i read that a grandmaster will see the game about 20 moves in front for each possible move the opponent is likely to take; so the grandmaster could in fact hold over 200 moves in his head for the next anticipated move; however... there's another school of thought that says the grandmaster does the complete opposite to this, and decides not to look forward at all and will only play the best possible move based on the pieces at that one time; does anyone know how the brain should be trained how to play in light of this?
GM’s superiority is not based on how many moves ahead they can see. It’s based on evaluation of the position. If they look one move ahead and evaluate the resulting position as unfavorable, they reject the move. If they look ahead 5 moves and evaluate the position as favorable, they will consider it. They are better than the rest of us because they look at a position and quickly evaluate who’s better and why and their mental databank of similar positions (see below) points them in the direction to start calculating. We ponder over the position long and hard, and often still don’t know which side is better or why. Even if we do, we still may not know how to proceed. I have a book by Lev Alburt where he talks about graphing your games as an aid. “White still stands slightly better (value=5.5) because with best play Black does not have full compensation for the Pawn.” This is foolishness. Because he doesn’t have a GM’s understanding of the position, how would a 1500 know that? I once watched a local master playing speed chess against GM Quinteros. The master had 5 min & Quinteros had one. The master lost 5 or 6 games in a row (at $10 each) in the games I watched. Go online and watch the GM’s play 1 min games and see how quickly and accurately they calculate!
Experiments where players were allowed to study a position for a few seconds then reconstruct it have shown that GM’s (of course) are very good. They tended to reconstruct the position in chunks of recognized patterns…like a fianchettoed B & castled K. Given random positions with pieces just “dumped” on the board, they did no better than others. I once heard GM Gligorich, when asked how he could easily play so many simultaneous games, make the comment, “Chess is about pattern recognition.”
A beginner can easily visualize a position 28 (or more) moves ahead. Imagine a K at a1 making a journey a8-h8-h1-a1…sometimes seeing ahead is easy. Evaluating the position usually isn’t.
Originally posted by masscatThats exactly what I have been trying to tell to RHP old-school morons. When you come to the point of knowing (or "feeling"😉 the best move without having to calculate anything you have no trouble playing 1min bullet chess.
GM’s superiority is not based on how many moves ahead they can see. It’s based on evaluation of the position. If they look one move ahead and evaluate the resulting position as unfavorable, they reject the move. If they look ahead 5 moves and evaluate the position as favorable, they will consider it. They are better than the rest of us because they look ...[text shortened]... ng a journey a8-h8-h1-a1…sometimes seeing ahead is easy. Evaluating the position usually isn’t.
Originally posted by rooktakesqueenThat a gross oversimplization - they're better because of many things, not just because they remember patterns better. They have a lot more knowledge, yes, and this helps them evaluate positions more accurately and more quickly than the rest of us. But they do analyze positions, on average, much more deeply than your average player, too. They also have a better intuition for what will work or not when mkaing, say, speculative pawn/exchange sacrifices.
thanks masscat, that does help, but it does make me feel slightly dissapointed that a GM is only a GM because he's better at remembering the patterns on the board
Of course, none of them are looking 20 moves deep, considering computers don't do that either (except perhaps in endgames where it's necessary to look at just 1 or 2 key lines - then a computer, GM, or even some of us patzers can do that on occasion!). And how deep they tend to look does vary from player to player. But the reason GMs are GMs is that they're generally better than us at everything chess-related. 🙂
A few tidbits.
“A master’s strength is in the evaluation of a position.” Mikhail Botvinnik
“…a noted study by A. De Groot, a Dutch psychologist and chess master, found that the key element is the master’s ability to recognize patterns of pieces.” GM Andy Soltis
“He (the master) looks a few moves ahead and makes a judgment about various possibilities at his disposal.” GM Any Soltis
“Much more common is the kind of calculation that calls for seeing not more than two moves into the future. And most of the time these two moves variations lead only to minor improvements in the position.” GM Andy Soltis
“…do not waste time planning until you have first combed the board for good forcing moves…it is probably the best move on the board…” CJS Purdy
“Choose a simple aim, one that requires extremely few moves or one that you feel quite sure cannot make your position worse.” CJS Purdy
Originally posted by AlethiaI believe 1. Bd6ch should win a rook, unless I haven't seen something.
Try to see who is better off here; easy but interesting and requires logic. White to play and I hope I am right...
[fen]k4B1Q/ppq3pp/8/2n1r3/4r3/2P5/B1bPPPPP/R2NKN1R w[/fen]
Black can't interpose his queen for obvious reasons, so he can only play 1. ... Re8. White then plays 2. Qxe8ch, and Blacks' option fails. He can play Rxe8, then White, after all this, wins a Rook with Bxc7.
In short, White is winning.
PS. If someone can post a defense to the above, I'd like to see it.
Originally posted by darkguy00000Nd3# is the defense.
I believe 1. Bd6ch should win a rook, unless I haven't seen something.
Black can't interpose his queen for obvious reasons, so he can only play 1. ... Re8. White then plays 2. Qxe8ch, and Blacks' option fails. He can play Rxe8, then White, after all this, wins a Rook with Bxc7.
In short, White is winning.
PS. If someone can post a defense to the above, I'd like to see it.
I think the correct way for white to play is Be7+( blocking the e file and forcing a trade of queens) Qb8 Qxb8 Kxb8 Bd6+ Kc8 Nde3(white is up a huge amount of material and black has three pieces hanging with no more mate threats.
Originally posted by wormwoodThat was Bobby Fischer. It was after winning the World Championship against Spassky. A reporter asked him how many moves he looked ahead and Bobby replied, "Only one, but it's the best one."
I think it was reti who answered the question about how deep he looks: "only one move ahead" (or something close to that).
and capablanca, I believe, said he only considers one candidate move, "but it's always the right one."