I don't learn from mistakes and I lose more than I win

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GrandPatzerDave

Most of my monumental blunders I spot immediately after making them so the old adage "if you think you see a good move look for a better one" (i.e., take your time) may help. Doing lots of (non-timed) puzzles may help as well. Good luck and hang in there!

Hightider
nklristic hat geschrieben:

First of all, don't listen to people saying that you can't improve because you are just bad at chess. Sure, not everyone can become a GM, but everyone can improve to some extent. Certainly that extent is not sub 1 000 level, but much much higher. Of course, I exclude some extreme circumstances that one is 90 years old or there is some health issue.

Some people will never improve, that is true, but that is because they either don't know how, or do not want to do the work. For some people improvement comes easier than others, and sometimes an even greater effort is required. But enough about that.

Your biggest problem is that you are playing blitz or bullet ... while you are actually playing 10 minute chess games.

I was looking at your losses, and what you are actually doing is that in those, you are offering time odds to your opponents. Sometimes they play way too fast as well. Pretty much in all your losses the games are either finished after 1 or 2 minutes, or are at least already decided in your opponent's favor by some big blunder.

You are basically trying to learn chess as a skill while thinking for a few seconds per move. Ask yourself if that is realistic, are you some kind of a supercomputer? This is a great way to never improve much. There are some that improve just by playing blitz, but that is a much more difficult way to do it, and most of us will not be able to do it like that.

I would advise much longer games in the first place where you try to diminish the effect of time and try to make the best moves, but only if you plan to use that time. Whatever you do, aim to have less than half of time left when the game is done. 15|10 would be the fastest time control I would advise for improvement. Even longer (60|0) is better, up to around 1 600 rating there will be enough people to play against, it will just take longer to pair up. That would of course mean less games per day, naturally, one game per day is enough, you don't even have to play every day.

What you have to do is to learn about chess as well, and look through every game thoroughly. Not just flipping the switch (though at the start, you will probably only be able to understand blunders).

Here are some other advices that might help you out:

https://www.chess.com/blog/nklristic/the-beginners-tale-first-steps-to-chess-improvement

THanks for the rest of the responses here, espeically to nklristic who took time to write such a lengthy and caring reply. 
I am aware of having to play slower but I am still making a lot of mistakes that I can't spot while playing. YOu know how you're supposed to check for Checks, Captures and Threats? That thinking helped me at first (and still applies probably) but I need to improve on tactics. 
Are there any ways I can learn to learn better? Because just looking at my mistakes doesn't seem to bring home the message!
What kind of questsions should i be asking while reviewing a game or playing moves? How to calculate moves?
I have been doing puzzles for a while. What else can I do?

Abtectous
Here is the true way to improve: study chess. Don’t play it. Play 1, 15+10 rated game a day and deeply analyze it. Other than that, spend your time studying the game. For example, puzzles,mating patterns, imbalances,openings, and endgames.
nklristic

There is no some magic wand. Some people can play and review games and simply by existing (if they are very young) will improve.

For the rest of us, the bigger effort is required. Basically it is a synergy. You play a game, you go through it. Then you study chess outside of playing (books, courses, lessons, at lower level free YouTube videos will do as well) in order to learn new concepts, learn patterns by doing tactics, and so on.

After a while, you can analyze games better. Then you play, analyze some more and study some more. On and on it goes and hopefully after hundreds and thousands of hours of playing, reviewing and studying, there will be some improvement.

One thing about the analysis, good analysis should last for quite a while, preferably it should be longer than the game itself, as long ity wasn't a simple clear cut game. Again, in order for you to do that, you need experience gained by playing, learning new concepts and analyzing (as you can learn something from the analysis itself as well).

What to do during the analysis, well... everything that comes into your mind. Understanding blunders is something you definitely can do, but when you are able to understand other things you should do them. Perhaps the evaluation was +1.2 and now it is -1. Try to figure it out. Go through the engine moves, but try to understand them, perhaps you can try something that looks more logical to you.

