Exeter Chess Club: Blunders at East Devon: a natural history

  Blunders at East Devon: a natural history

 

The errors found by Fritz5 from the Premier and Major games at East Devon can be classified by tactical theme and perhaps also by psychological theme - what type of thinking was at fault?

I'm not ever so confident about the classification scheme - I have a feeling that it could be sharpened up a lot. In research, you would get a couple of other people to come up with their own classifications and then compare notes, and perhaps some of the vaguer categories like 'attack and defence' could be divided up into 'weakening moves', 'failure to use reserve pieces', and so on.

Here's the final tally. [Once you start counting, you can get away from mere 'natural history' towards a science of blunders.] There were 111 games with blunders, but some games had more than one important blunder. Please also remember that for every game with a blunder, there was a game free from blunder, and that even in the most flawed game more moves were sound than unsound.

Tactical themes.

Most common are the group of simple tactical themes, and tactics involving the King. I was surprised by the latter, since I thought most players were very careful of their Kings. Perhaps it has to do with the various ways in which a game can be compromised by a wobbly King, and the often sharper finishes which were missed by players who were already winning. Have a look at the examples under this heading (index below) and see what you think.

The simple geometrical motifs are readily absorbed, but we must make sure we know all the common ones. I was astonished a while ago to find that Dave Beckwith, comfortably 130 strength plus (1500+ ELO) without ever seeming to practice, had never seen the smothered mate known as Philidor's legacy, using Queen and Knight against a castled King.

The next most common group, 'phases', is dominated by endgame errors. However dismal computers are at endgames, and they are pretty ropy, we are worse.

Analytical errors - like move order - accounted for a few blunders, but hardly more often than real act of blindness, like leaving material hanging! Hopefully, awareness of both sorts of blunder can feed back to your habits of thought: try ideas in different orders to see if they work better, or check to see that your pieces really are still protected at the end of a sequence of moves.

Psychological themes

The most common types of blunder seem to have nothing interesting psychological about them - they are simply oversights, and all one need do to avoid them is look twice. However, because we are obviously thinking about something when it is our turn to move, why aren't we thinking about more important stuff? Presumably, we think what we are thinking about we regard as important, but while distracted by important higher-order things, we can overlook the basics.

There's really not a lot of research around on how ordinary chess players actually spend their time at the board when its their move, so your own notes and recollections are probably the best guide to your own errors - are you looking only for your own opportunities, or are you too worried about your weak a-Pawn to look for imminent threats?

The next big block are what I have rudely, but probably not inaccurately, called emotional errors. Neither hope nor despair are friends to the chessplayer. Remaining calm and effective throughout each move of a long game is a tough challenge, but is a goal to be sought. Perhaps you can at least 'turn down the volume' on any nerves while it's your turn to move - you have work to do which is not helped by feeling gloomy about the game.

What morals - or immorals - do you draw from these figures?

 

 

Classification of tactical themes

 

Category	Theme	All	Games
Blindness = 9	Hanging pieces/Pawns	9	11 39 41 42 42 48 56 93 111
Geometry	Pin	13	2 3 4 9 24 33 40 51 52 77 83 104
55	Fork	16	5 6 14 27 38 33 43 44 46 49 54 69 79 97 110
	Skewer	1	45
	Double Attack	5	7 21 35 63 102
	Overload/decoy	9	43 54 75 90 95 96 102 105 110
	Unmasking	5	20 47 55 105 108
	No retreat	3	22 32 93
	Mixed themes	3	62 87 107
Main aim	King safety/mating attack	47	10 12 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 29 29 30 33 34 46 53 61 62 64 68 69 71 73 74 74 81 82 88 89 89 91 95 98 101 104 108 110 110 111
49	Back rank	1	76
	F7	1	6
Analysis	Analysis	2	18 72
11	Intermezzo	2	51 80
	Horizon effect	2	2
	Undermining	5	26 31 78 84 86
Attack and defence	Line-opening	2	17 110
11	Clearance	1	60
	Sacrifices	6	60 66 86 94 99 106
	Defence	1	76
	Weakening moves	1	100
Strategy	Bind	1	37
3	Plan	1	38
	Seventh rank	1	38
Phases	Opening themes	10	13 58 59 75 82 84 85 88 92 92
30	Endgame/queening	20	1 7 8 18 25 36 40 55 58 58 65 73 79 84 97 102 104 108

Classification of psychological errors

 

Category	Theme	All	Games
Blindness	Opportunity	27	4 6 11 14 15 17 26 29 33 39 40 42 43 45 69 72 76 78 84 87 88 92 93 99 106 110 111
92	Threat	34	6 7 18 28 29 31 35 38 47 48 50 51 54 56 63 71 73 73 74 79 80 83 90 92 93 97 97 98 104 104 105 108 109 109 110 111
	Incisiveness	29	1 5 10 18 19 19 33 40 49 53 59 60 62 68 69 73 75 76 77 77 79 82 85 86 87 89 98 100
	Finishing off	2	25 30
Thinking errors	Analysis	9	3 18 32 35 46 51 72 74 93
22	Routine moves	6	1 5 21 29 62 95
	Move order	3	61 62 102
	Horizon	3	8
	Wrong rook	1	86
Material errors	Material	8	8 12 13 41 43 71 88 86
19	Positional sac.	7	3 19 58 59 80 81 104
	Planning	1	91
	Positional blunder /pointless moves	3	37 37 38
Emotional errors	Nerves/Bluff	4	4 32 72 82
42	Bad to worse	25	2 5 7 9 9 21 33 43 44 52 57 61 63 64 64 67 68 81 84 84 85 94 95 96 100
	Rush of blood	6	10 16 17 60 67 70
	Panic	4	24 73 89 107
	Playing for a loss	1	69
	Pushing luck	1	34
	Rushed it	1	27
Attack and defence	Attack and defence	8	58 66 71 89 95 96 110 111
11	Necessary attack	2	21 110
	Time trouble	1	73
Phases = 1	Endgame	1	55

 

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