There are blunders, there are bad blunders, there are worse blunders and then there are absolute blunders. I am just kidding! Blunders are blunders no matter which piece you lose. It could be due to oversight, it could be due to lost focus.
It is one thing to make a blunder when you are down in pieces and position and another thing to make a blunder when you are up. See below photo. White is up nicely and just has to push his pawns down. No big deal. No resistance actually! Comfortable position. Instead, blunders to take f7 pawn.
A one off mistake, right? Anyone can make a blunder, even Grandmasters have made blunders. What if the same player does make another blunder like this in the same tournament. The player is rated ~ 1300 FYI. So, this is not a beginner making such blunders.
I often see players getting restless having worked too hard. It is appropriate for every player to peak right at the tournament. If the player peaks before the tournament, then we can just sigh off. Sometimes if the players peaks off few days before the tournament, and then pushes too hard before the tournament, such blunders do happen.
What do you do when you see such blunders repeating in practice games? And then tournament games? What do you do? The ideal thing is to take few days off (= silence), relax in life, after that keep practice to a minimum and then play lower rated players in tournaments to win confidence. When you gain confidence, step in. The bad mistake would be to continue to test yourself in tournament games when you continue such blunders. You will lose badly and then it will devastate your confidence.
When you make blunders, silence is all that is needed. There is time to work hard, then there is time for silence, in life!
Blunders are blunders - we cannot argue with that. However there are MANY reasons of making such "awful moves". This one is not that rare in lower rated players' games. If I were the chess instructor of such student I would definitely look for a specific reason of this move. There are at least a few possible motifs of playing this suicide move (Qxf7): 1) playing too fast, 2) playing without looking at opponents threats, 3) playing without looking at location of opponents pieces, 4) too long effort without making any break (exhaustion?!), 5) greediness (taking too much material as the "easy way to win").
ReplyDeleteIf the player makes such blunders I would recommend: a) slown down, b) practice the answering of different pieces range of attack, c) checking the move safety BEFORE actually making a move, d) paying more attention to opponents threats and plans, e) relaxing (making a short breaks) more often - especially after the critical moment passed by, e) making a rest (longer break) from ANY chess activity (especially playing fast games).
My recommendation is not just limited to "step back" from chess for a while, but looking for a reason of such behavior. If the player plays A LOT of blitzes he may do it (making blunders) regularly - this kind of habit may be very harmful to his/her improvement (progress). Sometimes the player is AFRAID of losing (especially if he believes that rating is HIS VALUE as a human) and instead of doing his best... he simply looks for ANY ways of avoiding defeat. The attitude is crucial as in the long term he will not be able to make significant improvement.
And the last possibility: blundering may be due to overworking and being exhausted, tired or lack of proper sleep. You cannot work on chess too much before the tournament starts. It is highly recommended to fell "chess hunger" before the tournament starts. I hope it helps!
Tomasz, I think the reason is 1) playing too fast and 4) and 5). 2) and 3) are a result of 4) ofcourse. I was asking this student yesterday if he was interested in promoting a million pawns which serves no purpose. He had a couple of center pawns which are easy to promote. There ends the mater.
DeleteHe is not plaing Blitz BTW. I never allow my students to play blitz.
Great comments regarding taking some time off!
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Tomasz above regarding blitz. When I have dived into too much blitz (which is not often) I have seen my OTB chess results suffer.
I also think we need to always cultivate our love of the game and not just the love of winning. Nothing beats a hot cup of tea or coffee on a cold winter's night while playing through a great old chess game collection. Just for fun!
Tommyg, I see Blunders do happen. But, I am also looking at patterns. I look at their practice games. When the number of blunders increase, I take note of it. I pray that such blunders should not creep into their Tournament games but they will follow the same pattern that I dread. We can just take a breath, and give them rest. Nothing else we can do....And after some break, we can start our tactics from mate in one. The students do hate mate in 1 s, because "they are too easy" but they must pass through that phase everytime they go through this "blunder phase". Hahaha....
DeleteExactly! Mate in 1s are like the basic scales and patterns a musician must learn and review! Forever.
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