Eliminating Mistakes

Winning is often achieved through the elimination of major mistakes. Even at the highest level, minor mistakes can be reduced but rarely eliminated completely.

What steps can we take to minimize the mistakes we make?

Since there are so many ways to reduce mistakes, we will focus on several key ones.

Be careful
This means examining pitfalls, looking at every angle, and determining the cause and effect of the move. While it also means not making inordinate risks, being careful does not necessarily mean eliminating risk all together.

Be thoughtful
By looking at the whole picture, many hazards and pitfalls will become apparent and can then be avoided. Reflection will often give you insight into your opponent's intentions and to your best options. You can then choose the right move, again taking into account all new information and being thoughtful to the specific attributes of the position faced.

Be fearless
Giving in to fear is often a mistake. Being fearful and being careful are not the same. When an opponent makes a bold move, it is often a mistake to be scared into passivity or into abdicating.

Be interactive
Most of the time a game involves two or more players who are trying to achieve their own aims. While at times your opponent's moves can be ignored, ignoring your opponent's aims and failing to intermingle preventive moves against their aims is one of the most common class of mistakes.

Be mindful
By being relaxed and aware of your own body, mind, and surroundings, and then equally mindful of the game, your opponent, and other important information can increase your chances for overall perception and reduce the opportunity for mistakes.

Be aggressive
By being aggressive, we can keep our opponent on the defensive and keep from being in a position to have to decide how to defend. Sometimes an aggressive play is called for. If you are reluctant to make aggressive moves, you may be routinely making the mistake of not making the best move.

Double-check
Redundancy is considered crucial in any quality-control system, so you should check each move twice and/or devise alternative or triangular methods for making sure you do not make an avoidable mistake.

Focus on your objective
By keeping an eye on your ultimate objective, many mistakes became obvious. Strategically, any play that does not further your goals has to be questioned.

Have a checklist
Knowing the key elements to check for in the game you are playing and then going through your mental checklist can greatly reduce the amount of strategic and tactical errors.