The Ten Most Common Chess Mistakes, According To A Grandmaster

Introduction

Hello, fellow chess improvers!

One of the first 'advanced' chess books I read was The 10 Most Common Chess Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them) by the late GM Larry Evans.

While knowing about a mistake isn't always enough to fix it, that awareness does at least take some of the frustration out of playing chess and is the critical first step to transforming that weakness into a strength.

I'll keep the suspense for you and go in reverse order :)

Share with us in the comments thread - what would be your list of the most common chess mistakes?

10. Overreacting when defending worse positions

This is partly a 'mental game' issue, with players getting too desperate or despondent when defending. But defending is also a skill, and sports fans will know the saying that 'defence wins championships'.

The best chess players are distinguished by how well they defend.

In my earlier post, 'A Grandmaster's Thinking Model For Chess Defence', I shared a framework for defending accurately.

Reflecting on this mistake, it was probably more precise to name this one 'incorrectly transforming the position', as that applies to both better and worse positions. But defence is such a crucial and under-covered aspect of chess that it's time it received its due.

9. Lack of technique in clearly better/winning positions

This is a ubiquitous challenge, and while it manifests from several other mistakes listed below, I deem it significant to mention them separately.

Most players have never really studied the art of 'technique' - converting a decisive advantage - perhaps because they assume the game will 'win itself' (an example of a mental game weakness, see point 5 later).

Furthermore, the level of defensive 'resistance' increases at the next level, and thus, we must continually 'relearn' the skill of converting an advantage. Still, only some chess players intentionally do so.

8. Making assumptions/jumping to the wrong conclusion

Many of the mistakes we make in calculation and positional play result from 'laziness' where we stopped calculating too early or assumed, e.g. that the doubled pawns are just bad here (because we read it in a book).

Learning to continually question our assumptions (from a place of curiosity, not fear) and see the position 'as it is' rather than through a biased lens of what we read in a book is crucial for showing a high accuracy of play and identifying effective 'ugly moves' that work because of a subtle trick.

You may like to check out this post for ideas on how to improve this process.

7. Incorrectly evaluating an exchange of pieces/pawns

When one player outplays the other in a chess game, it's often because they either evaluated the exchange of pieces/pawns better or were better at setting up those favourable exchanges in the first place.

One aspect distinguishing the 'Soviet' chess style is effectively keeping the tension between the pieces. The opponent invests energy in each move, evaluating the exchange, and in the process, often misses a blow from a different angle.

More accurate play starts with making life easier for yourself and harder for the opponent. The most straightforward way is to correctly assess each exchange with unconscious competence.

6. Lacking the required knowledge to handle the position well

Sometimes, you aren't going to figure out what to do on your own; you need to know the answer.

You may not encounter the R vs. R+B endgame that often in your life. But failing to study it means throwing away half a point each time you get that position.

Even more importantly, missing that understanding of how the rook, bishop, and king coordinate will cost you a lot more points in R+B vs. R+N endgames, which arise about 10% of the time in practice (even more than pure rook endgames at 9%).

5. Leaving mental game issues unresolved (to manifest in the game)

The work you do before the game will determine your results in the game.

This doesn't just refer to chess training but also our mindset and performance routines.

You won't be able to play at your best if you slept poorly, ate poorly, and didn't exercise the day before.

Equally, you won't be able to play at your best if unresolved psychological issues impact your play.

Some of the more common examples are indecisiveness/lack of confidence (leading to time trouble/agreeing draws prematurely), fixation on results (leading to tilt and other emotional swings), and a fixed mindset (finding reasons why your level is fixed, rather than focusing on learning), but there are many others.

For starting to develop these skills, I recommend reading this thorough blog post of mine.

4. Not recognising the opponent's resources

A tricky balance in chess is correctly prioritising our ideas and paying attention to what the opponent wants to do.

While the ideal response to the opponent's idea (in a vacuum) is to find a way to ignore it effectively, not seeing the opponent's threat in the first place is a straightforward way to blunder.

3. Visualizing a possible variation incorrectly

'Board vision' is a critical skill for playing great chess. If you cannot clearly 'see' the position in an arising variation, mistakes in your calculation will arise. (I didn't make this number one, as there are IMs with aphantasia)

Most of our blunders arise from simply not seeing something in the position's 'weeds', as we didn't have that motif in our subconscious pattern recognition.

A free resource I've recommended to many of my private students facing this problem is theChessMadra Visualization Trainer.

2. Playing without a clear plan or 'harmony' between the pieces

Even the most accomplished chess players, including Grandmasters, have much more to learn about the game than you might expect.

There are still many positions where I could have played a better plan in a game.

At lower levels, this often manifests in failing to ensure our pieces are all involved in the game and on good squares.

When we don't understand the position (from playing through numerous 'model' games), we will make many mistakes and feel outplayed. The final 'tactical' blunder the engine jumps on in the post-game analysis manifests from this pressure.

You can find instructive games from your openings in the 'Lichess Explorer' section of the Lichess Analysis Board (Click on the 'book' icon near the h1/a8-square).

1. Failing to look for alternatives

GM Jacob Aagaard shared this as the number one weakness of chess players with our group at the 2018 Quality Chess Academy training camp.

My experiences have led me to the same conclusion - a large chunk of our chess mistakes arise from simply needing to see the move we could have played or completely missing the opponent's best reply.

That's why training the 'candidate moves' technique in our calculation training is so critical.

This theme keeps coming up in my most recent training video for YouTube, found here.

Summary

To summarise, the ten most common chess mistakes are:

1. Failing to look for alternatives

2. Playing without a clear plan or 'harmony' between the pieces

3. Visualizing a possible variation incorrectly

4. Not recognising the opponent's resources

5. Leaving mental game issues unresolved

6. Lacking the required knowledge to handle the position well

7. Incorrectly evaluating an exchange of pieces/pawns

8. Making assumptions/jumping to the wrong conclusion

9. Lack of technique in clearly better/winning positions

10. Overreacting when defending worse positions

Which of these mistakes will you be working on next?

Did any of these insights make a deep impression on you?

Let us know down below.