Everyone makes mistakes

There's a tendency to think that a game that comes down to a few figures on each side was won by the player who had better luck at the end. That's usually true, but it's also not the full story. Very often, that situation at the end of the game where chance rules the outcome only came about because of suboptimal decisions one or both players made along the way. In general, I think players tend to underestimate the extent to which their wins and losses are not governed by matchups or by the luck of the dice, but by the mistakes they make in strategy or tactics.



Good players tend to avoid obvious mistakes like missing a chance for height advantage or moving the wrong figure, but even good players very often make mistakes in order marker management or overall strategy. There's a tendency to say "between good players, it often comes down to matchups or luck of the dice", and while that's true, tactics also swing games.

My games in the 2010 championship are illustrative, I think, simply because all nine of the players I played were solid and experienced. In my evaluation of those games, I would say that I made what I consider a significant error in five of them. Coincidentally, I would also argue that my opponents also made a significant error in five of the nine games, but not the same five. In two games, both me and my opponent made what I think is a significant mistake; only one game was a "clean" game where I have a hard time finding fault with either player's approach. And this is only the mistakes I noticed, and it doesn't take into account things like guessing wrong on OM placement, where the better tactic wouldn't be apparent at the time.

To some extent, it's probably a good thing that many players tend to overlook the role mistakes play in their losses. For a lot of people, dwelling on their mistakes is not very fun. But in my opinion, analyzing the mistakes you've made is the #1 best way to improve your play. If you go over the games you play, you will very often find patterns in the ways you get outplayed, and correcting those will make you a much stronger player. Taking notes on your games is extremely useful in this process.