The Secret of Real Chess by Dan Heisman

note:  rough draft, diagrams and highlights coming soon

The Chess Cafe is pleased to present the first contribution by American
Master Dan Heisman. He is the author of two chess books, "Elements of
Positional Evaluation" and "The Improving Annotator"; a third book is
scheduled for November publication. He currently works as a full-time
chess instructor.

The Secrets to "Real" Chess 
by Dan Heisman

Recently a student of mine, rated 1100 (a good high school player),
played a tournament in which his playing strength was 1900 (!) for
six rounds. He beat four players higher rated than anyone he had
ever beaten before.

As a chess full-time instructor, I was very intrigued as to what had
caused this sudden great jump in playing strength. Could it be
attributed to random chance or just "having a good tournament"? I
gave this question considerable thought, weighing the possible
reasons against many of the theories I had been teaching my
students. I finally rejected the "good tournament" idea, even though
I am sure that had a part in it. Instead, I created a two-part
explanation that should be of interest to players rated under 1800
who wish to improve their game!

Three Levels of Thinking The first part requires a description of
three levels of thinking chessplayers use to decide a chess move.
The ascendancy through these levels reflect the maturing of a chess
player due to both age and experience.

"FLIP-COIN" Chess - A move is played quickly and without
serious thought. The winner of a game where both players are
playing Flip-coin chess is almost random, and thus I named it after
a coin flip. If one player plays Flip-coin chess and the other
actually takes time to think, the thoughtful player almost always
wins. Flip -coin players don't use the important guideline "If you
see a good move, look for a better one." Almost all young
beginners start by playing Flip- coin chess; they really aren't
interested in playing a serious game.

It is difficult to give an example of Flip-coin chess because there is
really not much logic to it. The following is taken from my
upcoming book, "Everyone's 2nd Chess Book,", due to be
published by Thinker's Press in November (See Diagram):

White: Ke1, Qd1, Ra1, Rh1, Nd2, Be5, Bf1; pawns - a2, c3, f2, g4,
h2 
Black: Kg8, Qd8, Ra8, Rh8, Nf6, Bc8, Bg7; pawns - a7, b7, e7, f7,
g6, h7 

White was rated about 500, Black (1000) 12...Bxg4 13. Bg2??

White doesn't see that his Queen is attacked. This goes right under
the lesson about the mistaken logic "If his piece is doing one thing,
it probably isn't doing another." White reasoned, "The Bishop went
to g4 to take my pawn. So I know the purpose of that move. Now I
can go ahead and look at what I should do." Wrong!

"HOPE" Chess - This is NOT when you make a move and hope
your opponent doesn't see your threat. Instead, Hope chess is when
you make a move and don't look at what your opponent might
threaten on his next move, and whether you can meet that threat on
your next move. Instead, you just wait until next move and see
what he does, and then hope you can meet any threats. In my first 3
tournaments I played Hope chess and never won more than 1 game
in any of the three. The speed at which you can play Hope chess
also explains why I usually took only about half an hour for each
game in these tournaments, even though the time control was 50
moves in 2 hours. Most high school level players play hope chess,
but almost always lose when they run into a serious player who
plays "Real Chess."

The following example is obviously made up, but it is a good
example of Hope Chess and one that many scholastic chess
coaches will probably find depressingly familiar (See Diagram):

White: Kg1,Qc1; pawns - b3, f6, f2, g2, h3 
Black: Kg8, Qb5, Ra8, Rf8, Na6, Nc6, Ba5, Bc8; pawns - a7, b7,
e6, f7, g6, h7 

12...Qxb3??? 

Black isn't really looking for what White might do to him; he is
just waiting to see what White will do and hoping he will be able
to stop it. This violates two of my most important principles for
beginners: 1) Look for your opponent's checks, captures, and
threats, and 2) the more you are winning, the more you need to
think defense first. Black doesn't need another pawn. He only had
to see and stop that one White threat 

13. Qh6

and the hope was in vain; there is no defense to the mate in one,
other than a few spite checks. "REAL" Chess - You select
candidate moves and, for each, you anticipate and evaluate all your
opponent's main candidate moves (especially all checks, captures,
and threats). If you see a threat you cannot meet, you almost
undoubtedly cannot play that candidate move; instead, you must
choose a candidate move that allows you to meet all threats next
move. One goal of real chess is to anticipate each of your
opponent's moves - if you have a good opponent and he makes a
move you hadn't even considered, that is not a good sign! This
anticipation takes some time and real effort, so all good chess
players take their time! Next time you go to a big tournament,
notice how the best players use their time.

As I mentioned above, improving players tend to mature through
the process: Flip-coin, Hope, Real. Some players never get to
"Real" because it requires a certain amount of work which they do
not think is fun.