Or perhaps in a certain position you might try out a different plan. See what the engine thinks about it.

Sometimes you will figure out a line, but then you don't understand why the same move doesn't work a move before, maybe you needed to stop some threat first, some resource.

Basically you should play around with the engine, and from time to time you will understand a thing or 2. Sometimes you will need to learn concept from somewhere in order to really understand more. The most important thing is to be truthful to yourself, there will be things you do not understand, engine is sometimes too strong. It is ok to give up on some move you can't figure out.

Hightider

Guess I'll be studying deeper now, and try to find alternative moves in the analysis method then, and play puzzles again probably.
At the moment I play like 3-5 games a day. Like while I am waiting for food to cook, or when I need a break from my work or other studies, on the toilet..

Compadre_J

I looked at your Stats from White Side.

You played 1.e4 over 100 times.

You played 1.d4 around 25 times.

This would suggest that you are mainly playing 1.e4 and are pursuing the King Pawn Path.

After your first move, I looked at your stats and found a horrible discovery.

After you play 1.e4, Your opponents are responding with the very normal and popular move 1…e5!

When they do, They have 60% chance to beat you.

What I am saying in simple terms is:

If you play 10 games, Your opponent will win 6 out of those 10 against you.

Your rating can’t possibly get better if after only 1 move your chances of winning are below 50%.

This is a major concern because the rule of thumb is you want to try and win with the white pieces.

White has the initiative due to being able to move first. For that reason, you want to use that momentum to get wins with White pieces.

When you play with Black pieces, You don’t have the initiative and due to not having the initiative it is considered normal to try for a draw.

If you can win with Black pieces, It would be great bonus victory, but realistically it is more difficult.

The point I am trying to make here is:

- White pieces try to play for win

- Black pieces try to play for draw (Any wins are just considered bonuses)

If you do the above, your chess rating with increase tons.

And I am telling you all of this so you can realize the magnitude of your situation.

Most of your chess rating points are going to come from you playing with the White pieces.

And your opponents have 60% win rate when you play with White pieces.

Which means you’re at a massive stand still.

——————————

In my personal opinion, you need to forget about puzzles and any other chess stuff you’re working on, until you fix this problem.

The above position should take precedence over everything else!

You need to change the win rate percentages which means you need to find an opening or set up which can help you win.

After 1.e4 e5, It looks like your 2nd move is all over the place.

Some moves have better win rates vs. other moves, but there still is a total lack of consistency which makes me believe you haven’t found an opening to combat the Kings Pawn Game.

Search YouTube Videos or the Chess Forums for more Openings catered towards Beginners.

Find a set up you enjoy to begin turning this horrible situation around.

If you can go from 60% losing to 60% winning, your chess rating points will swell up and you will gain massive amounts of rating points.

nklristic
Compadre_J wrote:

I looked at your Stats from White Side.

You played 1.e4 over 100 times.

You played 1.d4 around 25 times.

This would suggest that you are mainly playing 1.e4 and are pursuing the King Pawn Path.

After your first move, I looked at your stats and found a horrible discovery.

After you play 1.e4, Your opponents are responding with the very normal and popular move 1…e5!

When they do, They have 60% chance to beat you.

What I am saying in simple terms is:

If you play 10 games, Your opponent will win 6 out of those 10 against you.

Your rating can’t possibly get better if after only 1 move your chances of winning are below 50%.

This is a major concern because the rule of thumb is you want to try and win with the white pieces.

White has the initiative due to being able to move first. For that reason, you want to use that momentum to get wins with White pieces.

When you play with Black pieces, You don’t have the initiative and due to not having the initiative it is considered normal to try for a draw.

If you can win with Black pieces, It would be great bonus victory, but realistically it is more difficult.

The point I am trying to make here is:

- White pieces try to play for win

- Black pieces try to play for draw (Any wins are just considered bonuses)

If you do the above, your chess rating with increase tons.

And I am telling you all of this so you can realize the magnitude of your situation.

Most of your chess rating points are going to come from you playing with the White pieces.

