Why am I still so bad at chess?

So I have become obsessed with this game in the last 6 months. I have read countless books, articles, watched tons of videos and game analysis, memorized 20+ openings and defenses. I know basic middle game theory and am working on my end game theory. I have played tons of tactics puzzles and I know all the terms and such. 

 

Yet it seems like even a terrible player, with little theory or strategy can beat me if they just pay closer attention. I constantly make awful moves that I know, literally two seconds after, that I messed up. I am losing games to very silly mistakes. When I teach others, I feel like I know alot, but when I play, I am absolutely terrible. 

 

I feel like I don't have the 'chess mindset' or a way to see the board where everything makes sense, I see the threats and moves and adjust based on theory and strategy. What should I do next?

You should probably shy away from blitz. It's not really good for learning. I prefer rapid and daily. For me though, I got from just knowing the moves to 1300 USCF in 8 months by playing thousands of games, Learning from others and doing 5 tactics a day until around december on my old account. I never bothered with more than basic theory and strategy. More of calculation abilities first. Now I can visualize about 2-3 moves ahead just glancing at a piece but thinking on it like in a rapid game really helps your brain become accustomed to calculating. Now I improve mainly with tactics, but these things take time. If you continue investing a lot of time I know you'll get better.

Do something you haven’t done before. The old adage goes like “An idiot is someone who expects to have a different result by doing the same thing over and over.” ~ anonymous

I looked at a few of your recent games. You are not seeing pieces and pawns that are given to you on a silver platter.

Play longer games. Practice tactics.

And, study counting. It's the most basic tactic of all, but it's of critical importance. See the link below -

https://web.archive.org/web/20140615153114/http://www.chess.com/article/view/counting-vs-counting-material

This is a reformed quote of Einstein’s “Psychopathy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”

The issue that I see here is that you may have memorized these things, but are you using them? Go to a thirty minute time control and make a premove checklist, taking your fundamentals into account. That’s what I did. You can check my stats history, I was the exact same as you.

Tactics.  Tactics.  And more tactics.

It doesn't really matter if you know the Philidor position or if you know the main line of the Sicilian Dragon 15 moves deep if you're hanging a piece every other move.  You need to start taking the free pieces your opponents are giving you, and stop giving pieces away for free.  So focus on tactics.

 

Also, play slower time controls, and analyse your losses to see where you went wrong.

Echoing everyone else, slow down your game. Play Daily games (rated and unrated) and have the computer analyze the game afterwards. Or better yet have a real person review your game (they can tell you why a move was good or not)

 

I think the Philidor position was important for me to learn not because it's going to come in handy every game, but because I find that it helped teach me a lot of important concepts. For example I learned the endgame principle of "King on the 6th, Pawn on the 5th." The Philidor position became a natural progression for how I wanted to expand that endgame concept. As the defending side I want to prevent the opponent from achieving that king and pawn position due to it forcing the queening of the pawn. As the attacking side I want to achieve that king and pawn position.

 

The Philidor position is important because it expands upon that concept. How do I go about defending that position when both sides also have a rook? Using my rook on the 6th to cut off king advance while showing my opponent that checking my king with their rook is futile. They get to the point where they draw by repetition due to perpetual checks on my king, lose the pawn and get a drawn rook vs rook ending, or advance their pawn, losing the ability to have "King on the 6th, Pawn on the 5th" and draw due to perpetual checks from behind.

 

While tactics are nice, it is things like this that teaches important concepts one can apply.

Yes, endgames teach you more than how to win endgames.  The concepts are valuable in the middlegame too.  But all the strategic knowledge in the world won't help you if you're dropping material every other move.

Thanks for taking the time! This article seems super helpful. The main thing i've taken from all the responses is to slow down (which is totally a problem. I rush everything) and to try and analyze each move more defensively. I've played people who seem like they just look at a board and immediately see everything thats a threat or position. Is that something that develops after concentrating and playing tons and tons of games? Like a sixth sense?

Yeah, as you practice more tactics and play more longer games, you'll tend to see more tactics.

You start to recognise patterns.  You undoubtedly already know some.  For example, in this position, what is white threatening?

 

 

White is threatening a back rank mate, where a king is trapped behind his own pawns, and a queen or rook can deliver mate.  You've probably already seen that enough times to know that if a king is behind his own pawns and there are still rooks or queens on the board, the possibility of a back rank mate must be guarded against in some manner.

You see that often enough and it becomes automatic without even thinking about it.  You'll see back rank mates (or the threat of one) cropping up as part of a more complex tactical situation; sometimes the need to defend against it will force one side to make a concession somewhere else, for example.

Thank makes so much sense. You're right, you do see the same patterns over and over. I feel like I have played so much, on here, other apps or in person, that I should have a better since of it but It's taken so long to develop. Any tips? Are there flashcards or tests with these types of scenarios?

Do drills and study gm games with these mates.

You say you have "read countless books" but how many have you studied?

 

Also with tactics you can only learn a handful of patterns a day so you want to do easy tactics until you find a few you can't solve within about 30 seconds to a minute. Don't try longer than that to solve them, give up and go over the solution, play it out a few times then visualize it in your head a few times... and that's it. You can get 3-5 of these every day in about 15 minutes.

 

Do more difficult problems to challenge your calculation ability. Set them up on a real board. Choose candidate moves and calculate until you see far enough to discount a move or until you see the final position in the solution, if you lose your place don't stop and recalculate, just try to remember where the pieces are and force yourself to be uncomfortable. Do this for no longer than 15-20 minutes and if you haven't solved it by then give up and look at the solution. Now, with the solution in mind try to calculate the solution and figure out why other defenses dont work. Do this for no longer than about 10 minutes, if you still don't understand why other defenses don't work you can start moving the pieces around to figure it out. Only do a few of these each day.

 

In summary, easy tactics to gain patterns(easy will be relative to each person) and difficult problems to train calculation.

 

Progress takes time. You can't rush it so don't try. You will just burn out.

 

 

It could be as simple as before making a move to double check it. Can it be taken? Is another of your pieces being attacked especially the King. When the opponent moves what is it attacking and why was it made. That will eliminate the silly mistakes that you see just after your move.

The burnout is real. I am hitting that level. I want to understand this game so badly but its so frustrating to keep losing. The drills make alot of sense. Why stop after 30-secs to a min? Why not spend a long time discovering each one? Thanks for all the advice!

 

Because the goal is to gain patterns not solve puzzles. If you can't see the solution within a minute then you don't have that pattern stored in your memory yet.

@20 I googled that term but still don't know what a stokyo exercise is. I'm very interested though if you'd be willing to explain.