This content is absolute gold 🌟. No flashy gimmicks, just pure practical advice explained clearly. So many 'chess thinking' videos veer off into analysing specific positions and make the actual algorithm impossible to follow or just stick to simplistic CCT. I am writing this approach on flashcards to help memorise. I look forward to seeing how the structure and discipline will improve my play. Thank you Luka 🙏
I have read a decent number of chess books and watched many TH-cam videos. I don't believe I've ever heard anyone else clearly lay out the golden rule of calculation: never stop calculating with your move. This is huge! Good stuff.
Exactly the topic I've been pondering as a 1200 player 1 year into adult improvement. I believe for adult improvers having an order of analysis much like order of operations in math class is very helpful. This should make applying all the chess tactics training and learning much easier.
Step 1: Consequences of your opponent's move A- Does the piece attack something? B- How are other pieces influenced by the move? C- What weaknesses does the move leave behind? Step 2: Find a candidate move A- Do I have any tactical opportunities? B- How can I improve my position? Step 3: Blunder check A- Can my moved piece by captured or harassed? B- How will other pieces be influenced by this move? C- What weaknesses do I leave behind? GOLDEN RULE: Never stop calculation on your move, stop calculating on your opponent's move (ensure no forcing moves for opponent)
@@AdultChessImprover I would add one more item: at the end of a series of calculated moves by each side, ask yourself: what does the resulting position look like? Whose position looks stronger?
Hi luka. I came across your channel a few days ago. I myself am a late learner in chess. All what you say in the videos I've watched so far totally resonate with my own experience. Therefore, I would like to congratulate and to thank you very much for your awesome work. Keep it up !
I just used these in a game against Stockfish. Very big difference. My last game before I had lost at turn 19. This time at turn 54! And I saw it all coming instead of being surprised by something I didn’t consider. At completely even Material at turn 26 I saw that I don’t really have any good moves left. Everything I could do came with creating a weakness. I felt that I was outplayed by a superior opponent rather than having created my own demise with a blunder. However the game took like 10 times longer than usual. So it’s really mostly for long time controls.
Thank you; very practical. For step 1 question 2: The opponent's move can also negatively influence his own position. For example, it can cut the communication between two rooks, effectively removing a defender from the opponent's own pieces. You mentioned this is step 3 question 2, but I think it could be applied to step 1 as well.
This has been very helpful. Thank you for condensing so much time, research, trial and error into an orderly and applicable lesson. Your videos are great content.
Coincidentally Your video on this topic came on perfect timing as I am going through Dan Heisman's book The Improving Chess Thinker . For adults , faulty thought process is surely the biggest source of blunders.
I'm currently reading "Tune Your Chess Tactics Antenna" and it also provides a nice thinking algorithm. IMHO I think this element of chess learning is quite underrated and so crucial.
I generally really like your content, but I'm not sure I completely agree with this video. I made several attempts in the past to learn Spanish by focusing on grammar and vocabulary lists, and never made a ton of progress. Several years ago I switched to focusing on comprehensible input and successfully achieved fluency. I now speak to native Spanish speakers in Spanish, watch TV and read books in Spanish. It was this success in language learning that actually inspired me to go back to chess with a new approach. I am treating tactics/puzzles as my main form of comprehensible input. I'm still only a few months in, but I feel like I'm having more success with this approach compared to focusing on systematic thinking approaches like what you and Dan Heisman recommend. Don't get me wrong, I think it's good advice and will lead to some short term improvement, but I think more effort should be spent on actually "learning the language" rather than how to consciously think about grammar every move.
I think you misunderstood the point. I am not saying that this is replacement for doing tactics, of course you should focus most of your training time and effort doing tactics in order to increase your intuition and tactical/board vision. I am doing this myself, and I've made many videos in which I encourage other to do that. I keep repeating this, if you want to improve you have to do tactics tactics tactics. Read some books, watch some videos, don't waste your time on learning openings, and do as much tactics as you can. So yes, you should allocate most of your training time doing tactics, tactical puzzles, spaced repetition, mate in 2, etc. No question about that. But after you do all that, there comes a time when you actually sit over the board and play the game. And this is the moment where this algorithm can help you to blunder less. If you analyze your blunders and mistakes, you can see that many of those could have been avoided if only you have asked yourself these few simple questions. So why not use something which is practical and can help you to lose less games?
