Chess Perception: Can you change yours?

Aug 14, 2015, 10:04 PM |

Are you flexible in seeing Chess another way? Do you get bogged down with one chess idea at the detriment of another?

Can we modify our perception? Take this famous visual perception example ... how old is the woman in the picture?

Some people can only see a young woman, whilst others are sure there is only an old woman.

I would like to be able to perceive all facets of a chess position. From my daily tactical training exercises I was stuck on the following diagram

Blokh Combinational Motives: Diagram 703 Difficulty 8 White to Move

All I could "see" was the convergence of pieces at f7. This was my entire focus. There are 4 White pieces attacking f7 and 4 Black pieces defending f7. All my efforts were centered on attempting to remove or deflect Black's defenders of f7.

I considered permutations of Bxf7, Rxf7 and Rxg6. I did note the potential along the long dark a1-h8 diagonal but after 1. Qb2 Kh7 I thought this was no use as I have removed an attacker from f7 (again coming back to this theme).

Can you solve?

Another way to "perceive" this position is the weakness of the darksquares ... f6/h6/g7/h8 are all entry points.

This provides the clue for 1. Qb2 and eventual ideas of Rh6 and Qh8 ... all occuring on dark squares.

If anything, it is because Black's pieces are tied to the defence of f7 that there are no pieces to defend the kingside.

Lesson Learnt

Don't become too fixated on one idea and bash your head against a wall. There are many ways to see a position ... be flexible in your evaluation.

Chess Perception: Can you change yours?

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