How to improve calculation & visualizing skills

Sort:
Avatar of Frederic_1017

Do I have to solve chess tactic puzzles until I can solve difficult problems?

 

Or does anyone has his/her own training method?

 

Thank you for any advice.

Avatar of u0110001101101000

My answer deals with visualization and is mostly taken from Jon Tisdall's book Improve Your Chess Now.

Using a puzzle or game score, visualize as many moves ahead as you can comfortably manage. Go slowly, and after each move visualize the new position and look around the board. What squares are newly attacked? What files have been opened? etc.

When you start to feel you're losing track of the position, stop calculating and remind yourself where each piece is by looking around the board. Do this until you can quickly recall where they all are. Basically you will memorize the position. After that try to go a few more moves. If you lose track, you can go back to the memorized position and try again.

After it's over I think it's useful to now move the pieces. Check to see if the positions you very clearly visualized were correct. Were you right? Where they any open files or newly attacked squares that surprise you now that you can move the pieces? Think about ways you might avoid those mistakes in the future.

I did this every day for about a month while solving tactic puzzles and my visualization improved a lot. But it does take practice. If you stop playing or training for a while you will be rusty.

Avatar of u0110001101101000

It's what improved my visualization, and was also suggested in a book (I found this out later though).

Also of course just playing long games regularly (and calculating a lot in them) will improve your visualization over time.

Avatar of sudden-change

Have you tried the Visualwize method? It's a method I invented and is very effective because it simulates reality. You can check it here: https://goo.gl/7IyEMt

On the other hand, your rating is high, so you may find the exercises a bit too easy?