Common Mistakes

In this lesson, I will show you four types of common

mistakes that chess players sometimes make and if
you understand these well enough, then it will help
you make fewer mistakes in your own games.

So, it’s important to remember – the fewer mistakes

you make, the more games you will win.
 Common Mistakes
The first type of mistake chess players make, is that they
didn’t see their opponent’s threat.

Sometimes you are so busy thinking about your own moves,

that you forget to think about your opponent’s threats. Here
is an example to show you what I mean.

On the previous move, black moved their knight here and

now it’s white’s turn.

White just had a quick look at black’s move and saw black
can’t capture him anymore on the next move and then,
without thinking any further, moved this rook to d1 to attack
black’s knight.

But, it was a mistake, because black then moved his knight

here and says check…
 Common Mistakes

It is a fork because the knight checks the king and

also, attacks the rook.

And the point is – the pawn can’t capture the

knight since this pawn is pinned by the black rook.

If the pawn tries to capture the knight then the king

will be in check, so white can’t do that.

Let’s go back two moves to have another look.

 Common Mistakes

When black moved the knight to d5, white should

have been more careful and thought about what
black could be threatening.

Then probably he would have realized black is

threatening to fork him and then at least white
would have been able to try do something about it.
For example, he could move the rook here…
 Common Mistakes

to cover the f4-quare. Now if black moved the knight here, the
rook can capture it. So, this is the first type of mistake chess
players make – they don’t consider their opponent’s threats
carefully.

When your opponent makes a move, immediately ask yourself

– why did they do that? And don’t just rush your thoughts,
pay attention to your opponent’s move because, remember,
one mistake could cause you to lose the game instantly.

But if you know what your opponent’s threats are, then you
can at least try to make a plan to prevent it from happening.
 Common Mistakes
The second type of mistake is to move a piece and
to forget the piece did an important job on the
square where it was. Here’s an example:

In this position, you can see the black queen is

fairly active near the center, whilst the white queen
is a bit passive. And this is why white decided to
exchange the queens.

White’s idea was to move the queen to e3 and if

black captures him, then he will recapture with the
bishop. It would be an equal exchange.
 Common Mistakes
But the problem is, white forgot that from e2, the
queen defended the bishop on c4, and now by
moving the queen, the bishop is not defended
anymore.

Black simply captured the bishop and now white

lost material.

So, the lesson you can learn from this is that before
you move a piece, first check to see what important
task that piece is currently doing from the square
it’s on.
Common Mistakes

The third type of mistake is to open up your king.

When you open up your king, you expose him to
checks and other possible dangers.

Here’s an example:

It’s white’s turn to move and white saw that the

black knight is threatening to capture his pawn. Of
course, white wouldn’t want to lose the pawn for
nothing and that is why he moved here…
Common Mistakes

In order to defend the pawn, he has moved his

pawn to f3.

But this move was a mistake because it exposed the

king on this diagonal and now black moved his
queen here…

Let’s see why this is a blunder?

Common Mistakes

Black moved his queen to c5 and forking the king

and bishop.

– a fork, because he is checking the white king and

at the same time threatening to capture the bishop.

If white understood that it’s dangerous to open up

his king, he would look for an alternative way to
defend the pawn, for example, he could move the
rook here…
Common Mistakes

The lesson you learnt here is that you shouldn’t

expose your king, or if you have to do so in some
situations, you should understand why it’s
dangerous to do so.
 Common Mistakes

The fourth type of mistake happens when you don’t

see the whole board.

In chess it could easily happen that you are

concentrating on one part of the board and then
you forget to see the board as a whole.

I’ll use this example to show you what I mean.

 Common Mistakes

White only looked on this side of the board

and thought it would be a good idea to move
his rook over and check the black king…
 Common Mistakes

But, this move is actually a mistake because white

didn’t see the black bishop on the other end of the
board which can capture him.

And this is a bad exchange for white because he

loses 5 points and gets back only 3 points, which
means he loses 2 points in the process.

Now you see why it’s important to look at the whole

board, and particularly watch out for the bishops
because they can be very dangerous on the long
open diagonals.
 Common Mistakes

Let’s look at a quick summary of the 4 types of

mistakes that chess players sometimes make:
The first type of mistake happens when you don’t
take the time to think about your opponent’s
threats.

The first thing you should do immediately after

your opponent has moved, is to ask yourself – what
are they threatening? And don’t hurry the process
– take a good look, otherwise you could be making
a fatal mistake on the very next move.
 Common Mistakes

The second mistake happens when you forget to

think about the job a piece is doing from the square
it’s on.

And then if you move that piece, it could be a

mistake because it’s not defending one of your
pieces anymore.

So, before you move a piece, be sure you know what

is it’s current role is and that it is actually safe to
move it away.
 Common Mistakes

The third type of mistake is to open-up your king

and expose him to checks.

This is dangerous because it can give your opponent

an opportunity to use tactics against your king.

Sometimes it could be safe to open-up your king,

particularly in the endgame, but still, you should be
very careful when you consider making a move that
will open up your king and put him in danger.
 Common Mistakes

And then the fourth and last mistake you learnt about
happens when you don’t see the whole board.

Train your mind to see the whole board! It will help you
prevent mistakes.

It’s just natural to focus your attention on a particular part of

the board and then you overlook the fact that even though a
piece may be on the other side of the board, it could still have
an effect over a long distance.

Remind yourself to be aware of all of the pieces on the board,

even if they aren’t close to the action.
 Common Mistakes

To conclude this lesson, I want to remind you that you should always be careful because one
mistake can undo all the other good moves you made.

Don’t move too quickly, think about each move, because if you simply make fewer mistake, you
will automatically win more games.

And when you are leading in a game and you think you’re going to win, that is when you must
be extra careful, because overconfidence is often the cause of making a mistake.

Be careful until the end and try to avoid mistake. Of course, you will still make mistakes
because nobody is perfect, but the point is, if you are careful, you will make fewer mistakes.