How to stop making blunders during your chess game

You had an excellent opening, controlled the board and dominated all your opponent's pieces. The middlegame looked easy, you had a clear strategy and detailed plan, all the tactics seemed to work in your favour, you slowly began tightening the noose. The victim already had a look of dread and disgust at the sight of the imminent siege. Victory was almost certain. But then it happened, just as your attack was about to begin, you overlooked your opponent's minor threat and left a piece en prise! You blundered! With new hope, your opponent fortifies his position, swaps down, and soon the game is lost.

For every chess player, this story is all too familiar. The truth is 'Everyone makes mistakes! ...but only champions learn from them.' Here are two videos that are particularly helpful for minimising such errors in your game.

Middlegame Training

Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine.

The famous words of Rudolf Spielmann. As we're well aware, chess mastery involves the mastery of all three phases of the game. With the acquisition of specific skills, a deeper understanding of the concept of chess is created.

For many, the middlegame has posed a challenge. With so many pieces on the board, the choice of moves are numerous and the risk of blunders abundant. To improve, players require the right system of thinking on finding the correct move. The study of 'irrelevant' chess literature can prove to be counterproductive; practice is important!

I came across this YouTube video series on Middlegame training. Have a go at all the days and see what you can learn.

How to improve at chess for beginners

There are thousands of materials on development in chess and it seems quite challenging to filter the good from the best (not to mention the bad!). There are various levels of development and certain materials are appropriate for each stage.

Thankfully, going from beginner level (knowing how to move) to competent (being able to beat other beginners consistently) is quite easy! Development shouldn't be a capital intensive project. Here's a few hints on what's worked for me:

1. Get a good chess program with audio/video tutorials: Depending on your learning preference (i.e. auditory, visual or kinesthetic) this could be the best tool at your disposal for chess development. The choice of program should also have lots of practice material.
2. Focus on basic chess principles, laws, and concepts: Areas to work on include basic opening, basic endgames, basic checkmate patterns, the center, tactics, weaknesses, & outposts. You'll be amazed at your improvement.
3. Play with stronger opponents: It feels really good to win. Chances are you'll lose a lot of games playing stronger opponents, but it's far more important to have a champion's mentality in all your games - a loss is nothing more than an opportunity to learn :)
4. Have Fun: Pleasure is a far stronger motivating factor than pain. Enjoy what you do and you'll develop a lot faster.

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