Pre-move checklist

Hello everyone! I'm wondering if any of yall have a checklist that you go through before each move. I'm a 830 rapid player and my goal is to get to 1000. My current problem is that when I'm winning I find it difficult to slow down and evaluate the current position. This has caused me to miss opportunities that could have offered awesome rewards.

I've already heard of SWOT. What is your process?\

S- Strengths

W-Weaknesses

O-Opportunities

T- Threats

First you should find all of your opponent's moves that are a check, capture, or threat. This is important because even if you have a winning move, in most cases you can't find the correct winning sequence if you don't know about your opponent's checks, captures, and threats.

If your opponent has a move that can win material or checkmate, then you are REQUIRED to find a way to deal with it... most of the time the best defense is passive (run away or defend) in rare cases the best way to deal with it is to counter attack (most lower rated players counter attack too often). After finding your opponent's checks, captures, and threats, and identifying the biggest danger in the position, you should look for your own checks, captures, and threats.

Now you should pick a candidate move (like you want to move your knight to e6, just a random example).

Imagine your candidate move as if it's been played, and now find all the checks, captures, and threats your opponent can play against that new position... this might sound hard, but since only 1 move has changed, it's pretty easy since you already found most of them. If you still like your candidate move after finding the scariest thing that your opponent can do in response, then you can play your move.

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So

1. Find your opponent's forcing moves
2. Find your forcing moves
3. Choose a candidate move
4. Find your opponent's forcing moves while imagining your candidate move as if it's been played.

This will keep you safe from all basic mistakes and tactics, and will have a huge impact on your rating if you're under 1200 or so... but it's a hard habit to develop. Even beginners do this process occasionally, but your goal is to do it on 100% of your moves in 100% of your games, and that's very difficult. It takes most people over a year to make this a habit.

The good news is (as you might have noticed) it's pretty redundant so it gets easier over time. If you found all the checks, captures, and threats on move 5, well, on move 6 not much has changed, so it will be quick.

Mostly you'll be spending time in step 4... you'll be trying to find the scariest or most annoying thing your opponent can play as a response to your intended move. If you still like your move, then you can play it.