Bad Chess Habits

Over the years, especially if those years are filled with routine, somehow most of us acquire bad habits. It takes some conscious mindfulness and cleanup to rid oneself of those harmful repetitive behaviors. Bad Chess habits are not as harmful as smoking or speed driving, but they can destroy one's pleasure from the game. If you are reading this, you very likely play chess for enjoyment, so I suggest pausing to give it some thought.

Here are some that come quickly to my mind:

1. Using the engine for analysing your games
2. Book flipping
3. Chess News reading
4. Video watching
5. Excessive blitz playing
6. Hoarding - books, software, etc
7. Caring about rating at the expense of improvement
8. Memorizing opening moves without understanding their meaning
9. Jumping openings when results don't improve quickly enough
10. Finding excuses for losses without looking at root problems

The list is definitely not complete, and there is something that is more true for some chess players than for others.