[Omroth]

"Not strategy, not memorizing opening lines, not practicing your end-game technique, not studying the Great Games of History, not drilling with puzzles to get better at tactics,"

"In my games, the player who committed more blunders lost 86% of the time."

Goodness I wonder what methods one could use to reduce their blunder rate.

[ruined]

it's simple. if i were playing the game, i would make moves that lead to victory, and i wouldn't make moves that lead to defeat. that way, i would always win.

making mistakes seems really stupid and i'm not sure why anyone would do that.

[tech_ken]

These things all help, but ultimately reduction of blunders is the result of consciously checking whether you're blundering something, not being a genius calculator. Most blunders in chess (outside of the higher-levels) aren't the result of failing to see some 5-move tactical sequence, they're just hanging a rook because you were hyper-focused on your own initiative. Controlling your blunder rate is IMO a game of attending to your own mental state: ensuring that you're giving proper consideration to your opponents threats, being realistic about your advantages, and preventing your imagination from running away on you. Obviously study and puzzles can help you do these things more effectively (for example making you more likely to pick up material when your opponent blunders), but they are a necessity not a sufficiency. At the end of the day 'not blundering' is about staying humble, playing slowly, and not freaking out; everything else is points on the margin.

[javier123454321]

I think the point is to, instead of being on the lookout for the winning strategy, put more of your limited attention on preventing basic mistakes. It's about shifting focus, presumably, there's a baseline of competence in the endeavor at hand.

[bsder]

> Goodness I wonder what methods one could use to reduce their blunder rate.

Checklist:

1) Is there a checkmate? Yeah, you might want to stop it if you don't want to lose.

2) Is there a check? Checks are forcing and can make you do things you don't want to do. You probably want to prevent them.

3) Is there a capture? A piece with no defenders that can be grabbed probably needs to have something done about it.

4) Is there an undefended piece? Undefended pieces become capturable. Defend it.

5) Do you have any plan at all? Even a bad one is better than none at all.

The problem is that there are lots of these on a board. When you first start doing this, it's a slow process, and it is not fun. But you will get much better very quickly.