And your opponents have 60% win rate when you play with White pieces.

Which means you’re at a massive stand still.

——————————

In my personal opinion, you need to forget about puzzles and any other chess stuff you’re working on, until you fix this problem.

The above position should take precedence over everything else!

You need to change the win rate percentages which means you need to find an opening or set up which can help you win.

After 1.e4 e5, It looks like your 2nd move is all over the place.

Some moves have better win rates vs. other moves, but there still is a total lack of consistency which makes me believe you haven’t found an opening to combat the Kings Pawn Game.

Search YouTube Videos or the Chess Forums for more Openings catered towards Beginners.

Find a set up you enjoy to begin turning this horrible situation around.

If you can go from 60% losing to 60% winning, your chess rating points will swell up and you will gain massive amounts of rating points.

There is something wrong with that statistic. He played more than 3 500 rapid games, and yet it shows just above 100 games in opening explorer as white. Something doesn't add up. Perhaps it only takes into consideration some recent time period.

He has better percentage with white than with black in general.
Here is a more accurate statistic (I used openingtree site, and this includes all his games I believe):

Pepienies

Give up

mikewier

Here are some suggestions.

1. Play more slowly. It is good that you are playing 15-minute games rather than blitz or bullet. But you are moving almost instantly and so are not really using your time.

2. Stop playing blitz games against other beginners. You are basically trying to learn through trial and error. This is a very slow and inefficient way to learn.

3. Learn basic opening principles. I don’t mean memorizing sequences of moves. Develop quickly. Control the center. Castle quickly. Connect your rooks. Avoid weakening the pawn structure in front of your king. Concentrate on doing this in the first 10 to 15 moves.

4. I am a big believer in learning from books. However, you could also find online lectures, lessons, etc. If you were my student, I would have you spend 80 percent of your time on lessons that stress general principles and 20 percent of your time playing. The play should stress applying the lessons.

5. After a game, spend time analyzing it. I don’t mean having the computer tell you a mistake. I mean understanding the mistakes so you don’t repeat them. If you were my student, I would have you analyze your games, so you can explain your plans to me. Then, we would discuss alternative plans. The emphasis should be on understanding general plans, NOT move sequences.

you have played almost 4,000 games, with little to show for it. To improve, you should change how you study.

Hightider

Hm. I am not sure if I should validate this, because games can be lost in many different ways and I don#t think the opening is really THAT important? It's not like I play really horrible moves in the first 3-4 moves and lose because of that, or is it?

Compadre_J
Hightider wrote:

Hm. I am not sure if I should validate this, because games can be lost in many different ways and I don#t think the opening is really THAT important? It's not like I play really horrible moves in the first 3-4 moves and lose because of that, or is it?

Impossible to tell because it seems your Chess Games are missing.

It only shows me 100 games you played.

Some of them was lost in opening such as below game.

You was completely lost with in first 10 moves of the game.

However, your opponent didn’t know how to finish you off swiftly and you soldiered on till move 25 before resigning.

You probably have other games like this.

———————————

I give you massive props for playing the Ng5 line!

However, you got to bring home the Win for Ng5 Fans!

Do you plan to play this line regularly or was it a testing line?

It doesn’t hurt to be prepared or have game plan before a chess game starts.

It is very normal for people to have Repertoires.

nklristic

Having a repertoire is good, so it is good to start playing something consistently to get some routine. It can make your play easier and indirectly make you blunder less in the long run. And further down the road, you can build upon that.

That being said, you have more important things to correct as well. The game above was lost because of a hanging bishop, a simple blunder and then it snowballed.

OP, I hope you will take suggestions to use your time seriously. This game is a prime example. You have spent 17 seconds of the game before the blunder (8 moves to that point), and on that bishop blunder you spent a second.

This is like trying to learn to drive in F1 car ... with your eyes closed and with your foot on the pedal at all times. This will end as well as you would expect.

