Simple(r) Chess: Take a time out

Adapting a safety tool from healthcare to reduce blunders

Welcome back to Chess in Small Doses! My last post went over the 4th game from a tournament I played back in January 2024. That game ended when I blundered a solid position and my opponent took advantage of my mistake. In the few months since then, I’ve lost a few games to similar painful blunders. As they say: “One is luck, two is a trend, and three is a pattern.” It’s fair to say that I have a pattern of making preventable mistakes in chess. Of course I’m not the only one. Blunders are just an aspect of playing chess, but preventing them is a habit I would love to improve on. This post will start a five part series called Simple(r) Chess where we’ll explore some of the “best practices” of chess. Today we’re talking about the “time out.”

In 2009, Atul Gawande wrote a book titled “The Checklist Manifesto” about a strange problem. Far more often than should be happening, surgical teams were performing the wrong operations on patients. Often called “wrong site surgery”, teams of trained professionals would perform whole operations either on the wrong patient or on the wrong side. Thankfully they are rare events, but each year they keep happening. These kind of mistakes are never supposed to happen and are classified as “sentinel events.” Having worked in healthcare honestly it’s amazing to me that they don’t happen more. The pace is fast and we’re often asked to remember to remember critical details while frequently being distracted.

Dr. Gawande, a surgeon himself, went out to explore how other industries reduce similar human errors. He classified mistakes we make as either errors of ignorance (not knowing enough) or errors of ineptitude (not applying what we know). It was the second type that he focused on. Turns out these kind of errors commonplace across many industries. There was one best practice that effectively reduced these critical mistakes: a checklist.

Borrowed from pilots use of a pre-flight routine, a checklist is a method of making sure we apply what we already know. Pilots of course only started using the checklist after it became apparent that multiple accidents were due to human error. It’s not that pilots didn’t know how to fly. Rather they just made assumptions that the plane would operate the same each time. Eventually it became clear this was a lethal assumption and a culture of safety began. Nothing embodies this more than the pre-flight checklist.

Most of us in healthcare make decisions by gestalt or educated intuition. That’s the value we bring, combining education with experience. It allows us to encounter novel situations and make what we hope are beneficial decisions for our patients. Still, none of us are perfect and we all make mistakes. This was of course the point of Dr. Gawande’s book, that healthcare needed a culture of safety similar to other industries. Since publishing his book, there have been numerous agencies that have taken this up this goal. Routinely now I have to take a brief pause before a procedure to confirm that we’re doing the right procedure on the right patient. We call this a “time out.”

During a time out we confirm the patient’s name, the procedure that we’re doing, and that the patient understands and consents. This is all automated on a paper form, requiring timed signatures for each step. While this doesn’t apply for truly emergent situations, it is required for all other situations. What problem does this fix? It helps teams of nurses and doctors to be on the same page while also freeing everyone from having to accurately recall all the safety steps before we do them. It reduces the cognitive load on the providers so they can focus on what they do best, the procedure.

If there was one term that could describe how I feel when playing a chess game, “cognitive load” would be it. Trying to remember my opening, looking for threats, and calculating what moves there are for me in the position. I’ll get so deep into my head while calculating I often lose track of simple things like basic safety.

I’m playing Black here and have a +/- position. StockFish says it’s pretty equal and I’ve got to find my way forward. Did you notice the king on the back rank has no luft? Well I didn’t and played Rxd6?? only to be shocked by Re1! I can’t move the knight without giving up mate. White went on to win that game easily. Here’s another:

Here I played the blunder Kc2?? allowing Nb4+! and the discovered attack on the rook. I had a 50/50 shot at the right move since Kb1, the only other legal move for the king, was almost winning for White. As my kid would say… “Wow. Just wow.”

So what was I thinking? The answer was a lot, but not about what my opponent might do next. This is the nature of a blunder in chess, you make a move that is so obviously bad you wonder how you ever could find such a move. It’s not that I wasn’t aware of things like discovered attacks or back row mates. No, instead I simply committed errors of ineptitude where I failed to apply what I already knew.

