How do I calculate better?

Right now, I feel like calculating long variations >6 or 7 moves is my biggest weakness. What are some resources that would help your calculating skills in general?

What books on it have you read:  Try Heisman's Improving Chess Thinker (also covers positional elements and performing evaluations) then Kotov's Think Like a Grandmaster.  After that I'd recommend Dvoretsky's School of Chess Excellence 2: Tactical Play.  It gets really hard at around page 70 but the positions are still accessible. 

There's no need to buy all these books at once since you'll spend around a month at least on one, more than a month for Kotov's book for certain.  I haven't even completed Dvoretsky's yet. 

Calculation is one of the three basic skills all others are grounded in, such as attack, defense, blunder checking, etc. 

Aagard's Grandmaster Preperation: Calculation I hear is for 2000+ players... FIDE standard, so don't think you're ready for it just because you have a 2000 blitz or standard on here. 

Hi caughtupinthemoment--if you don't already apply the idea of candidate moves, 3-4 different options analyzed one at a time, that can definitely help.  For lengthy analysis, try blindfold chess or memorizing positions to improve your recall.  Go through games in your head that don't have a diagram and then play them on a board to see what you missed.  That's all it really takes, just building pattern recognition and memory.

caughtupinthemoment wrote:

Right now, I feel like calculating long variations >6 or 7 moves is my biggest weakness. What are some resources that would help your calculating skills in general?

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Familiarize yourself with 2 words: VISUALIZATION PATTERN.

There are 5 visualization pattern memory banks:

1.TACTICS visualization pattern memory bank. Go to this website, http://chess.emrald.net/index.php and do 27 diagrams per day, give yourself 3minutes per diagram. At the end of one month I guarantee you, the right move will jump up off the board and smack you on the forehead in flash!!

2.MATING NET visualization pattern memory bank. Practice (K+Q vs. K, K+R vs. K, K+2Bs vs. K, K+B+N vs. K) these until you can do them in your sleep. The technique for force mating the lone K is the same in each of these endgames. It is called the corralling method. When you can do these techniques in your sleep I guarantee you that a mating net, if there is one in the position, will jump up off the board and smack you on the forehead!!!

If you would like to know more please let me know

Take more math classes :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIr8ZnpQEXM