Avoid blundering: 80% of a winning strategy
But… what if success is just as much about what not to do, as what to do? What if intentional goals aren’t the only way to succeed?
Chess Grandmaster and chess-world-famous teacher / coach Ben Finegold has a simple explanation for who wins amateur chess games:
If you look at it with a computer, it will say “no one’s winning” and then “white’s winning” and then “black’s winning” and then “no one’s winning again” and then someone blunders and they lose.
Not strategy, not memorizing opening lines, not practicing your end-game technique, not studying the Great Games of History, not drilling with puzzles to get better at tactics, … just blundering. Good chess players need to do all that, but we scrubs just need to “not blunder.”
Is this true for me? I’m a decidedly mediocre chess player, especially considering how much time I’ve spent with videos, puzzles, courses, and playing. Are the outcomes of my games dictated by blundering, like Ben says?