I need a checklist, a “time out” before I move a piece to double check I’m not giving up material or checks. Often this is referred to as a “blunder check” but that term has (apparently) never worked for me. Each time I’ve made a blunder I have either a lot of time looking at the position and forgot about the other side or, I’ve moved very quickly without thinking through what’s changed on the board.

Ideally I’d have some list to refer to before each move. However, the rules of USCF and FIDE do not allow for written material while playing. In fact you’re only allowed to record moves, clock times, and draw offers on a score sheet. While a physical checklist is more in the spirit of a culture of safety, we chess players will have to make do with a mental one. Since we’re trying to reduce cognitive load on ourselves let me suggest that we keep it short and simple. Nothing fancy. We need a habit of asking only one question before we touch a piece: “What will my opponent do?”

This is not only incredibly simplistic and commonsense, it’s also astounding how often we don’t do it. I’ll spend time on a tactic (say 5-7 minutes) and figure out why it works. Once I play the first move, often my opponent will find a resource that I missed since they want to win just as much as I do. Turns out in chess there’s two players and all the pieces are on the board in front of us. I can see where their pieces are and we both have the same information. Still, I am surprised at how often I don’t stop to play the other side before I move.

It’s just my opinion, but I believe there is a serious flaw in chess training: focusing on only one side. Tactics trainers are focused on winning material or getting mates for our side. Opening training is focused on the best moves for our side. It’s amazingly hard to find any puzzles or products that train you on defensive moves. How often do we practice identifying threats and preventing our opponents plans? It’s like we’re forced to only wear the hat of the color we’re playing and forget what it looks like from the other side.

Everyone has blind-spots, even in chess where all the pieces are visible. If you take a “time out” to play the other side before you move, you might notice the rook is undefended or that there is a check you missed. If you want to make it even simpler you can just look for checks and captures for the other side. These forcing moves are basic chess. When we blunder, it’s not that we forget what forcing moves are. We just forget to look for them consistently. We’re like the pilots assuming the plane will operate the same way each time (or at least I am). Most of the time we’re right but when we’re wrong, it’s disastrous.

There are many, many articles on blunders in chess. There’s even a pretty solid course from Chessmood (I have no relationship) on being “Blunder Proof.” But like Dr. Gawande found, blunders are not from a lack of information. They stem from the human tendency to forget to apply what we know. Only by making a “time out” a consistent part of our practice will we remember to do it under pressure.

One way to do that is to have a cue, or a trigger. Recently on the Perpetual Chess podcast GM Noel Studer suggested to delay writing down your opponent’s time after their move. Instead when you’ve chosen a move, writing down your opponent’s time on the score sheet. Use this step as the trigger to stop and double check your move. Not a bad idea. Another option would to hover your hand over the piece you intend to move before you touch it. In that case you’d only allowed to move the piece when you’ve counted up the opponent’s forcing moves and see if you missed one. Whatever we choose to do, we must practice it consistently.

You can of course simply try to practice the “time out” with tactics, but let me recommend a few resources (no relationships, just my opinion). First the aforementioned Chessmood Blunder Proof course is well done, quite extensive, and has specific suggestions for players to reduce blunders (but it’s pricey). Secondly, Chessable has GM Susan Polgar’s Learn Chess the Right Way course which has one book entirely devoted to defensive moves. If those exercises are too easy, then let me recommend FM Dalton Perrine’s Survive and Thrive course. Having gone through the “warm up” exercises I can promise the puzzles in his course will teach you to look for your opponent’s forcing moves each and every time.

Both healthcare and the aerospace industry initially balked at a culture of safety but eventually came to see its wisdom. To play good chess, I suggest we adopt a culture of safety and take a time out before each move. It’s been my experience that when humans have to remember to remember, they will forget under pressure. Only by having an established habit will we automatically take some time and double check what our opponent might do next. Imagine how many more games you might win if you did this consistently!

This habit of taking a “time out” is one a several essential habits to play good chess. Next week, I’ll dive into the next one: Asking questions to find a good move. Until then good luck on your chess! I would love to hear what you think. Leave a comment and thanks for reading.