I've looked at your 15|10 game you have lost most recently. 15|10 is a good start, but you ended the game with 18 minutes. This is a very big problem and you will probably not get better unless you start using your time better. The first step is that you make a conscious effort before every game. Just to say to yourself that you will not rush. This will take some time to change, but you will get better at it eventually.

If you manage to play slower, you will still blunder but you will blunder less often. For learning purposes, it is actually better to lose by timeout than lose a game in this manner.

If you lose on time, at least you've spent some time thinking about the game and looking at it. If you lose like this, this game is almost worthless for learning purposes.

magipi
Compadre_J wrote:

In my personal opinion, you need to forget about puzzles and any other chess stuff you’re working on, until you fix this problem.

Listen to Compadre_J's advice. All you need to do is to do the exact opposite of what he suggests.

MaetsNori
mikewier wrote:

1. Play more slowly. It is good that you are playing 15-minute games rather than blitz or bullet. But you are moving almost instantly and so are not really using your time.

Firmly agree with this one.

I looked at two of your recent losses and you averaged 2 to 3 seconds per move the entire game. This is not enough time to think about the position to any decent degree.

Before every move you make, you should be looking ahead to consider what your opponent might play in response.

"If I move this ... what might my opponent play, afterward? Might he go here? Or perhaps here ...? Maybe he'd even go here ..."

By doing this, you can often spot mistakes before you make them.

For example:

"I want to take this pawn. But if I do, what might my opponent play? ... Hmm... Oh, wait, I see that if I take the pawn, he can take my knight! I don't want that ... Maybe I should look for another move."

You should be thinking ahead, and considering your opponent's best responses, with every move.

Slow down. Think ahead. Allow yourself time to ponder the different possibilities ...

Hightider

Okay, i will play slower. I have read the quote "If you find a good move, find a better one" a few times. 
"

Do you plan to play this line regularly or was it a testing line?

"
That is something I play quite regularly actually, or try to. In that game, I just had the issue that suddenly he found a counter to it and I didn't know how to react properly, and then blundered and lost.

Compadre_J
magipi wrote:
Compadre_J wrote:

In my personal opinion, you need to forget about puzzles and any other chess stuff you’re working on, until you fix this problem.

Listen to Compadre_J's advice. All you need to do is to do the exact opposite of what he suggests.

The Chess players who have listened to my advice have all successful achieved their goals.

They have also Thanked me for helping them.

——————————————

Some of those Chess players were stuck at a chess rating for years listening to other players advice with no success. Listening to my advice helped them reach chess ratings they never thought they could in matter of weeks.

——————————————

Furthermore, I don’t force my advice on anyone.

If the OP doesn’t want to listen to my advice, He can just tell me not to comment on his thread and I will give my advice to other chess players.

——————————————

In addition, Prior to my arrival to this chess thread, The advice you gave the OP was to review his games which is hardly helpful.

The OP needs instructional/explanation reviews.

Self-Done or Engine Game Reviews are not what the OP needs.

If a player has no clue what is happening in a chess position, Telling that player to do a Self-Review of the position is pretty useless because the player isn’t strong enough to understand what should or shouldn’t be done.

If a player has no clue what is happening in a chess position, A Engine Review of a chess position is also pretty useless because the Engine doesn’t TALK. So what if his move is bad and engine thinks another move is better. How does that help the OP understand why his move is bad or why other move is better?

No Explanation

No Instruction

Means the OP isn’t going to get better.

What the OP needs is a Chess Buddy, Mentor, Coach, Book, Video, Or Anything that actually TALKS which can tell the OP why he screwed up.

——————————————

Next, The OP was told to study chess puzzles.

Chess Puzzles are often Tactical Middle Game Puzzles Or End Game Mating Puzzles

None of these things address the OP losing material in the Opening.

They have no correlation.

I have already explained the OP is losing games in the Opening, but due to his opponents being less experienced players they are not converting the Wins Efficiently.

- By move 10 the OP is completely lost.

- By move 30 the OP miraculously wins the game.

Its Low Elo stuff which doesn’t really exist in higher rating levels.

They are doing random stuff and are squandered the win.

