Tips on calculation?

Hi,

I am a 1400ish player and I really want to improve. I am good at openings and some other stuff but I can't see more than 2 moves ahead. I can sometimes see 5-6 moves ahead but I take a lot of time.

How do I calculate variations? Are there any trainings or books on this part of chess?

Any help will be really appreciated.

-Harish

Anyone?

ok. you know I am no better than you....

But.  I still the answer is...

Practice!

may I make a book recommendation?  300 most important positions to know by Lev Alburt.

lots of deep calculation in there.

Pre Move Checklist

1. Make sure all your pieces are safe.

2. Look for forcing move: Checks, captures, threats. You want to look at ALL forcing moves (even the bad ones) this will force you look at, and see the entire board.

3. If there are no forcing moves, you then want to remove any of your opponent’s pieces from your side of the board.

4. If your opponent doesn’t have any of his pieces on your side of the board, then you want to improve the position of your least active piece. 

2 seperate skills then

1) being able to calculate a variation accurately- and long enough to ensure there's no tactical suprise at the end.

2) make sure there's no Shocking suprise that you didn't consider, and espacially forceful replies like checks, and attacks on valuable or pivotal peices.

surely these skills are interwoven, but I will say this.   its usually when I'm dancing the peices around "I got here and he goes there and I go here".... that like diakona implies; the opponent finds some kind of threat or capture I didn't address- and my long calculation was pretty irrelevant.

This is why you calculate Forcing Moves first.  

Taken from GM Yasser lesson

How many moves can you see ahead? (black is without king and only white can move) More than 5 right? How many moves it will take white king to capture black black at g7? See? Now you can calculate 10+ moves deep.

Funny fact. Computer engines back in 1970~ could beat you but if position is ending that requiare deep calculation even if it was simples they would fail becouse they cant see more than 5 moves or so deep.Practice endings. Kings and pawns endgins. They will force you to calculate more and more.

I love the advice to 'make sure that there are no shocking (etc) that you didn't consider'. How does one make sure that you've seen what you can't see?

Ok, mr K.

You can give stuff a second look and Really try to make sure you're not missing stuff.

there is such a thing as getting carried away with a calculation.

OR to put is personally, I HAVE caught big blunders I was Just about to make by trying to be skeptical and careful.

While it doesn't necessarily need to be this book, this was the first chess book I read. In time, I went from being a class D player to be rated expert in about 5 years. It really improved my visualization and ability to calculate. It's a good book, because with each chapter the degree of difficulty rises, and it's broken up by themes in each chapter. There must 100s of similar books. Also, I think in general tactics are more important for beginners to learn and then learn the finer points of positional chess. https://www.amazon.com/chess-tutor-Elements-combinations/dp/0884051293?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Hi Harish,

If you search in a search engine for "visualisation chess" you will find various article and videos to help you.

Personally I think that good calculation depends on a mix of training, studying, experience and ... analysing.

Analysing your own games, or games from others, can certainly boost the calculation skills I believe.

Note : Playing bullet chess can imho be harmful regarding that topic, because usually no one analyses their bullet games, so it is questionable whether you significately learn better chess from it.

You could maybe improve even from bullet chess if you do analyse afterwards, and learn from mistakes, or missed opportunities.

By not analysing, you probably develop certain patterns, for example : trading pieces without thinking, leading to superficial and drawish positions.

And to improve calculation skills you also need a bit of imagination.

For example in this well know miniature, white must have seen similar tactical patterns before, and combine that with a bit of imagination.

The calculation here is not so difficult because there's basically 2 variations, rather short, and moves are forced.

Good luck ! :)

Lots of good posts here. It doesn't matter if it takes a long time Harish. Just train your calculation by doing lots of tactics and following the recommendations above. 

Blindfold chess really helps. I started  chess as bullet player and i was so bad at more than 2 move calculation and visualisation. I though good way would be to learn blindfold chess, but it was impossible for me. I couldn't visualise squares or colors or positions. But one step at the time with help of couple of articles and videos finally i managed to beat ~1200 rated player blindfolded after few months. Really improved my calculation.

practice makes perfect

the only trick is...playing Blindfolded.

I don't think I could play chess blindfolded.  so. clearly you have to have pretty awesome visualizations skills to begin with. 

I think of playing blindfolded as a bit of an accomplishment by itself.

@thegreat_patzer

It is very possible.  With practice, you can become very good at it.  Magnus Carlsen played a 5 game blindfold simul once.

Books on calculation:

Alexander Kotov. Think Like a Grandmaster.

Andrew Soltis. The Inner Game of Chess: How to Calculate and Win.

John Nunn. Secrets of Practical Chess.

Jonathan Tisdall. Improve Your Chess Now.

As i said at beginning when i close my eyes i can't picture the chess board with pieces. Or empty chess board. I could not visualise a single piece for example queen to move. I did not knew what square color is f5 or what square or diagonals are next to f5. 

Almost all players started to play chess with long slow time controls and through years even if they are still beginners they somehow have way better memory and visualization and learning blindfold will be more easy than me, who just moved pieces without thinking in bullet. It is real pain at the beginning but after some practice is more and more easy, as i said step by step, not from start to play game, but slowly you build on it.

did you build on it, by perhaps playing a game with a sparring partner until you couldn't...? 

(review the 'game' then after some tactics or whatever do another game)

or did you find out one day that, suprisingly, you could play a whole game with someone.

I'm interested in how one might work up to doing a whole game.

I can probably play maybe 6-8 moves before I'd be lost and unsure what is where...

I think you can consult Newinchess Website, middlegame section. I think there may be a book on the subject by Aagaard