On the Origins of BLUNDERS: Uncovering the Psychological Reasons Behind Our Chess Mistakes

[@Pierre_16_16]

Thank you again Can for this original approach in linking neuroscience and chess! Wishfull thinking process is for me the most common mistake I made in my games... KR. Pierre

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for the feedback Pierre!

[@cemturk1907]

We all fell into these traps while playing chess. I think adjusting our mindset is the way to go like you suggested.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for your insights Cem!

[@anthonyjaglal]

Think I will look at this video everytime an hour before a game to keep alert thank you 🙏

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for your feedback! I hope the video will reduce your blunders!

[@ludwigchurr7744]

I agree, I blunder so many games because of over confidence. Well lesson learned so will calculate until checkmate is on the board.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Yes, over confidence and wishful thinking (confirmation bias) is the major cause of blunders.

[@bluefin.64]

A pawn so close to queening like in your second example would have me automatically on red alert, so I'd say your student had another issue, a weak sense of danger. I wonder if that's just from a lack of experience, or something else. I saw a list of all cognitive biases once and it was overwhelming. My thought is there must be a small subset of them that are best to know, but I couldn't find an authoritative source that made that distinction, just pop psychology sites that l didn't trust.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks a lot for your comment! Yes, a sense of danger was lacking as well in that position. Yes, you do not need to know all of those, but the confirmation bias is a big one that is relevant for chess decisions too! :)

[@peterintoronto6472]

A few more origins of blunders (from personal experience): (1) you can get into a tactic or strategy that has a momentum (do this, do that) that causes you to ignore whatever your opponent does for a couple of moves, since "it isn't important"; and you die; (2) it is very hard to keep track of every knight move, much harder than keeping track of bishops and castles since they are linear, and knights are centrifugal, going backwards and forwards in their odd spiral; (3) if you play against computers all the time, you can get into the mindset where what the opponent is doing is setting you up one move puzzle attacks, and not a long-term strategy; (4) to echo the video, especially if you play alone a lot, it is hard to think of chess as a two player game (tennis, to cite the video, is also a good example of how things can go wrong -- my tennis skills went way up when I was told to start playing my opponent and not the tennis ball).

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Great insights, thank you so much for sharing! And a great story about your tennis progress!

[@peterintoronto6472]

Possibly the best chess advice, from Jan Markos, whose books are terrific in their use of metaphors to unblock (Under the Surface is a masterpiece) -- "Good calculation doesn’t look like a way through a tunnel and isn’t meant to get you as far as possible in one direction. It resembles more a path through an unknown forest; you have to consider all the detours and paths you encounter, one step at a time." This frees you from the dreaded linearity and its close friend, narrowness.

[@brigidwell]

These were very well tailored to me because I missed practically all of them (I mostly saw the first but missed a detail there as well). This kind of cognitive blocks I think are the root cause most of my tactical and strategic mistakes.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for your comment! The very awareness of those issues may be the first step for the cure :)

[@Socrates...]

love these videos thanks

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you!

[@iancunningham2440]

It's tempting to get discouraged when I see just how big that codex is at the end. Brains really like to find easy-outs, I guess (which I realize has its uses).

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Absolutely! I also got a little discouraged and did not make a video on each and every bias 😅

[@davidbatchelder85]

Hardest thing in chess, win a won game.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

It is a tough thing indeed!

[@michaelfortunato1860]

I saw all of it (Paulsen-Tarrasch), but I don't find myself examining games so carefully as puzzles. 😞 Beautiful motif, btw. Just started your calculation course. PS Paulsen was magnanimous with the young Morphy.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for studying the calculation course! I hope that will help improve your game.

[@ianfleischhacker6154]

I don't necessarily blunder because I'm stupid, but I make some pretty stupid blunders.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

We all do! No-one is immune to blunders...

[@RAFAELSILVA-by6dy]

I did the calculations in exercises 3 and 4 and got them wrong. I thought that Rf3 was losing after Rxf3. I thought that Black could force White's king away from the pawns. That said, I should have seen it was losing after Ke2. In the next exercise, I missed that eventually d8=Q+ is a check. I thought White was getting a queen first, but Black was queening with check. The problem is trying to visualise the board more than a couple of moves ahead. If you can't see the position in your head, it is very difficult to analyse.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for your feedback! It is indeed a big area for improvement.

[@nolsterbuckr4833]

In writing down my steps to reduce blunders, I literally have the words written down: "If you're impatient, you're not thinking long enough. If you got a dopamine rush, you're definitely not thinking long enough."

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Slowing down is a big step to reduce blunders indeed. Good reminders!

[@EliDollinger]

Good video. It occurs to me that the examples also illustrate the importance of Sports Psychology. Arrogance, defeatism, fear, etc. are clear examples of a lack of emotional control, which is a topic in Sports Psychology. The questions I have are: 1. If blunders are the consequence of confirmation bias, do people who have trained to reduce their cognitive biases have an advantage in chess over people who haven’t? If identical twins (one is a scientist, one is not) were to start learning chess at the same time, would the scientist twin have an advantage over the other twin? 2. Do expert chess players have lower levels of confirmation bias than non-chess players when in non-chess related contexts?

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Such amazing insights and questions as always, thanks! Those are great empirical questions, and I wish we could explore those more in the future. Your second question was indeed one of my research ideas as well, as it is about far transfer - a very debated area with little scientific evidence so far. About the first question, it would be a lovely experiment! Especially interesting would be to analyse their verbal protocols when they analyse a chess position where they need to blunder check their moves and look at the best reply by the opponent - hence fighting against confirmation bias. Ah, I could make another Ph.D. on these topics!

