u/Beginning-Zombie-637

Have you ever missed something obvious that you would've spotted otherwise?

So, here's the thing. I'm in 1500s rating range and nowadays, I'm facing this "move blindness" or whatever it's called during the game. To give you an example, I was playing some games at an OTB tournament. I missed obvious threats, not even discovered attacks. Like, my opponent's queen is attacking my knight. I spot it, but I'm also calculating counter-threats. By the time I decide to move, I completely forget my hanging knight and make a random move and lose my knight.

It's not a random one-time thing. It has happened in other tournaments and online games too. I'm not even talking about blundering under time pressure. Has this happened to others in this sub? Is it a skill issue or focus issue? How do I stop this? Any help would be appreciated.

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u/Beginning-Zombie-637 — 16 days ago

Switching from d4 to e4

I'm a player who started with e4. Then, I switched to d4 after learning the Queen's Gambit for white and Benko Gambit for black. I'm finding d4 a little slow and I'm mostly stumped in the middlegame. I find e4 ideas easier as they have more tactics. The only thing is, there are so many replies that black can play for. So, how do I make this switch? Should I learn the theory for each opening like Caro, Sicilian, Scandi and so on? Or is there an offbeat line that can counter all of black's lines?

I'm 1500 rated on chess.com. Any suggestions?

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u/Beginning-Zombie-637 — 29 days ago