I forgot to comment on the language analogy. Notice that I said in the presentation that you'll never be able to write a gramatically correct letter without thinking about grammar and specific grammatical rules of the foreign language. Speaking is one thing (small mistakes don't matter much, as long as the other person can understand you), but to write a long letter correctly is a different issue, and I really doubt that someone who learned foreign language as an adult could write a correct letter without thinking about grammar. This is possible only if you were exposed to a language as a kid. This is why I took Latin as an example, a completely new language with difficult grammar.
I think good pattern recognition enhances any thinking system and obviously allows one to make decisions more quickly.Thus not only keep up with tactics but common often occurring patterns which can be further broken down into themes and motifs.
GM Daniel Naroditsky also often talks about asking yourself "What changed?", meaning what is attacked, what is undefended, what is opened up or blocked. Combining that with CCT I came to pretty much the same blunder-check algorithm you're proposing. Trouble is actually applying it on every move :) I feel that it is getting better over time, though.
Coming from a 1400 rated player this has changed the way I view the game tremendously. Applying this process takes alot of time but I imagine it gets easier and easier and will become second nature. The hardest thing about this is continuing to apply it throughout the entire game. I tend to lose focus in the late middle game and end up making a big mistake that I wouldn't have if I was still applying this thinking process. We are all still going to make mistakes but this video got me on the right track to improving my game. Thank you for this!
There was a moment in the past when I also put all my efforts into preparing an algorythm that would train the right way of thinking and protect me from blunders. The PROBLEM with the whole idea of algorythm or checklist that you go through in order to secure more solid play is that it assumes that DELIBERATE THINKING (calculating etc) is necessary with every move. And although runningh through a script like that is useful when you sit down to solving a puzzle, it will EXHAUST you if you try to calculate every move during a normal game. Exerting too much effort where effort is not necessary is a wrong use of your mental powers. A more fruitful approach would be to train your INTUITION so that it recognizes (or has a premonition of) the RIGHT moment when solid calculation is necessary and called for. It is like changing gears in a car. You cannot run too far on the first gear, though power it creates is unmatched. You should only switch to such modes when need arises of applying all your strengths to cope with something that hits you as obstacle or opportunity. Just a thought. I recall being really irritated and exhausted trying to apply my checklist to literally every move. It's not playable.
In the book 'Chess Tactics from Scratch' the author also has an interesting chapter about this called 'status examination'. Here you basically check what every piece on the board is doing, and what it is not doing. Then if you move the piece you have to think about what it is not doing anymore after you moved it et cetera.
Nice, but the only difference is that in the real game you can't check every piece on every move. Unless you play correspondence chess, you just don't have time for it. This is why you have to "update" your assessment of the position every time a move is made, or after you play a candidate move in your head. This is the main difference between a real game and solving some position as an exercise.
@@AdultChessImprover True. But I think if you practice a thinking process a lot, after a while it should go 'automatic' or on intuition. And much faster. I think a lot of mental checklists that takes amateurs a lot of energy and time, grandmasters already do that 'automatic'. So even if you don't have the time for it in a real game, it makes sense to train it in solving positions, as a way of training your thought process and visualisation.
Thanks for this. It is very helpful. Apart from Dan Heisman it is an area rarely addressed in chess teaching. I agree Chess Masters don’t have to consider the thinking process because it is something they have internailzed - just like walking.
Have you ever had trouble forcing yourself to ask the questions every move even after you are getting tired or it is getting tense on the board? That is my main problem I use algorithms for chess, but forget sometimes to use them and then get burned. Especially with the blunder check this has happened multiple times to me in frantic situations. I as wondering if you have the same problem or for you it is as automatic as looking right and left when crossing the street? Very good video thanks for sharing this.