A Chain is Only As Strong As Its Weakest Link 
The best way to introduce the second part of my explanation is to
make an analogy. Suppose you build a home where the temperature
is -20 degrees outside. You decide on a one-room home with four
walls, a roof, a floor, and a heater. You decide to save a little time
and material by finishing the four walls, the floor, and half the roof,
but the other half you leave open. Even though you have completed
over 90% of the structure, the temperature inside your home will
still be about -20 degrees with half your roof open. If you want
your inside heater to be effective, you have to enclose all of your
home.

The cold home analogy is similar to what happens when you play
Real chess for 90% of your moves, but not for the other 10%. You
think you are a good player, but weaker players beat you when you
let down your guard for that 10%. In order to be a good player, you
have to at least try to play correctly on every move, not just most of
them. Consistency is important: remember that your chain of
moves, in many cases, is only as strong as the weakest link.

As an example, my son Delen, who was rated in the 1300's, was
playing in the World Open in Philadelphia last year. He won his
first four games in the Under 1400 section (a section for
intermediate to weak club players) and was doing well until around
the seventh round. He was playing another 1300 player and
outplaying him up and down the board for the first 50 moves. He
had an easily won endgame, up the exchange and a couple of
pawns. All of a sudden his opponent checked him and, even though
he was in no time trouble, Delen immediately moved to a square
where his opponent could then fork his King and a Rook, thus
losing the Rook and the game. Master dad almost had apoplexy,
"How can you play like an 1800 player for 50 moves and then like
a 400 (beginning) player for one, throwing the whole game
away??!" My son replied, "I can't work hard on every move; it's too
much effort!" Aaagh! This is akin to working on a beautiful
painting for three weeks and then suddenly getting in a bad mood
and throwing paint all over it!

This also explains why you often run into so many people who just
lost to a higher rated player and say, "I know I am better than him,
but he beat me and he has a higher rating than I do; I just don't
understand it." A player might be more talented and more
knowledgable than another player, but be lower rated if the other
player plays to his maximum strength on almost all of his moves,
but he doesn't. This lack of consistency could be due to stamina,
maturity, temperament, age, fighting spirit, or several other factors.

Now you have all the information as to why the 1100 player had a
1900 tournament:

-He knew about Real chess thinking, but unttil that tournament was
still often playing Hope chess.

-He finally realized that, in order to beatt much higher rated players,
he needed to play Real chess on every move, and not just on most
of the moves. So, like the cold weather home, when you don't play
Real chess on every move, there is a dramatic difference in your
rating.

My explanation is more than just a theory about this player's
performance. I explained it to my student and ask him if it applied
to his performance, or did he feel that I was way off the mark. He
replied that it was pretty much a good explanation of what had
happened. In the next tournament, he continued to play very well,
so we are pretty sure he is now playing Real chess.

So that is the secret of Real chess - you must 1) make sure that
your think deep enough (3 ply) to ensure that you can make it to
the next move without facing threats you cannot meet, and 2) do
this every move, not just most of them.

Can this "secret" take you from 1800 to 2400? Of course not. As
any high rated player knows, there is a lot more to chess than just
trying hard, taking your time, and looking for your opponent's
threats every move. But not playing Real chess can keep your
rating a lot closer to 1000 than to 2000.

The author invites comments about this article; he can be also be
reached for private lessons in the Philadelphia area via
danheisman@home.com.

Copyright 1999 Dan Heisman. All rights reserved.

My interpretation of hope chess is a bit different from Dan's. I don't believe people can see all possible threats of their opponents at all times, especially if there's a lack of knowledge or understanding. You can't look for something you don't really know, in my opinion.

For me, hope chess is more a lack of overall direction. You move pieces but it doesn't take your position anywhere. Just like a ship floating in the ocean without a destination. Simply letting the waves push it about, hoping that it will go somewhere.

Overall, that's a great article and I think many strong players have come to the same conclusions. Players normally progress from mindset to mindset as they improve. Beginners normally just think about moves randomly without much direction. As a player improves, their play starts having some direction and start to get that sense of "if I attack this way, my opponent will defend this way" but most will still be confined in that tit-for-tat mentality. As players get better and better their moves will have more direction and each move having purpose.

I love this article! Thank you Dan for your input! 

I stumbled upon this by accident. A very nice article  and very true. I am an 1800 player and sometimes still fall in the hope chess trap. Especially when I play lower rated players unconsciously I don't put in the effort that I should and I lose or draw unnecessarily. Against higher rated players up to 2000 I score very well because then I play "real chess" and close to my maximum ability. It's not something I choose to do or want to do but it happens. Clearly here's something I can work on. Discipline is the magic word for me I think, discipline to put in maximum effort, every move against every opponent. 

As a sidenote, your example of "hope chess" seems flawed to me. 

After: 12...Qxb3??? 13.Qh6 black can still win after 13..., Qb1+ 14.Kh2,Bc7+ 15.g3, Bxg3+! and black wins after 16.fxg3,Qb2+ or 16.Kg2,Qe4+ 17.Kf1, Qh1+ 18.Ke2,Nd4+ followed by Nf5

,