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• Playing With the Position  "Chess players are used to analyzing variations that could have arisen during a game.  They take a specific position as a base for their calculations and ask themselves what would have happened had each side choose this or that move.  Being also a study composer, I am trained in shifting pieces to and fro, asking myself what would happen if the position were a bit different; say, one rank lower, or having a pawn on a certain square instead of a knight, and so on.  Taking this method to the field of practical battle allows one, I believe, to gain a better and fuller understanding of a chess position and its latent possibilities..."

• Playing the first thing that crosses our mind.  "The general public is under the impression that in a chess duel, intense calculation and strategic assessment take place on each turn.  Experienced tournament players know better: there are in fact just a few critical moments in which they pause for thought.  Most of the time, players act more or less on automatic mode, playing common-sense, ‘natural’ moves.  Here is an old debate: when handling an ordinary position, where pawn-structures and game-plans are known and familiar, should we concentrate on one reasonable move, or would it be wiser to contemplate several options?  “Some people claim that they end up playing their first idea 75% of the time or even more.  Does this mean that we actually see our best move immediately in 75% of the cases?  No”. (J. Aagaard, in Excelling at Chess Calculation).  Playing the first idea that crosses our mind has obvious advantages, but also certain shortcomings. Let us look at them..."

• You can’t miss it; or - can you?  "Whenever I hear the words “you can’t miss it” I feel shivers in my spine. I recall the guy who sold me, years ago, a self-assembled book-cabinet with the assurance that the assembly tasks were very easy: “Piece of cake” - he said - “There is no way you can miss it”.  Or the bystander who explained to me how to reach my destination: “Third turn to the left, fourth turn to the right and after 300 meters you’ll see a building shaped as a cow - you can’t miss it”.  Well, you know what happened.  Nowadays I know that I can miss almost everything, and probably will.  Are there chess positions that we are certain to handle correctly and ‘can’t miss’?   In my book “Danger in Chess” (Cadogan 1994, Dover 2003) I tried to map the dangerous, most critical moments of a chess game.  I reckoned that “perhaps the most dangerous moment... is, paradoxically, just before victory is achieved.”  This conclusion has only strengthened in my mind during the years.  Let’s see some examples..."

• Smart Questions to Ask, or: Another Angle of the Grandmaster’s Mind:  "A recent review in The Scientific American (August 2006) by Philip E. Ross, described various research results, probing how people become experts in their field.  The article listed several variables: talent, memory, perception, motivation, storage of knowledge and the value of practice.  All very interesting for the general public; but one feels that for the audience of club players, some practical tools would be most welcomed.  When The Grandmaster's Mind (Gambit, 2004) - which I consider to be my best book to date - was published, a reader asked me if I had discovered something really new in the course of the interviews I had conducted with the likes of Gelfand, Smirin and Psakhis.  Indeed, I had, and the most illuminating phenomenon I observed concerns the first question the strongest players asked themselves while encountering a fresh position..."

• Intuition - the Elusive Ingredient:  "The role of intuition in chess has been dealt extensively in recent decades.  GM Gufeld and trainer IM Dvoretsky have written articles about it, while GMs Beliavsky & Mikhalchisin dedicated a whole book to the subject (Secrets of Chess Intuition  / Gambit, 2002).  Russian psychologist Viktor Malkin, cited in the aforementioned book, reached the conclusion that grandmasters narrow their search for candidate moves to no more than three or four, relying on their ‘feeling’ to discard other, irrelevant moves out of hand.  The stronger the player - asserted Malkin - the less he calculates... With the exception of born geniuses like Capablanca and T. Petrosian, young players cannot rely too heavily on their intuition, since their knowledge and understanding of the game are still insufficient.  Trusting their intuition at this stage will inevitably lead to many erroneous decisions.  Intuition becomes a valuable, helpful tool, only after years of practice..."

•  Difficult Moves (Part 1):  "A lot of chess manuals deal with tactics. They guide us where to direct our attention, when to conduct a thorough analysis and how best to carry out accurate calculations.  The manuals usually address all positions with the same set of principles.  But the truth is that certain chess moves are more difficult to spot than others.  Why?  Because they contradict general rules, even defy common sense.  It may be useful to shed light on some of these special moves.  A) The quiet move:  A combination usually involves a series of forced moves.  When, in the midst of a sequence, one side plays an ostensibly ‘quiet’ move, this causes a stir..."

• Difficult Moves (Part 2): "In the first part of this discussion we examined certain types of moves which are hard to spot, because they contradict schemes and rules deeply embedded in our cognitive system.  We mentioned as examples of such occurrences:

  1. Quiet moves

  2. Switch-backs

  3. Retreats

  4. Attacking fortified squares

  In this, the second and concluding part of our discussion, we acquaint ourselves with other types of “difficult moves.”  E) Endangering one’s king:  All players take particular care for their king’s safety.  But sometimes it is essential to put the monarch under risk..."

• Teamwork:  "The term teamwork seems to be alien to chess.  The game is, basically, an individualistic pursuit.  Even in a contest between teams there is no common or shared effort among the players and the overall score is calculated by adding the results on each board.  One instance where teamwork does play a role in a chess context is on the wooden board.  The art of directing and coordinating large forces in a timely, harmonious manner is the topic of the present article..."

• Confronting Change (Part 1):  "Sticking to our normal routine, we are usually capable of performing on a high level.  But when circumstances change and previous behavior is no longer appropriate, only a few of us manage to adapt swiftly and effectively, retaining the same level.  In chess, as in other pursuits, coping with change is crucial to success.  I was reminded of this fact while ...”

• Confronting Change (Part 2):  "What should one do when one’s opponent attempts to upset the flow of events?  In Part One of this article we suggested a method of resisting the change; minimizing the chaos and making an all-out effort to keep firm control of the situation.  But sometimes the change is an established fact, which cannot be denied.  In such cases, one has to abandon former assumptions, to adapt and to play according to the requirements of the modified position.  This is easier said than done..."

• Luck In Chess:  "Chess is described as a game of logic and reason, a battlefield where things do not just happen randomly.  If you lose, you must have blundered; if your rival makes good moves, you cannot expect to gain an edge.  As far as chess is concerned, we are raised to believe in an orderly world, in a direct link between cause and consequence..."

© 2006-2008 by Amatzia Avni and Chessville

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