Yes, I struggle with this all the time. This habit of asking yourself these basic questions is something that has to be trained. I don't know any other method to train this but to play long time control games, and maybe if you play online, you can have a piece of paper with these questions next to you, and then just force yourself to go through that on every move. Eventually, it should become natural and automatic
@@AdultChessImprover Yes it is strange that adults have a problem with this. you would think that after a few weeks it would be a automatic process. I liked what you said about Rubenstein that he was more prone to blunder because he learned Chess when he was in his late teens. One thing that helps me is in Lichess I have activated move conformation. That way everytime I have to comfirm my move and that is my cue to also make sure I do a blundercheck. Thanks for your reply 🙂
Very true! I didn't want to say that intuition is not needed, only that adult improvers / late starters cannot rely on intuition alone. Of course as you play more and more and you improve, your intuition improves as well. But it will never be like with those who entered the chess world as 4 year olds :)
Good video. Re Step 2.1, I believe you have the two points reversed. First comes Pattern Recognition: Loose pieces, geometric patterns, Pins & Batteries, Functioned pieces, etc. This is the "language" of chess that young people learn to speak so fluently. Old Geezers, not as adept at patterns, must then mechanically go through Checks, Captures, and Threats, as an imperfect substitute. Rosetta Stone, the language learning software, (Latin offered!) emulates childlike learning for adults: Absolutely no grammar or translation, only immersion in a simplified world of pictures and 100 words (initially), which are used in endless combinations and permutations. The adult learner becomes competent in this simplified world exactly as a child does. Does chess have a Rosetta Stone equivalent? Yes! Spaced repetition of basic tactics. Progressing to more difficult tactics. It just takes way longer for Geezers, because our brains are less plastic...
I definitely recommend doing spaced repetition and basic tactics, this should be main part of every adult improver's training. This is not a substitute for doing tactics, but the fact is that blunders remain to be the biggest issue for adult improvers, and many can be avoided using this algorithm. Almost every time I blundered in the long game it was because I didn't ask myself these few simple questions. If only I did, I would have lost much less games than I did. So it's like a crutch for those of us who (still?) didn't develop our intuition enough.
Wonderful. This is by far the most efficient algo i've read about so far, despite reading many other approaches which are indeed either too simple or too complicated. This is well balanced and based on your adult chess improver, thanks very much for sharing !
This content is absolute gold 🌟. No flashy gimmicks, just pure practical advice explained clearly. So many 'chess thinking' videos veer off into analysing specific positions and make the actual algorithm impossible to follow or just stick to simplistic CCT. I am writing this approach on flashcards to help memorise. I look forward to seeing how the structure and discipline will improve my play. Thank you Luka 🙏
I have read a decent number of chess books and watched many TH-cam videos. I don't believe I've ever heard anyone else clearly lay out the golden rule of calculation: never stop calculating with your move. This is huge! Good stuff.
Exactly the topic I've been pondering as a 1200 player 1 year into adult improvement. I believe for adult improvers having an order of analysis much like order of operations in math class is very helpful. This should make applying all the chess tactics training and learning much easier.
Thanks, glad you like it!
Step 1: Consequences of your opponent's move
A- Does the piece attack something?
B- How are other pieces influenced by the move?
C- What weaknesses does the move leave behind?
Step 2: Find a candidate move
A- Do I have any tactical opportunities?
B- How can I improve my position?
Step 3: Blunder check
A- Can my moved piece by captured or harassed?
B- How will other pieces be influenced by this move?
C- What weaknesses do I leave behind?
GOLDEN RULE: Never stop calculation on your move, stop calculating on your opponent's move (ensure no forcing moves for opponent)
This is useful, thanks
@@AdultChessImprover I would add one more item: at the end of a series of calculated moves by each side, ask yourself: what does the resulting position look like? Whose position looks stronger?
Hey bro.. what's ur rating now.. because it's exact same as my thinking process but I'm now stuck at 1200 elo... 😢
Thanks Jeff! This helps a lot to jot down the procedure
Thanks for sharing - this is really helpful! I enjoyed your interview on Perpetual Chess podcast by the way.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi luka. I came across your channel a few days ago. I myself am a late learner in chess. All what you say in the videos I've watched so far totally resonate with my own experience. Therefore, I would like to congratulate and to thank you very much for your awesome work. Keep it up !
I just used these in a game against Stockfish. Very big difference. My last game before I had lost at turn 19. This time at turn 54! And I saw it all coming instead of being surprised by something I didn’t consider.
At completely even Material at turn 26 I saw that I don’t really have any good moves left. Everything I could do came with creating a weakness. I felt that I was outplayed by a superior opponent rather than having created my own demise with a blunder.
However the game took like 10 times longer than usual. So it’s really mostly for long time controls.
Thank you; very practical.
For step 1 question 2: The opponent's move can also negatively influence his own position. For example, it can cut the communication between two rooks, effectively removing a defender from the opponent's own pieces.
You mentioned this is step 3 question 2, but I think it could be applied to step 1 as well.
Yes, this is all included in the question of how are other pieces influenced. I just gave few typical examples, but there are many more.
This has been very helpful. Thank you for condensing so much time, research, trial and error into an orderly and applicable lesson. Your videos are great content.
Thanks, I am glad you like it!
