What is the most important question to ask yourself when calculating

I always seem to calculate a move or a line and then sometimes I forget about a certain diagonal or piece etc. What should I ask myself whenever I am thinking of a move. Like a mental checklist.

Probably the two main questions I ask are:

1) Is this move stupid?
This can mean a lot of things from tactical blunder to strategic mistake... sometimes simple moves that do no harm to your position are best. It's also asking yourself something like, do I wish this move is good, or do I really believe it's good. It also has elements of trying to understand the candidate move in terms of your opponent's plans and possible moves. Am I playing this move because I'm afraid of my opponent doing something? Should I actually be afraid of that? If I change my move order can I deal with that later or do I have to stop my opponent right now?

2) What's the alternative?
Find at least one other reasonable candidate move, and compare the two to see which you like more.

Thanks for the advice. I will keep this in mind. I actually remember my coach telling me something similar. He said to ask myself ''And then what?''

Checks, captures and attacks for the first three moves

I'd say, it's to not play anyone over 950 points, because 90% of these wankers will quit 1 move before you checkmate them!!!!. Pissed off with it.

- What is the most important question to ask yourself when calculating?

"I wonder what's for dinner?"

How do I get into positions that make me calculate the least, and / or make the opponent calculate the most.

How much time is left?

Play moves that allow a choice of replies.

If you play forcing moves, allowing only one reasonable reply each time, your opponent is not likely to make a mistake or to spend much time finding his move.

Does this idea still work if they play the best move? 

"Play moves that allow a choice of replies.

If you play forcing moves, allowing only one reasonable reply each time, your opponent is not likely to make a mistake or to spend much time finding his move."

I do the opposite of this. If I allow my opponent only one decent move, then they have to find that move and make it, and they are on the back foot. If they don't find that one good move, then I have an advantage. If I give them a choice of moves, then they can often find a really good move to make, which puts me at a disadvantage.

When you put it like that, it's true, emu's advice sounds counter intuitive.

But at least at a higher ratings (and in OTB tournament play, not blitz) this is pretty well known advice i.e. if your opponent only has 1 good move then they're likely to find it... similar to the saying "necessity is the mother of invention." The more standard moves fail, the more creative your opponent will become.

And what happens when the last of your threats is parried and you've run out of forcing moves? Your pieces are left out of position, unable to effectively oppose your opponent's counter-attack.

Like this:

A Heroic Defense in the Sicilian Najdorf - Kids, don't try this at home! - Chess Forums - Chess.com

I think that it is..
What will happen if I execute this move?

Blue Emu,

You are right that playing forcing moves that ignore sound harmonious development would be a bad idea. Given a choice between a forcing move that improves my position and a non-forcing move that improves my position by the same amount, I personally prefer the more forcing move as it gives less free reign to the creativity of my opponent. I looked at that game that you linked to. It looked totally wild, lots going on, very impressive.

D

My point in posting that game was that my opponent operated with direct threats, move after move. Each threat seemed to allow only one reply. But after I found this series of "only" moves, my opponent's position was overextended and collapsed within a handful of further moves.

The original question that I was answering with my advice posted above was "How do I force my opponent to use more time than I'm using"... and forcing moves do NOT accomplish that. If the opponent has only one reasonable move, why would he spend ten minutes calculating it?

The way to make him use up time and get into time trouble is to present him with a series of difficult choices. Not a series of "only" moves.

play moves that are good

That's not a question.

yea it's an answer