OTB Blunders

My game has been improving in the abstract, but I find I make a lot of blunders when playing OTB, even with a time limit of 30 min or 3 days. 

Do others have this problem? Did you find a way to get past it?

Yes i had a lot of problems,I then started reading books and simulating the games explained in it it otb so i got a hang of it.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

play blindfold chess to eliminate blunders

I tried playing blindfold chess once and ended up finsihing a 300 piece jigsaw puzzle. 

Seriously, I don't think I could get past a very basic opening and still make legal moves playing blindfold.

What types of blunders?

Outright blunders, where you hang a piece?

an excellent example. 

I hung two pieves in a row and then resigned when I possibly could have gone for win on time.

I was pretty distracted, but still.....

Imagine the feeling of it being your move, what do you look for, how do you look for things?  Probably the first thing you do is notice your opponent's last move... can I just take it for free?  Can I play a check?  Maybe fork two of his pieces?  In short, how can I directly challenge his move?

You need to create this feeling twice during a move.  The first time is like above, right after your opponent moves you see if you can do something immediately devastating to him :)

The second time is when you pick a move for yourself, now here's the new part, imagine that intended move as if it's already made.  Just that one move, don't visualize any other moves.  With that position in your mind's eye now pretend you're your opponent and try to punish your intended move.  And just as above, but now ask can the opponent:

Capture my [intended move]
Play a check (notice all available checks)
Play a simple tactic like a fork

You have to beat him to the punch, because just like you, these are the first things he'll look for after you finalize your move.

Like any new habit this is difficult at first... and hey we all still hang stuff from time to time (obviously masters pretty infrequently ;).  But as you build the habit it's easier.  And notice if you do this every move, because the position changes only 1 move at a time, the next time you do this it shoudln't take long e.g. all the checks your opponent can play, all the pieces he can capture, etc.  If you stay up-to-date on the position, it's not as much effort as it may seem to be.

This is, spelled out, how blindfold chess helps.  You're forced to visualize your intended move and check its safety.  When we have sight of the board we tend to feel safer or something heh.  Good luck :)

OTB games with a time limit of 3 days tend to be rather rare nowadays.

I remember how the old-timers would sit us down and tell us how they'd played one game their entire lives and then chastize us for finishing a whole game in a day.

I might be stretching the term OTB. I'm including OTI (over the internet) games such as games I've played here.

Thanks wafflemaster. I hope you're not going to change your mind in your next post. 

It's okay, we knew what you meant; we are just trolls.  Or drolls.  Or something like that.

Change my mind?  Heh, do you mean I edited my post?  I don't like to proof-read in this tiny box.  I usually post and then do about 2 or 3 quick edits in the next minute

Of course, waffles, there is always the preview button.

I was actually referring to your screen name: waffle as in to be evasive or change your position frequently.

I guess my blunders aren't just OTB. 

Heh, never occurred to me

Too subtle for me to catch :p

There used to be a running gag on the forums whenever some new person posted a topic we'd all seen 100 times before e.g. "bishop vs knight"  They'd immediately go off topic and instead debate "waffles or pancakes?"

I did in fact change my username, and the waffle part was a reference to that running gag.  I guess it got old, haven't seen it in a while.