Coincidentally Your video on this topic came on perfect timing as I am going through Dan Heisman's book The Improving Chess Thinker . For adults , faulty thought process is surely the biggest source of blunders.
I'm currently reading "Tune Your Chess Tactics Antenna" and it also provides a nice thinking algorithm. IMHO I think this element of chess learning is quite underrated and so crucial.
I agree, "Antenna" is a great book.
Thank you for this Luka. Very useful and your reasons for making it are absolutely spot on
I generally really like your content, but I'm not sure I completely agree with this video. I made several attempts in the past to learn Spanish by focusing on grammar and vocabulary lists, and never made a ton of progress. Several years ago I switched to focusing on comprehensible input and successfully achieved fluency. I now speak to native Spanish speakers in Spanish, watch TV and read books in Spanish. It was this success in language learning that actually inspired me to go back to chess with a new approach. I am treating tactics/puzzles as my main form of comprehensible input. I'm still only a few months in, but I feel like I'm having more success with this approach compared to focusing on systematic thinking approaches like what you and Dan Heisman recommend. Don't get me wrong, I think it's good advice and will lead to some short term improvement, but I think more effort should be spent on actually "learning the language" rather than how to consciously think about grammar every move.
I think you misunderstood the point. I am not saying that this is replacement for doing tactics, of course you should focus most of your training time and effort doing tactics in order to increase your intuition and tactical/board vision. I am doing this myself, and I've made many videos in which I encourage other to do that. I keep repeating this, if you want to improve you have to do tactics tactics tactics. Read some books, watch some videos, don't waste your time on learning openings, and do as much tactics as you can.
So yes, you should allocate most of your training time doing tactics, tactical puzzles, spaced repetition, mate in 2, etc. No question about that. But after you do all that, there comes a time when you actually sit over the board and play the game. And this is the moment where this algorithm can help you to blunder less. If you analyze your blunders and mistakes, you can see that many of those could have been avoided if only you have asked yourself these few simple questions. So why not use something which is practical and can help you to lose less games?
@@AdultChessImprover Great points, that makes sense.
I forgot to comment on the language analogy. Notice that I said in the presentation that you'll never be able to write a gramatically correct letter without thinking about grammar and specific grammatical rules of the foreign language. Speaking is one thing (small mistakes don't matter much, as long as the other person can understand you), but to write a long letter correctly is a different issue, and I really doubt that someone who learned foreign language as an adult could write a correct letter without thinking about grammar. This is possible only if you were exposed to a language as a kid. This is why I took Latin as an example, a completely new language with difficult grammar.
Excellent presentation. Very practical insights. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I think good pattern recognition enhances any thinking system and obviously allows one to make decisions more quickly.Thus not only keep up with tactics but common often occurring patterns which can be further broken down into themes and motifs.
GM Daniel Naroditsky also often talks about asking yourself "What changed?", meaning what is attacked, what is undefended, what is opened up or blocked. Combining that with CCT I came to pretty much the same blunder-check algorithm you're proposing. Trouble is actually applying it on every move :) I feel that it is getting better over time, though.
Yes, actual application is the hard part :) Good luck
Coming from a 1400 rated player this has changed the way I view the game tremendously. Applying this process takes alot of time but I imagine it gets easier and easier and will become second nature. The hardest thing about this is continuing to apply it throughout the entire game. I tend to lose focus in the late middle game and end up making a big mistake that I wouldn't have if I was still applying this thinking process. We are all still going to make mistakes but this video got me on the right track to improving my game. Thank you for this!
There was a moment in the past when I also put all my efforts into preparing an algorythm that would train the right way of thinking and protect me from blunders.
The PROBLEM with the whole idea of algorythm or checklist that you go through in order to secure more solid play is that it assumes that DELIBERATE THINKING (calculating etc) is necessary with every move. And although runningh through a script like that is useful when you sit down to solving a puzzle, it will EXHAUST you if you try to calculate every move during a normal game. Exerting too much effort where effort is not necessary is a wrong use of your mental powers. A more fruitful approach would be to train your INTUITION so that it recognizes (or has a premonition of) the RIGHT moment when solid calculation is necessary and called for. It is like changing gears in a car. You cannot run too far on the first gear, though power it creates is unmatched. You should only switch to such modes when need arises of applying all your strengths to cope with something that hits you as obstacle or opportunity. Just a thought. I recall being really irritated and exhausted trying to apply my checklist to literally every move. It's not playable.
Very helpful. Thanks!