[@nolsterbuckr4833]

Another blunder I have is that I miscalculate captures, but even though I did, I still won my last two games. It's tough to get in the habit of understanding that all captures are nonrefundable.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

That is a big area indeed, to correctly apply the counting rule. Thanks for the feedback.

[@derweigo]

Again a very good video. I can also share a recent game, where I throw away a absolute winning position with White (+12), where I stopped thinking, because I thought there is no way to lose the game. And to be honest, I was able to manage with just three additional moves to get a -4 position by blundering two minor pieces. This was a very hard lesson to never stop thinking until the game is really over.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for sharing this painful experience, good lessons indeed.

[@alwaysprepared]

This is probably one of the most difficult situations to overcome. With an apparent win we tend to relax, when under threat of losing a good opponent will search harder for resources than we will search to find the opponent's best response! Exactly as you say! It's natural. We lose our edge. I play tennis and there is a similar effect in this game! Often the last point to win a match is the most difficult! This is because the person trying to win tries to play it safe to avoid losing the winning point (losing their edge) while the impending loser redoubles their efforts and plays like they have nothing to lose (like a caged animal), finding inner resources they didn't know they had! It doesn't always play out that way, but there are plenty of examples where someone with match points against them fights back to win the match themselves!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for bringing this tennis analogy! The caged animal analogy also applies to chess. That is when swindles happen ☺️

[@ludwigchurr7744]

A good video. Thanks learning a lot from your video's

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Glad to hear it! Please do not hesitate to share the channel with your chess friends.

[@natalyawoop4263]

Had a Russian professor who used to tell us to try to destroy our hypotheses

[@Dr.CansClinic]

I love that saying, thank you so much for sharing!

[@DanZhukovin]

Easily one of the best channels for shahmat

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for your motivating comment 🙏 Please do not hesitate sharing the channel with your chess friends so we can reach more people ☺️

[@amarpaatshala]

This video would be very helpful for me!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

I am glad to hear it! Please check out my other videos on the origin of blunders (tunnel vision and the sunk cost fallacy).

[@deanmoriarty9508]

I really like your videos, thanks a lot.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

I am very happy to hear it, thanks a lot!

[@Nathan00at78Uuiu]

excellent video. loved it so much. Would love to see more of this topic. I actually subscribed just because of this one video. so that was great. One thing I noticed about strong players on youtube is they say things like "White is slightly better" or "black now has some compensation". They don't talk about themselves or their opponent but take a more objective view about what is going on on the board. I definitely get tunnel vision about what i want to do and don't even consider what my opponent will do. but that is when playing 3 minute blitz. longer games i do make some considerations.

[@Nathan00at78Uuiu]

i take that back. looks like i have seen a video of yours before.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for the subscription Nathan! Will definitely produce similar content in the future! Yes, chess is like tennis where the opponent plays a fundamental role.

[@janolthof2487]

great advice, thanks!!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Glad it was helpful!

[@kdubjbass]

Such great instruction

[@Dr.CansClinic]

❤🙏

[@supermario1123]

Great stuff as always!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks a lot!

[@hiwibaba22]

Hello Dr. Can just checking is your background in psychology, neuroscience, all of the above, or something different? I am Finding your videos quite fascinating and thank you for publishing such high-level content (btw I am a Microbiologist).

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for your kind feedback! I have a bachelor in biology with a PhD. in cognitive science (comparative psychology & cognitive zoology).

[@hiwibaba22]

Fantastic. And now I understand the tribute to Darwin in the title of your video, very clever. Thanks again !

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Haha yes you are the first person who understood it :) Biologists... ;)@@hiwibaba22

[@musicandmind3043]

great content sir

[@Dr.CansClinic]

❤️

[@anthonyjaglal]

Very very true👏👏👏👏💯💯 a famous chess player once said that the hardest thing to do is to win a won game,i still grapple with these tendancies ,my strategy is once i have an advantage i play much slower, leave the table, take a walk for a minute or so as not to get excited and carried away ppl pay less attention when winning,its hurts when you lose a won game,then this attitude becomes habit😢 very good tips thank you so much

[@Dr.CansClinic]

So true, thanks for your recommendations!

[@awakenedsoul2638]

FIRST TO COMMENT ON THIS NEW VIDEO UPLOAD! I need this video!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

I hope you found it useful!

[@BollmannVilian]

Congratulations again for the excellent video that correlates chess mistakes with cognitive biases and provides advice to avoid them (alongside the parallel of the scientific method of falsifiability). Can´t wait to see new videos addressing the other cognitive biases come soon.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

It is my pleasure to hear these words from you! More is surely coming. I am thinking about the Einstellung effect next :)

[@TerencePetersenAjbro]

Chess is very much a mind game. I have lost too many games in winning positions! Often low on time, my tunnel vision and confirmation bias are on overdrive so I don't see the blunder until my move is made. Also I get nervous in a winning position, don't know how to deal with that. In a losing position, I feel I have nothing to lose and try anything!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for sharing these insights! Nervousness in winning positions sounds very familiar to me as well!

[@southernrun9048]

Great examples for a very interesting lesson, some great ideas to consider

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you!

[@DanielDollinger1959]

Emotional self-destruction is my old friend. After a mistake, I stop trying. Then I make the catastrophic mistake. I am right now watching for it in myself. Thanks Can.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for sharing this Dan! I have also lost many games in my career because of this psychological issue.

[@ThortheMerciless]

Strangely I sometimes find myself doing almost the opposite - I start to feel sorry for my opponent and so stop trying so hard.