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How many moves ahead?

How many moves ahead?

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I was wondering just how many moves ahead does the average player think?
To make it easier to answer you would have to clarify the type of game ie: 1 on 1 over the table
online blitz chess, 5 or 10 minute game
correspondance chess

ALso i guess it depends on the phase of the game ie: opening (playing set play), the middle and end games.

My answer to this question is (ignoring the set play openings):
1 on 1 over the table: about 4-5 moves ahead?
5-10minute blitz: about 2-3 if i'm lucky
correspondance: about 10 to 15 sometimes.

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generally a couple of moves only, 10 to 15 would be exceptional

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theres a recwe are level now 🙂

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Originally posted by PK
I was wondering just how many moves ahead does the average player think?
To make it easier to answer you would have to clarify the type of game ie: 1 on 1 over the table
online blitz chess, 5 or 10 minute game
correspondance chess

ALso i guess it depends on the phase of the game ie: opening (playing set play), the middle and end games.

My answer to this ...[text shortened]... ves ahead?
5-10minute blitz: about 2-3 if i'm lucky
correspondance: about 10 to 15 sometimes.
To emulate the great Reti and think no more then 2 moves ahead! (Well, most of the time anyways, the key is, knowing when you need to think 6-8 moves ahead!)

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who the hell is reti?
with respect to thinking ahead, i agree, working out forced exchanges or check positions seems to be the time to plan ahead, but what do u know?

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Originally posted by Sicilian Smaug
10-15 moves ahead?? This is what your mind manages? I dont believe you.
yes i must clarify that. I use another analyze board for working that far ahead. (My poor ole brain has to many holes in it.)
And that brings up another point, is using another board OK? I thought we all did that in correspondance.

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Originally posted by PK
yes i must clarify that. I use another analyze board for working that far ahead. (My poor ole brain has to many holes in it.)
And that brings up another point, is using another board OK? I thought we all did that in correspondance.
This is as silly as Tolik claiming he understands Kotov's books and mathematical algorithm. You don't think 15 moves ahead.

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Moves or ply?

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Using intuition is much more fun--you get to surprise yourself as to what the outcome will be 😀

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Originally posted by XanthosNZ
Moves or ply?
ahhh... another point for clarification. I still get confused about this.
a 20 move game is made up of 40 plies ie: a ply is a single move where a 'move' is actually a move by white & black... i think. Make sense? (stupid English)

I am talking about plys in my case. well picked up X.

Sooo, i might work 5 moves ahead, or 10 plys in a correspondance game.

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I think twenty moves ahead in every game. However, every one of those moves is appallingly incompetent.

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There was a man who beat the famous World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca. He was not even a master, really. People were stunned. So, the people asked him, "How many moves do you think ahead? How is it possible you've beaten the World Chess Champion?" The main replied, "Well, on the first question, I think one move ahead, but most of the time, it's the best move." 🙂 True story.

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I was wondering just how many moves ahead does the average player think?
Somebody asked Richard Reti, father of modern chess openings, (see Reti opening from MCO) the same question. How many moves ahead a GM thinks?

Great Reti said ''One move''

And I think he has a good point. This might be true for the avarage players too as the guy before me just stated.

But for me, As I am a SDEOGM (Super-Duper-Extra-Ordinary-Grand-Mama), I see tight to the end 🙂 Just kidding. Who cares anyway? If you can just guess your opponent's best move and are able to make your best move on the board, it aint matter how many moves ahead anybody thinks.

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Originally posted by NicotineMan
Somebody asked Richard Reti, father of modern chess openings, (see Reti opening from MCO) the same question. How many moves ahead a GM thinks?

Great Reti said ''One move''
Great Reti is a liar.