Reprogram your brain.
Why should you Reprogram your brain?
The common misconception is that blunders are just tactical errors. Tactics are definitely involved, and better tactical vision will certainly help reduce the number of these blunders, but merely studying tactics is like treating the symptoms (blunders) and not removing the disease (blank spots). Reprogram your brain and see better results.
- If you are just embarking on your chess tournament preparation read this article – Separating the wood from the trees.
Consider the errors you make in a game. How many of the critical errors (those that change the expected result of the game–win, lose or draw) were immediately obvious to you, and how many required some serious thought or computer assistance?
Reprogram your brain to think differently about chess training to achieve maximum results.
If you had to think about why your move was bad, or why your opponent’s move worked, then the problem is related to some other facet of your game like strategic misunderstanding or mix-up of tactical ideas in the wrong sequence.
However, if your error provokes an immediate “Oh No!”, then it wasn’t your tactics that were faulty, but your thinking.
If:
- shortly after you make your move you suddenly realize it was a blunder, or
- your opponent makes an unexpected move whose strength is immediately obvious, or
- your opponent makes a move that you didn’t consider, but it’s immediately obvious that you should have,
then your thinking process failed you, not your tactical ignorance.
How do you train this error-free thinking in chess?
Solution:
- Ask yourself before moving – what your opponent can do and whether you can handle his threat.
- Is your threat bigger than his?
Many of us make a superficial attempt and select a move without analyzing the full line.
A really good tip is to create a set of positions for solving – not too challenging but not too easy either.
These task positions must resemble those that players regularly face over the board, and are especially useful from a trainer’s viewpoint.
That is due to the fact that there must be no hints or themes given for these positions.
You just need to find the best move and that in itself will reward you if you are sincere.
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As a further example, consider bowling or basketball. One thing you train is to be able to consistently pull off a certain stroke or a push, such as hitting all 9 balls or putting the ball inside the basket 7-10 feet away from the basket.
After practicing again, and again, and again, the “right” way to do it becomes programmed in your “subconscious memory” and you can just execute it with the least thought.
The solution would appear to be to play more games at slow time controls and whenever you play online, force yourself to play chess seriously, like in a tournament.
Repetition is the key to embedding information into your subconscious brain. Keep training regularly. I always tell my students to treat all training positions as tournament gameplay and all tournament games as a training scenario.
This way there will be pure attention whilst solving and pure relaxation without fear while playing in a stress-filled tournament.
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Golden Chess Centre conducts regular online Chess Classes for dedicated and upcoming chess players.
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