calculation

I have been playing chess for years but still cannot calculate. What is the best method of calculation to improve ?

There seens to be several good methods of calculation which are used by strong players, and you need to find the path which is best for you personally.

I posted a thread on this topic a few weeks ago, which now looks kind of strange because a lot of answers came from KmBoor, who seems to have vanished without a trace, and all her posts with her. So it looks like Leto is arguing with himself! 🤣

You can take a look to see if it helps.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/calculating-with-clarity

One good thing you have in your favour is you are a Diamond member, so you have unlimited puzzles on Chesscom. If you did puzzles for 30 minutes every day your calculation skills would surely improve.

Thanks for replying. Yes the puzzles are really good but according to my puzzle rating I am 1400!! but when I play other players im only 500 ish . I think flaw in the puzzles are they help you too much by telling you what to look for in each puzzlel ike they will say "you can win my bishop " or you can checkmate. I dont think they should tell you anything .

Is that the Coach feature telling you that? You can turn it off in settings. That would really annoy me too! 😂 Puzzles also help with 'Pattern Recognition' which will really help your chess in the long run.

I checked. You can turn the advice off in coach settings. Solving without Coach advice will help you get much more out of the puzzles. I think that feature is for absolute beginners.

Do not use online tactical trainers. It will give you the habit of just guessing the correct moves. Guessing is not calculating. Use chess books. Set it up on a physical chess board.

If you have been at it this long and still can't do it, then consider your current level as good as it gets and just have fun.

As if he is going to do that.

I agree with @Quite_Playable_1 that guessing your way through online puzzles avoids practicing calculation. Online puzzles can still be useful, but ideally you try to calculate a puzzle from beginning to end before moving any pieces.

For practicing calculation, I recommend solving famous endgame studies, or puzzles designed to train calculation.

The guy is not even rated 1000, and you want him to study famous endgames. Funny.

I have to agree. He plays Rapid and his rating is 545. Studying Capablanca's Endgames or complicated calculation puzzles isn't really appropriate for a player of that rating.

Fair enough, but not all famous endgame studies are particularly advanced. For example, this 1928 study by Reti is just pawns, but it looks impossible for all three pawns to be stopped by the king and white to hold the draw. The key theme this puzzle highlights is that moving diagonally can sometimes be the most efficient way because it can create a dual threat. In this case, the threat is catching the passed pawn, but also getting closer to transition into helping support your own passed pawn:

If studies like this are too complicated, then scale back to learning key checkmate patterns or foundational theoretical endgames such as how to win with a single pawn by king opposition:

That is a bizarre claim, especially given that you have a puzzle rating of 1500+.

One problem many new players here have is they seem to want to chase pieces around the board, or attack things with their pawns when they need to focusing on getting a checkmate. This style of playing developed from people who have never played a single correspondence, or even classical chess, game after years of online chess. They've become conditioned to trying to simply WIN (and get a higher Elo) by winning on time or their opponent making more blunders. yes, I can appreciate this puzzle and have done many. I used to set up puzzles on a real oar5d from books and try to solve them. But I assure you, most newer chess players who are banging away bullet or blitz games one after the another on their smartphone have never and will never understand what you are trying to convey.

Yes I think you are right I have been playing for years so this is probably as good as it gets for me. I do enjoy the game though even though I make the same mistakes and never learn from them. I think to be a good player you have to have the ability to look deeper into the game and have the right temperament . I know that is stating the obvious . The most important thing is to enjoy the game which I do. Its just that sometimes I wish I could be better and unlock another part of the game for myself.

It is good news!!! Relax. Too much pressure to get the high rating online. It takes the fun out of it all.

MY GOD!!!!! How do you do it!!!!!!!

As long as you are having fun you're always 'winning' regardless of rating or results! 👍

Yes that true.