Depends on the position:
- In sharp positions they calculate deeper because there are fewer candidate moves.
- In highly positional games they calculate wider because there are more "correct moves".
Width and depth
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Sep 25, 2011
0
#2
Could you give a source documenting this? And it doesn't answer my how wide and how deep.
Sep 25, 2011
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#4
Pro players consider less candidates than amateurs, because they screen out bad moves immediately.
As fort the depth of their calculation, I think it varies a lot according to the position, and even according to the player, as it seems some players are more prone to calculation than others. In forcing positions, Leko once boasted having calculated a 20-move long variation, but I don't know if it's true. Sorry I can't recall the source at the moment.
Isn't this the kind of question considered in books such as Adriaan de Groot's Thought and Choice in Chess?
http://www.amazon.com/Thought-Choice-Chess-Adriann-Degroot/dp/9027979146
Then there's Jacob Aagaard's Inside the Chess Mind: How Players of All Levels Think About the Game, but that isn't quantitative.
http://www.amazon.com/Thought-Choice-Chess-Adriann-Degroot/dp/9027979146
Two questions:
a) How wide does GM's calculate?
b) How deep does GM's calcuate?
By width, I mean: how many candidate moves do they consider. By depth, I mean: how many moves ahead do they calculate for each candidate move?
Does anyone know? And does GM's differ in this respect?