11 Comments
Apr 30Liked by Nick Vasquez, MD

Excellent post and ideas to help with blindness..which I am a champion at like a recent OTB tournament game I moved my queen to fork two pieces and as I let go I realized his pawn could just capture my queen..true blindness of the finest.

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author

Honestly sometimes I wonder if I could take the title from you. Maybe if I work hard...

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Apr 30Liked by Nick Vasquez, MD

Dr. V excellent article.. I am always interested in the Psychological aspects of chess...

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Apr 30Liked by Nick Vasquez, MD

Very nicely written! Reinforcement on this topic is always appreciated! 😎

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author

Thanks!

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Great post Nick, on one of the early Perpetual Chess pods, I floated the idea of mimicking the motion of the move you intend (without the chess piece in hand) just before you make the move. I.e. you move your arm from c8 to c3, but with nothing in your hand. Then, if you didn't see a blunder, make the actual move.

Your opponent would think you are a total psychopath, but I bet it would help prevent these kinds of oversights!

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Nice post thanks Nick. A couple of small errors you might want to fix: #2 you played Bh5 not Bh4. #3 you say you missed e5 but that doesn't defend anything so perhaps you actually meant Qe5 which does defend both threats. However Qe5 loses because white has time to swap queens and retreat the bishop with material advantage. I think that after Bxe4 Qxe4, the move you overlooked was Qxc3+.

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Hey thanks for the comment. Yeah, others have noted the editorial errors. My apologies. I do try hard to get the moves correct. Editing in substack is difficult once posted. I will fix the errors but it will require I republish the entire post. Go figure. Thanks for reading!

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I have a set of questions I ask on each move, and I developed them from playing a lot of games and seeing which mistakes I was prone to. Your subconscious does a lot, and it's really helpful if you can figure out what it's not doing well, and ask questions consciously about those things.

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I realized I needed a list - hence this post. Question for you - have you added or changed that list over time?

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Yeah, I’ve only been at it about a year but it’s 1) what does my opponent’s move unblock, 2) what does my move unprotect, and 3) how can the piece I’m moving be attacked on its new square.

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