Calculation in Chess

I am back with a new lesson from the intermediate chess guide, and this one focuses on calculation in chess. Over time, as a chess player, you will come to realize that chess is not only centered on principles, pieces, or capturing. There is a whole lot more to the game, and one of those is calculation.

Please do not get it mixed up; calculation and combination in chess are not the same. While combination requires combining two or more pieces, calculation is about looking ahead, calculating your move and your opponent's response, and then infusing it into your plan. I will be using examples from my games, but first, you need to know that thinking about what your opponent will play next is as important as figuring out your next move.

Source

Start Small

As a chess player, looking ahead is an attribute that comes with the job, but you have to start small. When teaching my kids, I start by asking them to look for the good move first, then look for their opponent's response. This way, when they find it, they have successfully found two moves ahead before it is played on the chessboard.

So here is my advice to you: start first by looking for the good move you can play, then think about your opponent's response to that move. Also, do this before touching a piece that is if you are playing over the board, and if you are playing online, do the same thing before clicking on a piece.

Let's look at an example

From this position, I suspected the game would most likely end with my pieces up on his kingside since the white king has a weakness on g2 and fewer pieces protecting it, as the remaining pieces are on the queenside. Despite my suspicion, I still have to figure out the moves that will get me to the result I want. And that is where calculation comes in. I have to look for moves ahead and what his response will be.

Through my calculation, I discovered c5 would be a good move, but wouldn't that be giving a free pawn? Yes, it would be a free pawn, but through my calculation of my opponent capturing my pawn, I saw that my queen and bishop will be a strong combination, threatening to checkmate the white king on the g2 or h1 square. Therefore capturing the free pawn will be a bad move.

How the game ended

Calculation is Strong when capturing

When you are in a position where you have two pieces that can capture your opponent's piece, and you do not know which piece to use, calculating what your opponent will play after you capture with the first piece, and what they will play when you capture with the second piece, will help you to decide what piece to use. Take a look at the position below.

In this position, my opponent has given me a free black knight, but I have to be careful about which piece to capture, as both my white queen and rook can capture the black knight. But here is the tricky part I discovered by calculating my opponent's response. If I capture with my white rook, my opponent has Re1, and that is a back rank checkmate. But if I capture with the white queen, the queen will be controlling the square e1, and if my opponent plays the move Re1, I can capture the black rook with my queen. So I went with the queen. The game ended in a resignation after a couple of moves.

Calculation is a strong skill that a good chess player should have. The ability to anticipate moves ahead before they are played will go a long way.

That is a wrap for this lesson, and see you in the next one.

---

♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟

Thanks For Reading!