Reciprocal Thinking in Chess

A big key to chess calculation is a technique called reciprocal thinking. This is where you first imagine where your piece(s) would best be placed, then you do do the calculation to that or slowly build up the position to get to that goal. Here is a quick example:



Basically in this example I want my queen to be in front of the King with my pawn protecting it to have checkmate. So I have to then figure out how to best get her there without my opponent having a chance to prevent it. (so the most forceful path)

In this case each move is so threatening that my opponent is forced to respond in a specific way. That's not always the case though. Sometimes the plans take a lot longer and have to be broken up throughout a game to get to a longer-term goal.