What a great question.....I use a very formula when looking at games not mine in progress.....king safety, unprotected pieces, attacked pieces, material, pawn structure, and last move....
How Do You "Read" The Chess Board?
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Feb 25, 2014
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#3
It can be learned. You learn what things are important in a position, things Barbara611 has already listed, and you learn about the various thematic pawn structures. Those tend to tell you what the plans should be for both sides, and then you can evaluate how well they're each executing their respective plans. You could look at it like this: knowing the pawn structures and the associated plans lets a GM get into the flow of a game he just got thrown into the middle of, and then he does it like you do, only better.
I'm not that strong of a player compared to anyone titled, but I can still look at a board and within a few seconds tell you the gist of what's going on, just not as accurately or completely as someone stronger than me.
I've always been impressed with those super elite chess players who can just glance at a board and within seconds seem to have a good understanding of the game dynamics and who is winning and what weaknesses or advantages someone may have, etc., etc...
I'm wondering if there is some kind of innate skill that these players have in being able to visualize AND analyze all that information at the same time so quickly or is it something that can be learned?
For me, I find I can analyze a situation decently for my level of play (against similarly skilled opponents), but that it's always within the flow of the game and that if you threw a random game at me that has already started and asked me to analyze it that I would need a long time to figure out what's what (and even then I may be missing something). And I definitely am not one who can memorize the entire board right afterwards. I know GMs like Fischer...Polgar, etc. can do that stuff.