I did have a structured way of "reading positions" when I played rated games and it was useful for me. It didn't do me any favors on the clock though.
Is using a mental flowchart to analyze positions a crutch/too methodical?
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Apr 10, 2015
0
#3
TitanCG wrote:
I did have a structured way of "reading positions" when I played rated games and it was useful for me. It didn't do me any favors on the clock though.
Yeah, I definitely wouldn't do it for anything under a G/90 d5 or so time control. Fortunately, most local tournaments use that, or more.
Check out Ochman on Youtube/website: strongerchess.com.
Apr 10, 2015
0
#5
During a game it may be too methodical depending on the position and the time control. For post game analysis it may well be a good idea. During a game limit it to this order
1. What are my opponents threats and are there ways to stop them if necessary
2. What are my threats and how can my opponent defend.
3. Calculate the most major of these.
Just set a limit based on time control.
Apr 10, 2015
0
#6
jetfighter13 wrote:
During a game it may be too methodical depending on the position and the time control. For post game analysis it may well be a good idea. During a game limit it to this order
1. What are my opponents threats and are there ways to stop them if necessary
2. What are my threats and how can my opponent defend.
3. Calculate the most major of these.
Just set a limit based on time control.
Well, yes, this makes perfect sense for rapid (say, between 10-30 minutes). For longer time controls, though, you really have to go a bit deeper strategically to get anywhere - you can only calculate so far.
Apr 10, 2015
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#7
Whatever works! I use a mental image as a checklist--found the checklist thing too much like work.
Apr 10, 2015
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#8
Pr0bl3m wrote:
jetfighter13 wrote:
During a game it may be too methodical depending on the position and the time control. For post game analysis it may well be a good idea. During a game limit it to this order
1. What are my opponents threats and are there ways to stop them if necessary
2. What are my threats and how can my opponent defend.
3. Calculate the most major of these.
Just set a limit based on time control.
Well, yes, this makes perfect sense for rapid (say, between 10-30 minutes). For longer time controls, though, you really have to go a bit deeper strategically to get anywhere - you can only calculate so far.
Yes of course you also need a plan that way you aren't calculating every move
Apr 10, 2015
0
#9
kaynight wrote:
Have a drink.
I usually keep one of the tall bottles (52-ounce size, if memory serves) of Aquafina next to me in tournaments. Otherwise, I'd have to keep getting up from the board to go use the fountain; I get thirsty very quickly and easily, especially when using my brain :P
I use a short checklist on most moves, although not in familiar openings, or technical endgames. It may not substitute positional analysis, but I find it helps to think through the obvious. I play OTB only and time controls are 75 min for first 35 moves, then 15 min for all remaining moves.
I wrote about it recently here: How to Choose a Chess Move
Here is what I mean by that:
After reading several chess books, including Silman's excellent classics, The Amateur's Mind/How To Reassess Your Chess, I thought it might make sense to look at any position (that isn't trivial/completely tactical/one I already have a theoretical move chosen for) in terms of an analytical, mental flowchart. I would follow several steps of analysis, enumerating and judging various factors, while calling up relevant rules. In this way, I would, methodically, make sure that absolutely nothing escaped my grasp of the position (at least nothing relevant to concepts I am familiar with and have committed to memory, anyway) when evaluating. Think of it as a long list of and/if/or statements designed to enumerate all relevant factors of a given position and take the rules corresponding to these factors into account.
I'm curious to get opinions on whether it would be useful to construct and memorize such a flowchart, creating and adding to it whenever I pick up a new concept, idea, or move. I might also consider trying to memorize opening theory similarly, but I think I'm still too weak to bother with that. However, I'm afraid that if I did this, my way of evaluating positions and coming to conclusions about them would become so concrete, that I might miss more "human" plans that are even better than what I might come up with this way. Thoughts?
(I'm doing this to cater to my own mental strengths. My memory is great, but my visualization skills are terrible, and it's extremely hard for my ADHD/Asperger racing-mind to keep any logically-formed thoughts without constructing them in such a way as to be easily kept track of. Of course, I suppose that just means I should be working on those other things too, but hey, whatever works.)