Chess Blunders
More than anything, chess games are decided by tactical mistakes and blunders. You play a really great game, achieve a “crushing” position and then blow it in one single move due to a blunder, does it sound familiar to you?! Chess lessons in IchessU Chess School will improve your game, drastically reducing such colossal mistakes – an enormous step forward.
It's acknowledged, three main principle causes of blunders in chess:
- A heightened emotional state of some kind (getting close to victory, a feeling of self-satisfaction, excitement)
- Insufficient skill in tactics and combinations
- Failure to penetrate the position and account for all its features
The lack of concentration is usually preceded by a heightened emotional state of some kind, like being just around the corner from victory. You are close to realizing a plan, a kingside attack, eliminating the opponent’s counter play, and it is at precisely that moment you suddenly … drop a piece, drop a queen, mate in one, or you deliver stalemate! A huge percentage of chess blunders come just after feeling some sort of self-satisfaction or excitement. The famous Soviet chess master Blumenfeld recommended: "It often happens that a player carries out a deep and complicated calculation, but fails to spot something elementary right at the first move. In order to avoid such gross chess blunders, when you have finished your calculations, write down the move you have decided upon on the score sheet. Then examine the position for a short time 'through the eyes of a patzer'. Ask whether you have left a mate in one on, or left a piece or a pawn to be taken. Only when you have convinced yourself that there is no immediate catastrophe for you, should you make the planned move." You may also find that the vast majority of your chess blunders don’t happen in balanced positions where there is still everything left to play for – on the contrary, they often come when you’re sure of victory, or have just equalized against stronger opposition, or are very close to realizing an intention. You probably make very few blunders during the initial phases of a game which are tense and require an obvious degree of concentration.
The most important thing is to be aware of certain tendencies of thought and their corresponding dangers. When you find yourself getting close to achieving a result or even a positional aim of some kind the most important thing is to slow down and insist on accounting for the whole board and for the opponent’s intentions. The surest way to make a chess blunder is to temporarily forget about your opponent’s right to exist and his inevitable cunning. And “temporarily” can be just one move. For just one move you eagerly pursue your plan, and suddenly the opponent demonstrates that you’ve missed something obvious and devastating – such as hanging a piece. It happens every day. Thus before every move you must constantly be sure that you’ve asked yourself, “What are his intentions? What are his plans? What will he play after I play that move? What does my move weaken?” You simply must get in the habit of asking these questions during the course of the entire chess game and always directly before you make your move. The sooner you can develop this as an absolute habit – one from which you never vary – the sooner you will see a drastic decrease in your chess blunders.
Another more obvious reason that chess blunders occur is having insufficient skill at tactics and combinations. Many texts admonish us that nothing, absolutely nothing, can compensate for a lack of tactical ability – and this is true. Fortunately, this is an easy problem to correct over time since it mainly comes down to solving tactical puzzles on a regular basis. Improving tactics is integral part of the chess curriculum in any chess program offered by the IchessU Chess School.
A final cause of blunders which is actually quite related to the first is a failure to fully take in the position and its strategic components. While playing a game of chess your task is very simple (though not easy). You must constantly try to penetrate the position at hand through strategic thinking, calculating, guessing the opponent’s intentions, and keeping your mind clear and sharp. You should devote yourself to these tasks during the course of the entire game and try to keep the minimum amount of tension in doing so. The more you penetrate the position (ask questions about it, calculate some interesting variations, etc.) – even while your opponent is pondering his next move – the less you will blunder. Blunders are often related to overlooking some basic strategic component of the position – failure to fully appreciate for example, that the opponent has a bishop on an awkward square – and then moving your queen right in the line of fire (for example)! Learning strategics is integral part of the chess curiculum in any chess program offered by the IchessU Chess School
The remedy for this is simple. During your opponent’s clock time (while he is pondering his move) simply ask yourself a lot of questions about the position. I often ask (and attempt to answer) such questions as “What is my opponent’s most principle plan here?” “What features of the position am I not noticing?” “Where are the potential pitfalls in my position?” “If I had to summarize what’s going on here in a single sentence, what would I say?” … you can be creative here, the main thing is that your churning the position around in different ways in bringing attention to your opponent’s intentions, and the salient features of the position.
This may not seem connected with chess blunders, but you will find that establishing control over your thoughts and feelings about the position in this way will lead you to make far less oversights of a tactical and even strategic nature. Now when the moments of tension arise (and they surely will) you will consciously and subconsciously be able to make a use of all the extra information you’ve gained during your opponent’s time. This has a magical way of reducing mistakes.
If you practice the suggestions listed here you will see a reduction in your “silly” oversights and be in a position to take advantage of your opponent’s!
The world's worst chess blunders
There is, not surprisingly, no general consensus among critics as to what is the worst blunder ever made in a game of chess. After all, bad players make terrible moves every day and it is nothing special, so obviously a blunder must be worse the better the player is who makes it. And even Garry Kasparov might make a terrible move in a game of blitz chess over coffee with a friend, and slap his forehead, and reset the pieces in a hurry - so obviously, the more important the setting, the worse the blunder. Bearing these factors in mind, here are 3 thematic blunders - play the game and read the annotation.
1. Bronstein - Botvinnik, World Championship Match, Moscow 1951 (6th Game)
What makes this blunder even worse is the fact that Bronstein failed to take the world title from Botvinnik by half a point. Their match was tied at 12-12, and according to the rules at the time, a tie meant that the title holder retained the crown. Bronstein never seriously challenged for the world championship again, and must be absolutely sick of having to talk about this game in interviews.
2. Von Popiel - Marco, Monte Carlo 1902
The next blunder is also very famous, but for different reasons. Marco, a strong master of his time, has resigned in a winning (by only 1 move !!!) position, providing entertainment to many future chess enthusiasts. The lesson? Think twice before you give up.
3. Fischer - Bisguier, New York 1963
Roberto Bisguier, a very strong grandmaster at the time, was tied for first place in the US Open Championships in 1963 with Bobby Fischer. Fischer was on top of the world at the time, and had already won the US Open 4 times, but Bisguier had been playing well, and fancied his chances in the game, which in fact is published and annotated (but without this anecdote) in Fischer's famous book, My 60 Memorable Games. At some point, Bisguier hears something strange, and looks up to find Fischer snoring lightly, his eyes closed, slumped back in his chair. A glance at Fischer's clock shows that it won't be too long before he will lose on time. History does not record how long Bisguier grappled with his conscience, but he said after the game, "I made the worst move of my career. I woke up Bobby Fischer."
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Sources: in this article were used materials taken from http://kebuchess.com and http://everything2.com sites.
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