"Is my opponent ranked lower than me? If so, I must try to win. I will only lose points if I lose or draw"

 

This thinking is very common and reminded me of Scottish GM Jonathan Rowson's excellent book 'The Seven Deadly Chess Sins". The above comment would fall under "Wanting" where your view on the position and how you play is unduly influenced by an opponent's lower rating and our expectation of what the result should be. See the result as an integral part of the game and not its defining feature.

 

For inexperienced players like me, a thouht process might be...

1. What can the piece they just moved attack?
2. Has the move uncovered an attack from another piece, if so what can it/they attack
3. In any attack, if they take and I take and we continue exchanging to the end, do I gain in terms of piece points or position? If not, can I defend the attacked piece with another piece.
4. In any attack, if I let them take my piece, will this expose a weakness that I can exploit? Is it worth the sacrifice?
5. Can my opponent fork me with a knight or a pawn (these are the ones I am prone to miss!)?
6. Where are my opponents undefended pieces? Can I take any of them?
7. Can I pin any of my opponents pieces, and would it be worth it?
8. Can I fork any of my opponents pieces, and would it be worth it?
9. Are there any forced sequences I can initiate where I gain? Do any of these sequqnces have a weakness? If so, what can I do to fix the weakness before initiating?
10. If I move a piece, based on the above, will I leave anything un or under defended?
11. Will the piece I move be defended enough?
12.  ....

I realised after starting this, I wish I hadn't. It could go on and on and I guess that's the beauty of chess. How many of the steps above I actually go through depends on how tired I am and how much I am enjoying the game.  I find the analyse feature of www.chess.com invaluable in carrying out what-if sequences, but in a boring game I sometimes cannot be bothered and so I make a move without analysing and this often leads to me making a mistake.

In addition to the list above, there are some overriding considerations which may govern my style of play like...

1. Is my opponent ranked lower than me? If so, I must try to win. I will only lose points if I lose or draw. Also, why are they playing so well?
2. Do I have a tournament coming up? If so, I had better finish these on-line games quickly and get them out of the way.

This is a really interesting topic.

Thanks

warwind, were you perhaps talking about your win against me?

I like he thought process u got here..let me share my thought process in one of my games  here in chess.com

1. What opening is he planning to do? Did he really know it? Do i have to follow booklines or should i invent new moves to keep him outbalance?

2. See i thought i told you not to invent new moves you are not familiar with now look what happen boy now i'm in trouble?

3. Ooops i think he made a mistake. He should not have move that..now im on the game.

4.There's no good move i can't think of. All lines points to a draw or unclear.Ill just play a waiting move. I can wait until kingdom come if thats what he wants.

5. Am getting impatient he seems to see every plan i make. I  just have to make more solid moves for as long as my pieces would be in active play i would be fine.

6. Boy!Watch out for blunder and dont hurry to make a move I got 3 days to respond.

7. Well let me see...this guy is really tough. Perhaps it would be better if i just offer him a draw? Nah  i can see some weakness in his move, hes rather tired or perhaps bored. Its time to strike!!

8. Finally i got the advantage because of his mistake. Well that is chess all about. How to capitalize on your advantage to convert to wins.

9. Good Game. Nice playing with you

10. I wonder whats dinner tonight?   :)

Excellent post. Thank you!

Thanks! I am going to write these down so I don't forget!

Excellent list. I'm still at the "looking for checks, captures and threats" stage. If I actually think about them when I play, I'm happy.

Nice explanation, Richard! I hadn't really considered something like that. I feel that your reasoning/list requires more "meditation" as well as "study" to fully appreciate it. If you have the time, I would suggest that you should make future posts explaining each of them as well as you did point# 7. It would benefit a lot of people. I am one of them.

Nice post, and thanks again for the explanation! 

Chessiq - I agree that the inital steps are instantaneous for an experienced player.

 

But the depth with which you process the later steps is a weakness for many players.

 

Take point 7 about what is now unprotected as a consequence of the move and a very simple example: a bishop move from its initial square either directly attacking or pinning a knight to a queen often creates a weakness from whence it came. People often act defensively when faced with such a threat when the best move is often to take the queen out of harms way AND attack the squares that are no longer covered by the bishop.

 

As an example, in the Sicilian Najdorf Poisoned Pawn, Black's queen maneuver is about a lot more than a greedy pawn grab. By playing d4, Bg5, f4, White has created a lot of dark square weaknesses which Qb6 and subsequent moves can exploit.

 

 

Nice to meet you. Nice post! It is a great list to go through, especially if you are just beginning or you are not very good. If you are good, you can choose your weakest link and try to strengthen it.

I wonder if it's just me... as an experienced player, don't you just "see" all those thing in one swipe across the board? You know what I mean?

Sorry to break the humor bubble but the first list actually works, as a metaphor.

The King is can be seen a car can't he...

food = pieces

things on tv = interesting moves 

Great blog entry!  I totally agree with your outlined thought process.  It's good to have a mental check-list to go through to help decide on a move.  I think that eventually the checks should become automatic, so you don't have to think through each item one at a time.

 

Unfortunately my thought process is much more like your first list.  Funny and true!