Reti (IIRC) was asked how many moves ahead he typically looked, and answered "As a rule, not a single one."
4 moves ahead?
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Humans don't look at every possible variation for 4 moves - they pick and choose the most important ones. Some forcing lines might be 10 moves long, others might be just 2 moves but very hard to spot. There are some very difficult mate-in-2 puzzles floating around.
So the people who look over your shoulder while your playing are full of it when they state they play 4 moves ahead. Cheers
I'm pretty sure most casual players look only one-ply ahead (half move). They figure out what they are gonna play and think they'll figure the rest out once their opponent moves in response. I mean, unless one is missing an obvious check, capture, or mate, I don't see why that's all too negligent.
Didn't one famous historical GM say that he only looked one move ahead?
Really there's no excuse not to look at least 3-4 moves ahead in a long game. In blitz or especially bullet one move threats are useful only to burn the opponents clock. I remember Kasparov saying he usually only looked about 4 moves ahead, but in some critical places up to 15 (or even 20 if its all forcing). forcing moves are very important as they make calculating far in advance much easier if you can find them.
A serious study made by chess programmers determined that most players visualized 4 ply w/ SEE (at maximum).
But sometimes looking ahead just 2 moves is not easy. White to mate in 2:
I think I can see 4 moves ahead, though it helps a lot if my opponent's moves are forced. But 4 moves (defining a move as one by white and one by black) is probably my limit. You can't not calculate variations and do well at chess and I suspect any GM who said he/she only looks one move ahead was pulling the questioner's leg
I think most chessplayers can see 4 moves ahead, but the difference is if they choose the right lines to analyse or judge the resulting positions correctly.
It's a bit of a myth that grandmasters look so far in advance. You hear 20, 25 moves, which is possible in some situations but in the vast majority simply impossible with the number of replies. Most maybe look 3 moves ahead in the majority of situations. There just that much better at choosing which moves to analyse further and evaluating the resulting positions.
The famous quote: 'I only look one move ahead, the best one' is simply rhetoric. It's simply not true, and I don't know why people repeat it.
You can see some things within 4 moves but no one sees absolutely everything. Each player has about 30 possible moves available on their turn (this is called the "branching factor" of chess). After 4 moves (8 ply) the total number of end positions is 30 ^ 8 = 656,100,000,000. Certainly more than I care to calculate!
Moreover the fact that there are very difficult mate-in-2 problems such as the one above demonstrates that you don't even see everything within 2 moves ahead usually.
b3nnyhaha wrote:
Really there's no excuse not to look at least 3-4 moves ahead in a long game. In blitz or especially bullet one move threats are useful only to burn the opponents clock. I remember Kasparov saying he usually only looked about 4 moves ahead, but in some critical places up to 15 (or even 20 if its all forcing). forcing moves are very important as they make calculating far in advance much easier if you can find them.
Your puzzle looks like a helpmate, why does black have to block his bishop?
I play move by move and hopefuly my game falls into place. how many average chess players can actually read 4 moves ahead? If i'm lucky its 2 moves, but thats hope not assuming.