GM Larry Evans' method of static analysis

Here it is. This is what I forfeited that game for:

Looks second only to being forced by the missus.

Hey... that's my girlfriend. Isn't she pretty? Don't get her angry, though... she's got an explosive temper.

Geez blueemu, you look younger and very different from what I thought. Cool gf btw!

I'm worried that his approach might damage the space/time continuum and upset time travel.

Im still confused as why blueemu was in the army, he was a chess player and a cartoon design guy!

It already damaged it...

I wasn't in the army... I was a civilian, and had a couple of duties.

#1: I was herding a bunch of nineteen- and twenty-year-old civilian interns... 3-D computer graphics graduates. Our unit (Applied Studies) was responsible for re-vamping the Canadian Army's training methods. All very high-tech. We used everything from 3-D computer models (which we made ourselves), to printing off classroom audio-visual aids on 3-D printers (we had SIX of them), to holograms and virtual reality rooms, to mocap (computer-aided motion capture technology). It was like Star Trek! Power up the Holo-suite, Mr. Riker! It was really cool... and quite effective. In two years, we improved the Army's graduation rate (in its officers' training courses) up to over 98.5% and also saved them over a million bucks compared to the previous training budget. Our 50-man unit earned a unit commendation from the Ministry of Defense.

#2: I did well enough that I was made "Unit IT Rep" for the Tactics School... not bad for a civilian. I was responsible (along with a handful of other people) for keeping all the computers in the building running... hundreds of them, including computerized simulators. Among other accomplishments, I dismantled a $250,000 3-D printer with a screwdriver, found the problem, and fixed it with about $40 worth of parts... the manufacturer had told us that it would cost over $9000 just to send a service rep to look at it ($9000 just to tell us "Yup... it's broke, all right"). It took me literally MONTHS to fix the damn thing, because I'd never even SEEN a 3-D Printer before. I had to crawl inside it and trace the wires and tubes, and figure out what each component did. Then try to figure out which part was screwing up, what was wrong with it, and how to fix it. But I did indeed fix it... it was still running perfectly when my contract ended 18 months later.

In return, the Army let me play with their toys. In those two years, I was able to take part in live-fire field exercises (Common Ground II), fire c7 assault rifles (several times), military pistols, TOW-2a anti-tank missile launchers (WITHOUT explosive warheads, in my case), and made several runs through the Leopard-II gunnery simulator... it's a full-up simulator where they seal you inside a big canister that looks precisely like a tank turret... every curve of the hull, every switch and button, gun breech and ammo ready rack. Then they pipe in info to your sensors and periscopes so that everything you see is exactly what you would see in a real combat. My best score against a column of OpFor (Opposing Forces) armor was 12 kills with 12 shots.

If there's ever a Zombie Apocalypse, I am READY for it! How many retired cartoonists know how to use all that hardware?

As I mentioned, there are several ways to do the count and you should just pick a method that makes sense to YOU. And again, the exact numbers aren't important... it's the concepts that are important. I haven't actually done a formal count in years, except to show people how it's done. Once you're used to the ideas involved, you should be able to just look at a position and think "I'm up in space, down in time, material about equal but my center Pawns rock".

I mentioned that while I was working at the Tactics School as Unit IT Rep, I was invited out into the field for Common Ground II. Here's a photo... it's what we refer to as "Tank Porn".

Extremely interesting!

IM Danny Kopec used something very similar in his chess series

wonderful, How people present steinitz's principle in a new bottle every time.

"Of course, this whole evaluation can be over-turned if some tactic exists. Static analysis is intended to guide your choice of plan, which in turn should guide your dynamic analysis. It was never intended to REPLACE dynamic analysis."

Yes, quite so.  Very nice series of posts on the first page. 

Interesting to see this old thread of mine come back to the surface like a submarine. GM Evans' STF analysis method might be 50 years old, but it's still alive and kicking.

Every time I see your acronym STF I reflexively think that you forgot to add the letter U at the end, lol.

Note the concepts of Force, Time, Space and Pawn Structure are the subject of "Play Winning Chess" by Yasser Seirawan.....

the table of contents (the first 5 chapters)....

Well all this was real helpful and interesting thanks @blueemu

this is really really helpful and insightful, thanks!

I am new to this and still trying to understand what space is and what a move is. So, this is how I see it, let me know where I am labeling things differently.

For space, it says 13 for white and 6 for black. When I count white I see 34-42 depending on if you count squares where the piece can be attacked. Are we talking about safe squares? 

pawns = 11, 13 if e5 and g4 are counted
knights = 7, 10 if attack squares are counted
LSB = 4, 5 if
DSB = 4, 5
Rook = 1
Queen = 5, 6
King = 2

34-42 spaces (for white only)

For moves, do you count the move from a game? Also, if you are looking at it by position, how do you know if a pawn went up one square or two? 

c3 pawn = 1
LSB = 2
d4 = 1 (or 2 but in game 1)
e4 = 1 (or 2 but in game 1
rook = 2 or 1.5 (does castling count as .5?)
knight = 1
king = 1 or .5
h3 = 1

White = 10?

h6 = 1
b5 = 1
c5 = 1
knight = 1
d6 = 1
DSB = 1
e5 = 1
knight = 1
rook = 1
king = 1

Black = 10?