bit cheaper than most of their courses.

https://www.chessable.com/100-chess-tactics-100-chess-threats-for-the-club-player/course/10733/

Thx, appreciate you taking the time to share your insights. Will post if I find anything.

I think it also comes down to time management and disciplined thinking. I try to make it a habit to think in my opponents time from their point of view what their best move is and what tactics they might have. so I am just switching the pov. sometimes due to tiredness or lack of concentration I fail to do this and really you have little chance then.