You're welcome!
In the book 'Chess Tactics from Scratch' the author also has an interesting chapter about this called 'status examination'. Here you basically check what every piece on the board is doing, and what it is not doing. Then if you move the piece you have to think about what it is not doing anymore after you moved it et cetera.
Nice, but the only difference is that in the real game you can't check every piece on every move. Unless you play correspondence chess, you just don't have time for it. This is why you have to "update" your assessment of the position every time a move is made, or after you play a candidate move in your head. This is the main difference between a real game and solving some position as an exercise.
@@AdultChessImprover True. But I think if you practice a thinking process a lot, after a while it should go 'automatic' or on intuition. And much faster. I think a lot of mental checklists that takes amateurs a lot of energy and time, grandmasters already do that 'automatic'.
So even if you don't have the time for it in a real game, it makes sense to train it in solving positions, as a way of training your thought process and visualisation.
Thanks for this. It is very helpful. Apart from Dan Heisman it is an area rarely addressed in chess teaching. I agree Chess Masters don’t have to consider the thinking process because it is something they have internailzed - just like walking.
Thanks, I'm glad it helps!
Solid and efficient 👍
You're such a great person
Great job
THANKYOU
Very interesting philosophy
Do you plan to make a video on your views and thoughts on online chess, that you've talked about after previous tournament?
Probably, after I finish the analyses of my games.
Have you ever had trouble forcing yourself to ask the questions every move even after you are getting tired or it is getting tense on the board? That is my main problem I use algorithms for chess, but forget sometimes to use them and then get burned. Especially with the blunder check this has happened multiple times to me in frantic situations. I as wondering if you have the same problem or for you it is as automatic as looking right and left when crossing the street? Very good video thanks for sharing this.
Yes, I struggle with this all the time. This habit of asking yourself these basic questions is something that has to be trained. I don't know any other method to train this but to play long time control games, and maybe if you play online, you can have a piece of paper with these questions next to you, and then just force yourself to go through that on every move. Eventually, it should become natural and automatic
@@AdultChessImprover Yes it is strange that adults have a problem with this. you would think that after a few weeks it would be a automatic process. I liked what you said about Rubenstein that he was more prone to blunder because he learned Chess when he was in his late teens. One thing that helps me is in Lichess I have activated move conformation. That way everytime I have to comfirm my move and that is my cue to also make sure I do a blundercheck. Thanks for your reply 🙂
I started learning languages in my 30s that by now I speak fluently and intuitively, I don't think it's the same with chess, maybe it is?
nice vid. Only problem is when you time is getting less and less on the clock, your intuition is still needed.... ;-)
Very true! I didn't want to say that intuition is not needed, only that adult improvers / late starters cannot rely on intuition alone. Of course as you play more and more and you improve, your intuition improves as well. But it will never be like with those who entered the chess world as 4 year olds :)
Very impressive method. I will be sure to thank Dan Heisman for inventing it.
Good video. Re Step 2.1, I believe you have the two points reversed. First comes Pattern Recognition: Loose pieces, geometric patterns, Pins & Batteries, Functioned pieces, etc. This is the "language" of chess that young people learn to speak so fluently. Old Geezers, not as adept at patterns, must then mechanically go through Checks, Captures, and Threats, as an imperfect substitute.
Rosetta Stone, the language learning software, (Latin offered!) emulates childlike learning for adults: Absolutely no grammar or translation, only immersion in a simplified world of pictures and 100 words (initially), which are used in endless combinations and permutations. The adult learner becomes competent in this simplified world exactly as a child does. Does chess have a Rosetta Stone equivalent? Yes! Spaced repetition of basic tactics. Progressing to more difficult tactics. It just takes way longer for Geezers, because our brains are less plastic...
I definitely recommend doing spaced repetition and basic tactics, this should be main part of every adult improver's training. This is not a substitute for doing tactics, but the fact is that blunders remain to be the biggest issue for adult improvers, and many can be avoided using this algorithm. Almost every time I blundered in the long game it was because I didn't ask myself these few simple questions. If only I did, I would have lost much less games than I did. So it's like a crutch for those of us who (still?) didn't develop our intuition enough.
Wonderful. This is by far the most efficient algo i've read about so far, despite reading many other approaches which are indeed either too simple or too complicated. This is well balanced and based on your adult chess improver, thanks very much for sharing !
Ok adult chess improver ...but you have 1400 fide rating
Where Is the improvment???
1690 now 😉