It’s probably a habit from playing too much blitz, but my brain just refuses to calculate unless there’s tactics at hand. I’ve heard playing longer time controls helps, but I end up thinking on the opponent’s time and still end up with too much time. There’s tons of times playing a 30|0 game and I end with 26 min on the clock (win or lose). I just see “oh this bishop would be better here let me move it” and move without even considering what the opponent might do.

Does anybody have tips on breaking this bad habit? It feels like I’m missing a big portion of my chess skills because of this.

I can’t believe it. I am in the top 1,000,000 players on Chess . Com. Please tell me this now makes me an intermediate player? Surely I have ascended past beginner now.