First thing that catches the eye is material: who is up or is it equal? Up in material means extra options: attack, give stuff back, or as an old friend once said, "extra pieces make excellent defenders." If material is equal, the second thing to notice is King safety. If one sides King is weak, then that becomes the focus of the entire position, usually. ( There are of course exceptions.) If material is equal and both sides King are reasonably safe, the next thing noticed is quality of pieces and pawns, meaning, are any of the pawns for either side weak? (doubleds, triples, iso, backward, etc.) And are any pieces weak (rooks stuck in corners, Knights stranded on the rim, bishops with many pawns on the same color, misplaced Queen, etc.) Tarrasch was mostly right when he said that one bad piece means your whole game is bad. By now, having gone through these factors, one should be able to evaluate a position more clearly.
MASTER THOUGHTS ON EVALUATION.
First thing that catches the eye is material: who is up or is it equal? Up in material means extra options: attack, give stuff back, or as an old friend once said, "extra pieces make excellent defenders." If material is equal, the second thing to notice is King safety. If one sides King is weak, then that becomes the focus of the entire position, usually. ( There are of course exceptions.) If material is equal and both sides King are reasonably safe, the next thing noticed is quality of pieces and pawns, meaning, are any of the pawns for either side weak? (doubleds, triples, iso, backward, etc.) And are any pieces weak (rooks stuck in corners, Knights stranded on the rim, bishops with many pawns on the same color, misplaced Queen, etc.) Tarrasch was mostly right when he said that one bad piece means your whole game is bad. By now, having gone through these factors, one should be able to evaluate a position more clearly.