Imagine your roof is leaking, and water is pouring in, damaging your home. What do you do?
Most would follow this simple process:
- Identify where the leak is coming from
- Understand the underlying issue
- Fix the leak so no more water enters
- Take preventive measures to avoid it happening again
That makes sense, right?
Now, imagine a friend says:
“I have a leaking roof. I know where it’s coming from. I tried fixing it, but I gave up. Now, I simply live in a house with a leaking roof.”
You’d probably think they were crazy. They should keep finding solutions until the problem is solved.
But what if I told you that, more often than not, you’re that friend when it comes to your chess? You know the problem is there, yet you’re living with it. Don’t worry — you’re not alone. And in the next few minutes, I’m going to show you why this approach isn’t working and how you can finally fix it.
Nearly All Problems Come From 2 Sources
I recently spoke with a student who’s been stuck for a while. In five consecutive lessons, I drilled one simple point:
Your issue is not thinking concretely enough — you’re blundering in every game because of it.
The message landed, yet nothing changed. He said he “tried to focus better and see what happened.”
But game after game, the same mistakes happened. We both understood the problem, yet nothing shifted. He continued his normal training routine. Now that he knew the leak was there, and he knew where it came from, he simply started living with it.
You might be doing the same.
I’ve yet to see a player under a 2000 online Rapid rating who doesn’t have an issue with tactics or focus leading to blunders.
Yet when I suggest focusing nearly entirely on tactics and playing with intense focus, almost everyone resists.
“I need to study openings, rook endgames, strategy,” they tell me.
But when we look at a game, they ask about deep plans, slight improvements, and complex ideas — things that intrigue them. Yet, suddenly, a full piece is hanging. Neither the student nor the opponent notices. And there’s no annotation on it.
This student didn’t even notice the hanging piece when analyzing with the engine.
But that’s the only thing that matters.
What You Should Do Instead
Once you realize blunders are holding you back, treat them like a leaking roof. You need to fix it immediately before it causes more damage.
Here’s what you do:
- Identify the source of the leak — Is it tactics? Focus? Thought process?
- Fix the leak — Solve tactical puzzles daily, change your thought process, remove distractions, and stop playing on your phone.
- Prevent future leaks — Implement a blunder check before every move.
Would you consider putting in a new floor if your roof is still leaking? Of course not. That would be a waste of time and money — the floor will just get ruined again.
For the same reason, you need to stop focusing on openings, endgames, or complex strategies while you’re still blundering pieces in every game.
IT DOES NOT MATTER.
You’re wasting your time and money.
How This Works On Top Level
The same approach works on Top Level. Artur Yusupov, former World Number 3 and prodigee of the famous Coach Dvoretsky, used this same approach to fix a leak in his own games. I can’t recall the exact story, but it wen’t somewhat like this:
At some point, they realized Artur’s main issue was not attacking well enough. So they decided to make this their absolute focus in training. For 3 months, Artur was forced to attack in every single (training) game he played. He solved a lot of attacking puzzles, and studied games from attacking players. Then he went to a tournament and crushed everyone with his attacking chess.
With pure focus on one leak, they made his biggest weakness a huge strength.
If you stop blundering, you’ll be able to do that with other areas, too.
Keep improving, GM Noël
PS: You’re below 2000 online rating, stuck and believe you have no tactic/blunder problem? I respectfully don’t believe you 🙂 Send me your lichess/chess.com account. I’ll be happily proven wrong and share it with the newsletter list.
PPS: This article was initially sent out to my Newsletter list. If you want to get chess improvement advice for free in your inbox, join 17,000+ chess improvers by signing up for Friday Grandmaster Insights here.
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