What are the worst *habits* to guard against, or encourage in chess?

What kind of bad habits do players tend to cultivate, but should strive to avoid?  What are the best and simplest habits to create?  And what is the most effective way to reduce the former and encourage the latter?

What kind of bad habits do players tend to cultivate, but should strive to avoid?

It depends if you mean when playing chess or during training.

When playing I have to fight against moving too fast, laziness in calculating, assuming my position is won or lost to quickly, blundering, and much more.

If I want to improve at chess I need to study.  The habits of reading the forums too much, playing blitz too much, playing bullet too much, and doing other things that don't really help chess can be hard for me to break.

What are the best and simplest habits to create?  What is the most effective way to reduce the former and encourage the latter?

I'm still working on those!  I'd be really happy to know the answers to them.  I think maybe I'd get good at this game if I knew the answers and followed them.

Another negative thing that I do while playing is to not be systematic in my thinking.  Yet another is to simply stare at the board without thinking (it does save mental energy though ;p )

I'd be very interested in what titled player's answers to your questions would be.

One habit I cultivated that actually seemed to reduce my number of blunders in OTB play was to write the move down before playing it on the board, instead of afterwards.

The usual procedure is to decide on a move, play it on the board, press the clock, and then write it down. Then you would relax back into your chair. And sometimes, as soon as you sit back and relax, you realize that you've played a blunder.

Instead of this, I trained myself to decide on the move, write it down, then sit back and relax as if the move had already been played on the board... and sometimes I would realize at that moment that the move was a mistake; and since I had not yet played it on the board, all I needed to do is erase it from my score-sheet and choose a different move. Only if the move still looked OK after that moment of relaxation would I actually play it on the board.

The official FIDE rules are a little unclear on whether this procedure is legal or illegal... so I also came up with an alternate anti-blunder technique. This was to tuck my hands under my thighs while I'm thinking about my next move.

It meant that after I had decided on a move, I had to pull my hands out from under my legs before I could reach out onto the board and move the piece... and this action would remind me to take one last look at the position, to make sure that the intended move wasn't a blunder. This also seemed to work... although not as well as the write-it-down-first method.

As far as I remember, The official FIDE rule was quite clear, it's not allowed. The confusion came from USCF rules which allowed it, IIRC.

One major problem with the above post.  Writing down the move before playing it on the board is illegal in most organizations now!

FIDE banned it a long time ago.  USCF banned it 2 to 3 years ago EXCEPT when it's announced by the TD that it's OK.  For example, Continential Chess allows players with a paper scoresheet to write down first and then move it, or move it and then write down first, but you still CAN NOT write the move, think about it for 10 minutes, and then make it or change it.

On a completely separate note, one horrible habit that some players have is counting material off the board (especially in over the board play).  Back when I used to use the most common set in the USCF (their basic tournament set), and I had White (meaning my opponent used their set since Black has that right), I would reach into my set, pull out a Black pawn, stick it in my pocket before the game began, and once I've captured 2 Black pawns, I added the pawn in my pocket to the table, and that way if they counted what was off the table (and I saw many that did that) they played differently because they thought they were down a pawn, and suddenly they started playing extremely defensively!

Moral of the story is, always always ALWAYS count what is ON the board, NOT OFF the board.  I rarely count material in the first place, and usually only do it when trying to calculate a long combination, as often the position is more important than the fact that I'm up or down a pawn assuming you're not in a King and Pawn ending.

Yeah, I haven't played in an OTB tournament in nearly 25 years, so the change in the official rules may prevent that write-it-down-first technique.

The sit-on-your-hands technique is still legal, AFAIK.

1- Spending too much time on the forums, and too few on chess. (only for internet players)

2- Buying books or other material with the belief that the more book you read, the more you know.

3- Buying books or other material with the belief that the more book you own, the more you will read.

4- Working too much on any part of the game believing that fixing one's issue in one domain will make you improve.

Not putting in the effort ... or having the mental disipl..discip .... that thing and lack of focus or atten

1) Moves way too fast and wants to rush a game

2) Fidgets with the Queen especially in the opening sometimes spends 8 or 10 moves just moving that around

3) Plays for cheap gimmick and traps hoping against hope the opponent won't know them

4) Doesn`t castle the King instead attacks like mad before his or her development is completed

5) Greedy materialist takes anything offered without thinking just grabs it like a hungry aligator

lol thats so evil. I doubt players above total novice do that though.

I think at my level, maybe just not playing a move that looks okay and calling it good.  I think that spending more time between moves would improve my playing, but it can be difficult not to move right after spotting a decent move.

Moving too quickly, and ignoring general principles...these are two habits that I try to eliminate from my play.

losing and winning