This is from one of Dan Heisman's ChessCafe articles:
"FM Steve Stoyko suggested to me this very helpful exercise. First the reader should find a rich middlegame position. You can find them in many Kasparov, Shirov, or Speelman games, or in the books The Magic of Tactics, Genius in Chess, or How to Think in Chess. Take out a couple sheets of paper and a pen or pencil.
The idea is to write everything you can possibly visualize from the position, like you were playing the game without a clock and you had to see and record everything before you move. Write down every line that you look at (no matter how bad!), along with that line's evaluation. This should fill up several sheets of paper and take 45 minutes up to 2+ hours! If you chose a sufficiently complex positions dozens of variations should be considered. Consider lines to as much depth as you think is significant.
You can show your judgment of the evaluation (who stands better and by how much – you don’t always have to say why) with any number of methods:
● A) Traditional: =, ±, ∞, ...
● B) Computer - In pawns; negative means Black is better: +0.3, -1.2, ...
● C) English: White is a little better, Black has compensation for his lost
pawn, etc.
When you are done, take your analysis to a good instructor, player, or software program. Look at each line to see how well you visualized the position (any retained images, illegal moves, etc.?), and also compare your logic (was that move really forced?) and your evaluation.
In general the Stoyko exercise, if done properly, should help you practice and evaluate the following skills:
This is from one of Dan Heisman's ChessCafe articles:
"FM Steve Stoyko suggested to me this very helpful exercise. First the reader should find a rich middlegame position. You can find them in many Kasparov, Shirov, or Speelman games, or in the books The Magic of Tactics, Genius in Chess, or How to Think in Chess. Take out a couple sheets of paper and a pen or pencil.
The idea is to write everything you can possibly visualize from the position, like you were playing the game without a clock and you had to see and record everything before you move. Write down every line that you look at (no matter how bad!), along with that line's evaluation. This should fill up several sheets of paper and take 45 minutes up to 2+ hours! If you chose a sufficiently complex positions dozens of variations should be considered. Consider lines to as much depth as you think is significant.
You can show your judgment of the evaluation (who stands better and by how much – you don’t always have to say why) with any number of methods:
● A) Traditional: =, ±, ∞, ...
● B) Computer - In pawns; negative means Black is better: +0.3, -1.2, ...
● C) English: White is a little better, Black has compensation for his lost
pawn, etc.
When you are done, take your analysis to a good instructor, player, or software program. Look at each line to see how well you visualized the position (any retained images, illegal moves, etc.?), and also compare your logic (was that move really forced?) and your evaluation.
In general the Stoyko exercise, if done properly, should help you practice and evaluate the following skills:
● A) Analysis
● B) Visualization
● C) Evaluation"
The whole article can be found at:
Http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman32.pdf