Its a roller coaster back and forth on who is winning, but against stronger players their is no roller coaster.

If your lost, you get checkmated or resign.

Very rarely is their come back opportunity and swindle chances.

—————————

As I said before, The OP needs to start putting in work in the Opening.

The OP needs to minimize his risk of blundering stuff.

As someone ready mentioned, The OP needs a routine.

A Chess Opening can help with consistency, steady routine, and it can help reduce blunders all of which is what the OP needs right now.

A Chess Opening also carries logical ideas associated with the Opening.

This can help the OP understand the position and give the OP Middle Game plans!

Every Chess Opening has Middle Game plans.

Every Middle Game plan creates a unique End Game Pawn Structure.

It all relates.

The OP needs a foundation!

You need to start some where and you might as well start at the start of the game which is the Opening.

If the OP listens to my advice, I would expect progress with in a few weeks.

The toughest issue is finding an Opening line the OP might enjoy.

A lot of different Chess Openings in the game.

It can be tough trying to narrow down one.

It will take time for the OP to find a line he enjoys for sure.

Caffeineed
Just quit. You’ll be happier. This game only causes grief if you cant dedicate every waking hour of your miserable life to it
magipi
Compadre_J wrote:

Next, The OP was told to study chess puzzles.

Chess Puzzles are often Tactical Middle Game Puzzles Or End Game Mating Puzzles

None of these things address the OP losing material in the Opening.

They have no correlation.

The OP loses games because of tactical mistakes in the middle game (and rarely in the opening). Doing tactics puzzles, slowing down, paying attention to the game are all good advice. What you are suggesting is trash advice. If there are chess players who learn from you, I feel sorry for them. You are a charlatan.

Compadre_J
magipi wrote:
Compadre_J wrote:

Next, The OP was told to study chess puzzles.

Chess Puzzles are often Tactical Middle Game Puzzles Or End Game Mating Puzzles

None of these things address the OP losing material in the Opening.

They have no correlation.

The OP loses games because of tactical mistakes in the middle game (and rarely in the opening). Doing tactics puzzles, slowing down, paying attention to the game are all good advice. What you are suggesting is trash advice. If there are chess players who learn from you, I feel sorry for them. You are a charlatan.

I, literally, showed an example of the OP dropping pieces in the Opening.

I think the people of the chess forums can gauge on their own who real Charlatan is.

Move 8 the OP was down a Minor piece with no compensation or chance of winning.

The OP was completely lost and the best move for the OP would have been to Resign.

Resigning would have been the Honorable & Respectful thing to do.

The OP screwed up and knows he screwed up.

What Middle Game Tactic exists in this position? None because the game is over!

You think the OP should play on?

Playing on in a position he knows he is losing in?

What does he hope to gain?

A Swindled Victory?

If we are talking about Charlatans & the Moral Character of individual chess player, Than I have to call time out because all I see is Hypocrisy.

The game was over at move 8.

There was so Middle or Endgame.

The OP didn’t resign which demonstrates to me a Lack of awareness or Dishonorable intension.

—————————

Unlike you Magipi, I try to teach players Honorable Chess.

This is why I have had a lot of success students.

If the OP would have payed extra attention to his Opening and had a Routine on what he is supposed to do in the Opening, Do you think he would have hung that chess piece?

I think not!

I think with the proper training and structure he wouldn’t have hung any piece.

Why? Because he would be Focusing on his Opening!

Does the OP have Tactical Issues?

Maybe, Who Knows!

We will have to cross that bridge when we get there.

magipi
Compadre_J wrote:
 

I, literally, showed an example of the OP dropping pieces in the Opening.

It was the "opening" in the sense that it was early in the game. Both players were obviously out of book for several moves when suddenly white blundered away the bishop.

It wasn't any opening that will ever be played ever again. Looking at that position and building it into your opening repertoire is useless and pointless.

What the OP needs to do is not blunder away pieces. Getting better at noticing tactics (by doing puzzles) is incredibly useful, and you advised against it. Your advice is worse than nothing. It is actively harmful.