Following opening principles is not working

After trying to use the Danish gambit with very limited success for a while, I tried to focus on following the principles, but I always goes sideways. The more I study the game, the worse I get. I dropped 200 points in blitz this past week.

I know I should play longer time controls, but I have pretty bad ADD and I can't focus for that long. Am I a person who should not play chess at all?

Your latest bunch of losses have nothing to do with openings, or opening principles.  You're hanging material.

Im following principles and it leads to me hanging pieces.

Your in good company. I'm pretty good at playing the Dutch Defense as black, but only recently managed a solid win as white. (Solid as in the opponent didn't any obvious blunders).

Playing the Dutch on the white side seems, to me anyway, a different experience. One of the issues is that I don't actually get opponents playing the Dutch Defense on the black side that often.

I think you got the wrong thread

Principles are exactly that.  "Principles"  They are guidelines on what to do.  They are not written in stone. 

You still need to double check your moves, make sure your pieces are safe, and ask yourself: "What is my opponent trying to do" after each move.  You dont just play Nf3 because it follows opening principles.  You actually have to look at and study the position.

 

I'd try playing less open openings, particularly if you're going to stick with blitz.  Play 1. d4 with white and respond to 1. e4 with e6 (the French Defense).  Keep the number of complications to a minimum for the time being.  If the center of the board gets locked down, there will be far less chances for you to hang pieces.

Don't get me wrong, open games are fun, once you're ready to handle them.  For now, you need your games to last long enough to figure out what your own strengths and style are.

Well, you can continue playing short time controls, but just realize that your learning process will be slowed down because of it. And I agree with SoupTime4 - Your losses are mostly due to hanging pieces, not reasons of opening principles.

Thanks a lot for the analysis Souptime, it is really helpful. I have read the advice in your previous post a million times, but my brain doesn't register it.

Dsmith, I'll try your advice too.

I think I'll try to play longer time controls to improve my focus, it seems to be the major problem since I already "know" what you guys are telling me. My mistake seems to be that I confuse my lack of ability to focus for a lack of understanding of the game. I appreciate y'all.

EscherehcsE, seems like we posted simultaneously and you are spot on, I'm glad that you are confirming that I came to the right conclusion. Thanks for your input.

Glad to help.  If you deal with ADD, and simply lack the patience for the game.  I can certainly understand why youre having trouble with the basics.  Just remember to have fun!

I politely disagree (TM LongIslandMark), IMHO beginners should try open games and gambits, but with plenty of time to think.

Living principles tell me I need to eat in order to survive. Well, now the kitchen is on fire and I'm worried I might die. So much for those principles, right?

Even going off of your most recent game, I'd say you are blaming the opening for the loss when you were playing objectively better up until the last move. Lets look at the final position.

First off, you are roughly even in material. At a rating of under 1000, this is not a losing position necessarily. He hasn't even moved his kingside pieces, they might as well not even be on the board right now. 
Secondly, one of the opening principles you are blaming is being completely ignored: fight for the center. Placing knights on the edge of the board is usually a bad idea because you have less control of the center. How can you blame the principles for your mistakes when the ones you don't follow are the cause of your problems?

Ultimately, you did a great job in this game, even despite blundering the rook at the end. You could have played on, but you let your demoralization take over, which is probably what you should be pointing the blame at. Take a moment to calm down when you make a mistake (they happen to everyone!), assess that could have been a better move, and learn from that rather than shutting down your own hopes of getting better by pointing fingers at misunderstood proven practice.

As noted above, general opening principles are only a guide (a good guide for beginners, but just a guide). There will always be exceptions to generally followed principles. It is by reviewing each position that these exceptions start to present themselves. So, when learning the game and trying to learn tactics and strategy, it takes time to review positions to notice these exceptions, and that takes playing at longer time controls. This was also mentioned above - play longer time controls.

As Souptime4 did above, review your games. Learn from your mistakes and try to avoid them in the future. When White moved 6. Be3, what did you think of this move? Was it expected, unexpected? Every time your opponent moves a piece, take a look at what it attacks, what it defends, what it might be leaving undefended. Doing this would show your own Bishop is attacked. Now what? Retreat? Trade? Defend? This would take time.

Good luck.

Imagine that in a game of golf you averaged a score of 90, but every time you teed off you sliced the ball way off into the trees. You have really focused on how to play from inside bushes and trees and so you get a decent score despite that. Now imagine that you change the way you drive the ball, a new grip or club, and now instead of hitting the ball into the shrub, you end up right in the middle of the green. But now your game suffers because you haven’t spent as much focus and time on your putting game. Chess is complex with many aspects. When you change one aspect of your play, it can force you into games that require a different approach or understanding than before. Getting worse when learning is completely normal. Continue to learn theory and study and you will ineveitably improve

Haven't heard this one before. 😊

Sorry but there are overriding priorities/principles like checkmate or material.

Then you have forgotten the most important opening principle of all: Don't hang pieces!

This very good principle will earn you more wins than all the centralized knights and castled kings in the world.