Who is the slowest Calculator that you know who is also currently 2200 strength? Any IM/GM who are

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chuddog

When it comes to improving dynamic and tactical play, I would say the priorities, in decreasing order, are:

 

(1) Learn to see tactical ideas to begin with: this is a combination of pattern recognition and your own creativity.

(2) Get into a habit of calculating (as in, at all). This may sound stupidly obvious, but you have no idea how many of my students <2000, and other players <2000 (and sometimes up to 2200) I've met, think almost entirely in terms of general concepts and don't calculate specific lines.

(3) Learn to calculate accurately. This is honed by solving lots of puzzles.

(4) Learn to calculate fast enough to avoid getting into terrible time pressure and thereby blundering or losing on time.

 

That last point, which is the one you're asking about, is by far the lowest priority. If you calculate slowly but accurately, and have the creativity to find tactics and make them happen, you will improve tremendously and have much better results in tournaments. Moreover, tournaments with a classical (long) time control provide a lot of time to think. Unless your goal is to become a better speed chess player, I would put much more emphasis on developing your tactical abilities and less on your tactical speed.

SeniorPatzer
chuddog wrote:

When it comes to improving dynamic and tactical play, I would say the priorities, in decreasing order, are:

 

(1) Learn to see tactical ideas to begin with: this is a combination of pattern recognition and your own creativity.

(2) Get into a habit of calculating (as in, at all). This may sound stupidly obvious, but you have no idea how many of my students <2000, and other players <2000 (and sometimes up to 2200) I've met, think almost entirely in terms of general concepts and don't calculate specific lines.

(3) Learn to calculate accurately. This is honed by solving lots of puzzles.

(4) Learn to calculate fast enough to avoid getting into terrible time pressure and thereby blundering or losing on time.

 

That last point, which is the one you're asking about, is by far the lowest priority. If you calculate slowly but accurately, and have the creativity to find tactics and make them happen, you will improve tremendously and have much better results in tournaments. Moreover, tournaments with a classical (long) time control provide a lot of time to think. Unless your goal is to become a better speed chess player, I would put much more emphasis on developing your tactical abilities and less on your tactical speed.

 

Thanks so much Chud Dog!!  I really appreciate the guidance on prioritizing which skills to work on.

kamalakanta

Senior Patzer, what year were you born?

SeniorPatzer

I was born in the 60's!

SeniorPatzer
DanlsTheMan wrote:
SeniorPatzer wrote:

I was born in the 60's!

Do you remember the 1st lunar landing?

 

Not really.  Unfortunately.  

ronwest911
chuddog wrote:

When it comes to improving dynamic and tactical play, I would say the priorities, in decreasing order, are:

 

(1) Learn to see tactical ideas to begin with: this is a combination of pattern recognition and your own creativity.

(2) Get into a habit of calculating (as in, at all). This may sound stupidly obvious, but you have no idea how many of my students <2000, and other players <2000 (and sometimes up to 2200) I've met, think almost entirely in terms of general concepts and don't calculate specific lines.

(3) Learn to calculate accurately. This is honed by solving lots of puzzles.

(4) Learn to calculate fast enough to avoid getting into terrible time pressure and thereby blundering or losing on time.

 

That last point, which is the one you're asking about, is by far the lowest priority. If you calculate slowly but accurately, and have the creativity to find tactics and make them happen, you will improve tremendously and have much better results in tournaments. Moreover, tournaments with a classical (long) time control provide a lot of time to think. Unless your goal is to become a better speed chess player, I would put much more emphasis on developing your tactical abilities and less on your tactical speed.

This is one of the nuggets of gold hiding in the endless trash heap of these forums. Thank you for your valuable insights.

SeniorPatzer
chuddog wrote:

When it comes to improving dynamic and tactical play, I would say the priorities, in decreasing order, are:

(4) Learn to calculate fast enough to avoid getting into terrible time pressure and thereby blundering or losing on time.

 

That last point, which is the one you're asking about, is by far the lowest priority. If you calculate slowly but accurately, and have the creativity to find tactics and make them happen, you will improve tremendously and have much better results in tournaments. Moreover, tournaments with a classical (long) time control provide a lot of time to think. Unless your goal is to become a better speed chess player, I would put much more emphasis on developing your tactical abilities and less on your tactical speed.

 

Thanks again, Chud Dog.  With regards to #4, I certainly see your point about it being the lowest priority.    Moreover, there really is no practical way of knowing whether you are calculating "fast enough to avoid getting into terrible time pressure."   And a large part of it is decision-making and time allocation.  I.e., "I don't have enough time to calculate all the variations and subvariations of various candidate moves to the depth I would like, so I'm going to decide on this one!  In the interests of clock management!"

 

Lastly, the recent big-splash news about AlphaZero greatly affirms your recommendation.  AlphaZero does not calculate at neither the speed or the depth of StockFish, sometimes several or more magnitudes of speed slower, but its analysis and evaluation of positions is much, much better than StockFish's.  

 

I've been so dazzled by the fast calculation that I see in Chess Streaming, and in kibbitzing sessions that I did believe to a large extent that fast calculation is the Holy Grail of Chess Excellence.  It's obviously a very helpful and a significant part of Chess Excellence, but slower calculators can still be very competitive!

SeniorPatzer
mortadulo wrote:
I am no titled player but I am slow and my blitz rating trails my OTB rating pretty heavily. Hell I hang pieces in blitz a lot more often than I care to admit because I am always anxious when playing blitz trying to find the “best” move instead of simply playing and enjoying the game 😂

 

I just looked at your Blitz rating and it's 1850 which is good.   Is your USCF rating 2100's?

1a3_1-0

hi