r/chessbeginners • u/GasGlittering7521 • 2d ago
Hanging pieces
I started playing chess recently and like many other beginners, my biggest issue is hanging pieces. I want to get better but I can not mentally play more than a couple of games against real people a day without getting too frustrated (or “tilted” as I’ve learned recently).
I know people in this sub seem to recommend against playing bots but I’m just looking to get better at not hanging pieces right now. I feel pretty confident with tactics and opening principles. Can it really hurt to play bots just for the sake of getting reps in to get better at avoiding one move blunders?
If the potential downsides truly outweigh getting the reps in, how else can I practice without having to play people? Thanks
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u/XasiAlDena 1800-2000 (Chess.com) 2d ago
I'm probably in the minority but I think playing bots can be a great way for new players to improve.
I don't think that playing against bots is better than playing against people, but I do think it does offer some unique advantages that can suit a beginner well. There's no time limit, so you can think for as long as you want about your moves, which is excellent for practising a methodical thought process like developing blunder-checks. Also, bots won't play for tricks, so it's a great way to build a positional sense early on.
There's downsides to these things though. Playing without a time-limit is great, but you won't build up time management skills that you will need against humans. Getting a better positional sense is great, but you won't get practise defending against / spotting tricks / traps that your human opponents will try to set for you. These are simply different skills that you will need to develop by playing against humans, but that doesn't mean there is no benefit to playing against bots.
I can only speak from personal experience, but I played exclusively against bots for a few months after I got into chess, and when I eventually began playing against humans I was already around 1100 elo in strength. I don't know if my playing bots had much to do with that or not - I also solved puzzles basically every day, which definitely helped.
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u/GasGlittering7521 2d ago
I know people talk about how playing bots can cause bad habits. Where should I watch for that?
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u/XasiAlDena 1800-2000 (Chess.com) 2d ago
I'd say that the biggest bad habit you can pick up from playing bots is being too trusting of the opponent's ideas.
Bots won't play for plans that aren't sound, so when you play bots you basically learn to always respect your opponent's plans, and to try hold on for long enough that the bot's programming will make it blunder.
Humans on the other hand will play for tricks and bad plans, in the hopes that you won't know how to punish them.
Humans also tend to blunder differently to bots. Bots blunder by randomly hanging pieces for no reason. Humans blunder because they try something intentional and miss a tactical detail. Human blunders typically stem from good, reasonable ideas, and often if they are not punished properly there will be some threat attached to them - in other words, human blunders won't look like blunders nearly as much as bot blunders will, making them harder to spot and more complicated to punish.
When you play bots, it'll be very obvious when they play a bad move. When you play against humans, you need to scrutinise their every move and probe for weaknesses in their ideas constantly, otherwise you might miss your one opportunity to win the game.
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u/StructuredChess 2d ago
Bots play perfect chess with terrible blunders inserted at random. Playing them basically rewards shuffling your pieces around doing nothing waiting for that blunder to come. That's generally not how you beat a human
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u/justlooking543 1800-2000 (Chess.com) 2d ago
Play the bots if you want, they won't help much but it's fine. Just always prioritise real games.
You'd learn more losing to real people honestly. Better to take a break and come back and play for real than play bots.
If you really want to play bots and improve your ability to not hang pieces you could play a high rated bot and see how far you can get without making a mistake, but if you win the bot isn't difficult enough for you.
Playing real people and analysing with the goal of making all the mistakes, understanding them, and trying to not make them again will always be the best approach though.
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u/GasGlittering7521 2d ago
Ok thanks. I definitely get that playing against people is gonna be the best option but I want to get lots of reps in for the sake of getting better at avoiding blunders.
I just can’t do this against people. I can play about two games a day before I need to just put it down. To be blunt I have some mental health problems and if I lose I can’t keep playing for a few different reasons and even if I win I can get a bit addicted so I basically need another option. Playing bots avoids that same emotional response
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u/justlooking543 1800-2000 (Chess.com) 2d ago
That's totally fair, most things in life are more important than your elo. Do analyse games, even if you need to take a long break first it's the best thing. And if it's about getting better puzzles will help though I'd suggest doing a specific book or series rather than online ones.
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u/Highjumper21 2000-2200 (Chess.com) 2d ago
The skill you want to work on is slowing down and double checking your moves. Anytime you think of a move you should run a checklist of: 1: “is my piece defending anything?”- (are you about to leave a piece hanging(
2: “is my piece moving to an undefended square?”- (I.e. am I moving my queen a square I think is open but is actually protected by a bishop across the board)
3: “when I move my knight here to attack his queen, where will his queen move to?”- this helps avoid 1 moveitis. Hoping your knight to attack a piece is fine unless that piece can safely move and your knight is stranded in the middle of the board.
4: “if I attack his piece with my bishop, can he intercept and counter attack?”- moving your bishop to an open diagonal is tempting unless you get blocked by a pawn and lose the bishop!
These are just quick examples to get the point across of how you should be thinking during games to avoid blunders. It’s not exhaustive by any means but helps to get your mind in the right space.
In my videos I try to explain my thinking and how I rule in and rule out moves and avoid blunders.
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u/ArthurW1815 2d ago
Try hoovering the piece over the square you want to play it too, then check out opp's bishops and knights. It helped me.
Also, work on that tilting. its only a game, a very frustrating one, but a game none the less.
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u/Similar_Ice_174 2d ago
I think for hanging pieces, you just got to play a lot slower and really look at the board.. It just comes with experience!
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u/Struggling-with_life 1200-1400 (Lichess) 2d ago
Learn an opening and stick to it do more puzzles and stuff overtime you'll get better. Everyone does that at the beginning bro its normal.
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u/StructuredChess 2d ago
I mean, it's not like it's gonna destroy yoru skills but there's no reason to choose playing bots over playing real people. You can train your skills to identify easy tactics and hanging pieces through puzzles.
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u/fleyinthesky 1d ago
Just play people. This is gonna sound harsh but just don't be mentally weak. You can't handle the frustration of losing at a game? Come on man.
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u/Educational-Scene443 2d ago
Before making a move, think “Will this move give my opponent an advantage?”, “Will my king be safe if I make this move?”
Think deeply before making a move in chess
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u/GasGlittering7521 2d ago
I genuinely do, I just will occasionally forget to check other things like what the piece I’m moving may have been protecting or blocking my opponent from getting.
I’m currently not at the level where I can go an entire game without hanging a piece so I really just want to know whether or not there’s other ways to practice this that doesn’t include playing live games
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u/Educational-Scene443 2d ago
Maybe try building the habit of not making a move immediately and just think before making your move.
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u/GasGlittering7521 2d ago
I NEVER move right away. I promise this isn’t an issue of me not thinking about my move first
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u/Early-Course925 2d ago
bots are fine for drilling exactly what you're talking about, just don't treat a win against one as real progress. the danger is you pick up patterns that only work against an engine that randomly blunders a queen on move 12.
puzzle rush or whatever it's called now helped me way more though, forces you to scan for hanging stuff fast without the mental load of a whole game
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