IMO it's all about discipline. There needs to be a checklist they go through every move until it becomes second nature. Not just when they play a game but also when they play through their past games or master games for analysis. If they are really willing to work at beating it into their head the will include this checklist for every move in their analysis.
A rudimentary list can be something like
1. loose or hanging pieces
2. forcing moves; checks, captures etc
3. positional elements; backward, isolated or doubled pawns.
The better they want to be at the game the more in depth the checklist becomes. This is one of the main reasons long games are much better for improvement than blitz or bullet IMHO.
I can't quite speak from experience yet, in chess at least because I'm still doing this myself but I think it is good advice. It works for everything else.
Is there something one can do and over time reduce the number of blunders they do significantly? I ask because I know a few people who play against me with a time advantage and occasionally get lucky and win material against me, though it doesn't happen very often, but when it does they have a chance to win, however, what more often than usual happens is they do some dumb move and lose their queen and I win without breaking a sweat. Dan Heisman always says that one must first get good at the big three. Time management, safety/tactics, and activity of pieces, before anything else, however, he doesn't say how one should go about getting better at those three things???
It took me over 15 years to get to 1500. I'd like to shorten that for these people I play chess with. Perhaps a good goal for them would be to get at my level by about a years time, but none of them have time on their side.
So let's say this. First, I ask what would be a good method to get a player below 1000 to stop making so many blunders and start playing more serious chess at or around the 1300 range? I'd like a plan that only takes less than an hour a day as well as a plan that takes a considerable amount of time, within reason. I ask this because I know nothing about teaching people chess and I learned the hard way I know but if I could teach someone else to not learn the way I learned and focus on stuff that will actually allow them to attain my rating at a more reasonable time. (I took 15 years to get to 1500 and I'd be happy if they reached my level a lot sooner than that)
One of them prefers risky gambits and ends up in positions where he is just down a pawn for no clear reason. Another one takes way too long to make moves. Another one likes to use the queen too early and ends up losing time defending the queen as well as sometimes losing it because of forcing continuations (by me at least, his tactics are really effective against people at his level) Another one often doesn't see the simplest replies that will give him a winning position and loses games he should have one. The one who I said takes too long to move also has faulty thinking algorithms. To give you an example, he believes that delaying castling is always a strength because it means your opponent doesn't know where to attack. The problem is sometimes the position calls for a quick castle or else you will not get to chance to do it later on or lose the ability altogether or the game. I try to tell these guys the error in their ways but some seem reluctant to listen to my advice. Like I tell the same guy not to push their pawns like they do in certain games but I constantly catch him doing it, and I know he will do it again after losing a game because he did that very thing, and for some strange reason doesn't see why it's bad when there is no possible way for him to attack my king because of the pawn structure he allowed by pushing his pawns, while I have all the power to attack the other side of the board. Is he beyond help? What would you tell this guy? !!
He constantly misreads positions. He thought because I couldn't do anything on that side either it was just a stalemate, however, he didn't think to consider that I can mobilize my pieces on the opposite side of the board, where I can attack his king, and he can't attack mine, because like I said, that side was closed off. He also lost a piece due to a simple tactic that I found, and made it worse for himself later by allowing himself to lose another piece. Often in a bad position to remedy that he finds a bad move that counterattacks, but I have a simple defense to it, and then now there are two pieces under attack so he will just lose another piece. I remember a guy saying often don't answer an attack with another attack because it often leaves yourself open to not one but two attacks now; the piece you tried to attack; now another one of his pieces which is now attacked by the one you where attacking. He gives this advice to kids and this guy is a grown man making silly mistakes like this after playing chess for over 15 years. (He's had some breaks in between though... not the whole 15 years...)
Back to Basics I think is too long for most of them to get through as a lot of them don't have time on their side, however, one of them does. I'll let him borrow my copy of Back to Basics, however, is there something quick to do every day besides just doing tactics? Ultimately they all have to learn more tactics. Which is why I consider that all of them do at least 5 tactics on chesstempo daily, and review one Paul Morphy game a day. There is a book I know of that Dan Heisman recommends that I have... perhaps a dose of those two books could be given to all of them... I've been meaning to make flash cards of tactics for myself to go though, perhaps I can allow them to use them as well... that could be a good start.
Okay, 5 tactics from chess tempo, one game of Paul Morphy a day, and going through these tactics sets at least once or up to three times a day would be the start of their training regimen to help them learn to stop making these silly blunders.
This training regimen could help me as well as them LOL. A lot of them have thought process errors. So I guess I or my friend could play one slow game with one of them a night without the clock and have them spill the beans on their thought process behind making each and every one of their moves and having us correct their thought process. We could try and do this once a week for each of them.
That's all I have. Any other ideas? What could help a guy that is at around the1000 level in a way to help reduce the number of blunders they make considerably?
I could add this, on the days we don't gather for chess, and when they have time free, they can play a slow game on chess.com, one with a 45|45 time control, and with each move they make they should follow this thinking regimen:
First look to see what the opponent move what it did, and see if there are any checks captures or threats. If there are none, then try and make a list of candidate moves, and consider the opponent's responses. Most chess games are won when someone stops considering what their opponent can do and loses the game due to an unstoppable threat. The key is to learn to consider all of these threats by carefully examining each and every one of your own moves and do not just do the first move that comes to your head consider other possibilities first before making that move!
If anyone has anything to add to this part feel free to add it now!
That's pretty much all I have, but are there any other things I can add to this training regimine I am going to try and get these guys on?