How does he do it????

This game just left me totally amazed!!!  In a live 5 min. Blitz, at 1:27 of the vid. the guy calculates a six move sequence where he'd lose the game and acts accordingly.  The game is presented as a live stream, so for the sake of arguement let's say it was live and he didn't go back later and put the audio track.  How does he calculate so far ahead like that in a blitz game??? Has he been "chunking" since he was 5?? I know that maybe some of the veterans here might not think it's a big  deal, but as a beginner I was really impressed by this!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGIP2b8q-nE&feature=em-subs_digest

I think you mean lose the game, not loose the game.

Sake of argument?  It WAS live and no, he didn't later put in the audit track.  ChessNetwork had done hundreds of other similar videos.  He records them live, as does kingscrusher.

This is what players do... they can easily calculate five moves ahead.  I'm rated 1800+ USCF and even I can do this for five or more moves.  That's not hard at all. 

Players rated much less than I am can do this easily too.  And I'm finding that the young kids I play in tournaments can calcuate even further ahead than I can.

I'm glad you're impressed we can all do this, but a simple, five-move sequence, especially when several moves are virtually forces, is nothing at all.  Nothing.

I've watched a lot of his videos, they're very entertaining and you can learn a bit of chess to boot.

The sequence in question is not that difficult to see, as Ed has pointed out. It's a few moves to calculate, but those particular moves are very easy to see. All one needs to be able to do is notice the queen hitting the f pawn, and notice the holes the knight can jump to, and the sequence begins to materialize in your brain. 

hiredgun7, you can absolutely do this yourself with some concentrated tactics training, and a few longer games under your belt. You should be able to spot this type of motive every time.

First of all, thanks for the spell check Ed, I guess I've been living in Spain too long, lol.  And when I said "sake of arguement" I wanted to head off any comments about it being recorded so that we could stay on topic.  And it's kind of a bummer to find out that this is nothing special, but I guess we all have to grow up sometime, lol. Thanks for your response!!

"And ACTUALLY, if I'm not careful, after Knight here, Knight here is a resignable move. I..I can hardly tip the King.. Knight e7, Knight b5, Bishop takes Bishop, Knight check, King here, Queen takes f7, it's a KO."

No, first of all, these are 3 moves and not 6. Secondly, as you play more and more Chess and get better, these are actually nothing. It'll become a regular activity at many of your moves. 

Since you're a beginner, this might seem new and amusing. But when you are like 1500 or so, you'll know that this is just simple calculative ability. 

Thank you both Jamie and Paul for the encouragement, but this seems soooooooooooo far away from where I am right now!!! And StrategicPlay, I counted each time he made a move for white and black as 2 instead of one, so that's how I got 6 instead of 3, sorry for the mixup.  You all seem to mention doing tactic work to be able to acquire this ability, but exactly which are the tactics that prepare you for this kind of calculation.  The mate in one and mate in two excersises I do daily don't seem to look like anything he does in the Video. H.G.

Do you try the Tactics Trainer? 

http://www.chess.com/tactics/myhome.html

When you play more and more games against higher-rated players, you'll eventually know what squares they target, what pieces they trade off etc. That's where you learn. 

I wouldn't say this is nothing @StrategicPlay .
3 moves can hold alot of lines, I'm barely 1800 in online chess and 3 moves can take time to calculate and recently I fooled a 1900 player for a piece with a simple 3 move tactic. It's not that simple. 

Could you give me directions on how to get there???? H.G.

Spotting a 3-move mate coming is simple. 

Well, while he was imagining the knight coming to d6, the queen moves to f3.  Both hit f7, that's why he instantly saw the threat... because his intended move (Nge7) and the move he had spring loaded for Nb5 (Be7) can't both be played.

So it's not that he calculated it like you're probably thinking... visualizing each move and seeing the final position... he didn't need to do that, because all the moves were forced. 

You know wafflemaster, I have read and re-read your comments along with the other posts, and watched the video several more times, and I just don't see the board the way you folks do.  I don't know if it will come with time and diligent practice, or not at all, but right now I just don't get the "big picture" the way that you guys do.  I seem to see it in much smaller sections!

Not all 3 move sequences are equal in difficulty. The mate threat in the video isnt particularly difficult to calculate, the position of the queen should alert the blitz player to pay attention

Heh, well FWIW I believe I have nearly zero natural talent for the game.  I remember just starting out I would be thinking of moving a pawn two squares forward... but was it safe?  Let's see, he can capture with his knight... I can re-capture and... dang where was his knight again?  Is it still there?  OK start over I move the pawn...

So yeah, you start to develop pattern recognition and things click together without the in between steps.  If I asked you what 5+3 is you woudln't actually have to count 6, 7, 8... the number 8 would likely just pop into your head on it's own.  If you check out joeydvivre's link, in the beginning of the video the guy is actually talking about the same idea as you began your post with... a knight on c3 may come to b5 and threaten d6 or c7.  If most experianced players haen't lost a game due in part to this (I know I have) then they've certainly won a game like this.

In that guy's mind, even though the knight was still on c3, he was focused on it coming to d6.  So much so he planned to un-develop his bishop to prevent it... at this point the queen moves to f3 and attacks f7 (another square that has caused the loss of many a game for most of us) and when these two patterns are put side by side (3+5) the combination of them pop into his head (8) and that's the moment he says "ACTUALLY!"

I like to tell beginners that I've lost more games than the number of individual moves they've played... which is to say after a number of years you become pretty familiar with certain threats that appear again and again.

Nope, 3 moves can still hold alot of lines.

Thanks for those encouraging words waffllemaster.  Just to see if I can put what you all are saying into terms that I can relate to as far as training tactics goes.  If we were to freeze the image at the point he starts to calculate, could we consider that a "mate in 3 moves" kind of puzzle??

Ya... that wasn't exactly calculation. It was recognition of a tactical motif; More visualization than anything. Its something that comes with experience.

Kaluki is spot on. This is not really calculation but pattern recognition.

When you play e6-Sicilians, or simply a closed Sicilian set-up as Black, the weakening of d6 and the associated Nb5-d6 manoeuvre is a common idea for white. You can be sure that a NM who has played for over 10 years has certainly met the idea dozens of time. So his chess mind immediately identifies Nb5-d6 as a threat in the position. Then he adds Qf3, and sees that f7 is under attack, then the quasi-instant calculation as everything is forced (both bishops on the long diagonal is another pattern).

@hiredgun, you'll develop this kind of knowledge by playing,  analyzing and going over annotated master games. If you stick with some openings for a long time, there are lots of opening-specific patterns that you'll know and spot very fast too.

I remember when I was a student and GM Igor Nataf came to comment some games in a simultaneous display. He was showing tons of tactical traps&zaps at every move, seemingly spotting everything in a matter of seconds. Then he smiled and told us : "how can I see all these tactical ideas coming ? Well, I've been on the receiving end of every and each of them when I was younger"