You should work on finding candidate moves from your opponent and using the tree of analysis to calculate. You don't want to get too carried away with this if you are playing a faster time control, but try to at least look for critical moves and responses if you can. "Think Like a Grandmaster" by Kotov is a great book that explains using the tree of analysis for calculation. It is a bit of a higher level book, but might be good for you.
Calculation Issues
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Jan 20, 2023
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#3
stassneyking wrote:
You should work on finding candidate moves from your opponent and using the tree of analysis to calculate. You don't want to get too carried away with this if you are playing a faster time control, but try to at least look for critical moves and responses if you can. "Think Like a Grandmaster" by Kotov is a great book that explains using the tree of analysis for calculation. It is a bit of a higher level book, but might be good for you.
Reading it now. Love the idea of it. Thanks a lot!
Jan 20, 2023
0
#4
In positions where you can't find an obvious tactic, I usually look for my worst piece and try to improve it, or exchange it for one of my opponent's strong pieces. I also look at the pawns to see if a pawn capture or push would improve my control of the position or force my opponent into a worse position.
Hope this helps: (click to view)
"Think Like a Grandmaster" is a worthwhile book to study, although some high level players have criticized Kotov's approach to calculation. When you have finished Kotov, I strongly recommend "The Inner Game of Chess" by Andrew Soltis. Soltis refines Kotov's tree of analysis into a more usable form and also goes into many other aspects of how to calculate.
While there are many very good, even outstanding, books that deal with tactics and their calculation recommended in my "Good Chess Books...." article (below), the one I tend to recommend most often for improving chess amateurs is Back To Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman, which provides excellent, detailed instruction in the subject (check Amazon's "Look Inside" feature at the top right of the book's cover graphic).
book excerpt (2011 - 2nd printing)...
You can download the book from Scribd (from 'Documents' menu) or read the ebook without downloading (from the 'Books' menu)...
https://www.scribd.com/document/540180261/Back-to-Basics-Tactics-Heisman
https://www.scribd.com/search?query=back%20to%20basics%20tactics
I have downloaded from the site extensively - it is safe...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/scribd-com-for-online-chess-book-reading
Relevant to the process of choosing a chess move, an interesting follow-on or supplement to Heisman's book to consider...
"The Six Power Moves of Chess" by William G. Karneges
which I discuss in the Comments section at the end of the article.....
Good Chess Books for Beginners and Beyond...
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/good-chess-books-for-beginners-and-beyond
https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell
I’m trying to train my calculation, but I’m finding I’m struggling to come up with responses from my opponent. Calculating any position that arises shortly after opening moves is a huge weakness of mine. Does this just all go back to Checks Captures Attacks? How do you navigate positions that don’t force 1 response?