If you look at Capablanca’s games superficially you may get the impression that his moves were easy and that perhaps even you could have played them. But this would have been very deceiving. By carefully analyzing his games you will start to see that every “easy” move had a very concrete reason behind it and without understanding (and calculating) this reason it is impossible to play that move.
The elegance of Capablanca’s play consists of exactly that. It appears easy and natural and it is, but only by deep analysis do you start to appreciate the depth and inner logic of his play. There is also quite a lot of precise calculation involved.
The precise calculation in endgames is something that I feel needs a bit of clarification. When you are realizing an advantage it is of vital importance to take a look at almost all reasonable options of your opponent. This is important in order to avoid unpleasant surprises by a move you may have missed. If you are unlucky that missed move may just be the move that refutes your intended plan. So the procedure is as following: you decide you want to play a move; then you determineallof your opponent’s reasonable moves; only then you start calculating and checking every single one of them.
Usually, the number of moves that you need tolook aheadis small. Very often it will be1-2 moves ahead, the typical “he goes there, I go here and I win a pawn.” This means that you will need to look at a lot of moves for your opponent, but the lines won’t be very deep. Width is more important than depth in this case.
This process will enable you to keepcontrol. The control means that you won’t be surprised by any move your opponent plays and you will also have prepared a reply to every single one of them.
The only exception to the above is when you deal with forcing lines, then obviously the depth will depend on the length of theforcing variation. But as it usually is the case with forcing variations, these are easy to calculate exactly because they are forcing.
It is a long process to obtain agood techniqueof realization of an advantage, but here I’d like to summarise the most important aspects that will likely help you towards that goal.
Pay attention to your opponent’sactive ideas. Always ask yourself why he made that move.
Try toimproveyour position and worsen your opponent’s.
Take it gradually – as long as you’re improving the position, you’re most likely on the right track.
Try to keep control. This is achieved by precise calculation of several options. Usually, thecalculated linesare short (1-4 moves).
Going forward is done by advancing “all together”.
If you look at Capablanca’s games superficially you may get the impression that his moves were easy and that perhaps even you could have played them. But this would have been very deceiving. By carefully analyzing his games you will start to see that every “easy” move had a very concrete reason behind it and without understanding (and calculating) this reason it is impossible to play that move.
The elegance of Capablanca’s play consists of exactly that. It appears easy and natural and it is, but only by deep analysis do you start to appreciate the depth and inner logic of his play. There is also quite a lot of precise calculation involved.
The precise calculation in endgames is something that I feel needs a bit of clarification. When you are realizing an advantage it is of vital importance to take a look at almost all reasonable options of your opponent. This is important in order to avoid unpleasant surprises by a move you may have missed. If you are unlucky that missed move may just be the move that refutes your intended plan. So the procedure is as following: you decide you want to play a move; then you determine all of your opponent’s reasonable moves; only then you start calculating and checking every single one of them.
Usually, the number of moves that you need to look ahead is small. Very often it will be 1-2 moves ahead, the typical “he goes there, I go here and I win a pawn.” This means that you will need to look at a lot of moves for your opponent, but the lines won’t be very deep. Width is more important than depth in this case.
This process will enable you to keep control. The control means that you won’t be surprised by any move your opponent plays and you will also have prepared a reply to every single one of them.
The only exception to the above is when you deal with forcing lines, then obviously the depth will depend on the length of the forcing variation. But as it usually is the case with forcing variations, these are easy to calculate exactly because they are forcing.
It is a long process to obtain a good technique of realization of an advantage, but here I’d like to summarise the most important aspects that will likely help you towards that goal.