How many moves can you calculate ahead?

Discuss.

I only see one move ahead, the best one

That's one of the questions that players field from those who don't play much chess.

It's the one trite question that weary masters have to answer from the press, the public.

that's a really simplistic question. in the below position I would be able to calculate 6 moves ahead in a second.

It was the question posed to Magnus Carlsen by Maik Grossekathöfer in the Der Spiegel interview. His answer was:

SPIEGEL: Aha. How many moves can you calculate ahead?

Carlsen: That depends on the game situation. Sometimes 15 to 20. But the trick is to correctly assess the position at the end of the calculation.

Kasparov explains what goldendog is talking about here-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2KKfOGaR_w

That's one example of how Kasparov answered the question.  He also answered it this way:

KASPAROV: "Normally, I would calculate three to five moves," he said. "You don't need more.... But I can go much deeper if it is required." For example, in a position involving forced moves, it's possible to look ahead as many as 12 or 14 moves, he noted.

My favourite position to illustrate it is this:(from an old Irving Chernev book, I think)

I think given enough time any reasonably good player can calculate this out, and mate is many, many moves away.

I think I rarely look more than two or three moves ahead.  Moving too fast and not being disciplined enough to calculate.  Time to hit some chess videos on calculation or something, but it's a real problem with my game - particularly in casual OTB play where I just leave a piece hanging.

same here but i don't hang pieces just getting out of my blunder phase in life.

Better yet, simply practice calculating deeply IMO. Practice In slow games, and work on positions which stretch yourself to your limit, but aren't impossible for you to solve.

I read somewhere that players in the class of Kasparov can calculate up to 20 moves ahead...and I find that amazing...and a tribute to the human brain 

Carlsen obviously is in that group of players

See post 6. 

In the game link below, starting at move 50, Hou probably saw 17 moves in advance! Smeets resigned at move 59, but the trading and pawn race goes for 8 more moves

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1482263

I can think 5 moves ahead, but I prefer 2-3 moves ahead (tactical view). I really like that quote from Kasparov jhb!

Yeah.  And I gotta play that guy next week.  How the heck am I going to beat him? 

haha Cystem..... i'll be there don't worry lol....

Bout two three. But I can't calculate accurately though.

If it's not accurate calculations, I would say 42