GM Dorfman, has suggested that every game has 5 or 6 critical junctures “forks” at which important decisions need to be made. By understanding that the game has reached a critical moment, you can take extra time in analyzing and evaluating your moves. These critical moments are where games...
Before we get started let’s define what a ply is in chess:
A ply is a half move and a move is equivalent to 2 ply or a turn by each player. For example, 1. e4 is one ply and 1…e5 would be the 2nd ply, together these two plys make one move.
Getting close to the truth of a chess position...
Update: 10/17/2009
I modified the process based on conversations with FM Charles Galofre, I have merged the tactical and strategic scans into one. His point is that even if you find a strong tactical move, you should still look at the strategic aspects of the position since the game might be won with a...
(adapted by Herman Grooten)
The following thought process which is recommended by Karpov and Mazukevich is used to detect the important features of an arbitrary position in order to devise a plan that conforms to the positional assessment derived by using this thought process.
This thinking process is based...
This content was buried in a post for Kotov’s Method for Chess Improvement, and since it is such an important chess improvement tool, I figured I would promote it to its own post.
Stoyko Exercises
from Dan Heisman’s Exercises page
A summary of Stoyko exercise:
1) Find a fairly complicated...
To help track the reasons why a mistake was made during the game.
Health
1. Not enough sleep
2. Headache, cold, etc.
3. Food problem: hungry, ate too much, too much sugar, etc.
Concentration
1. External distraction (noise, light, etc.)
2. Internal distraction (worried about prior mistake, other issues,...
