Once I played a guy and while we were playing he was talking about ways of studying. I told him I could see my possible moves a lot of times but sometimes I couldn't see the reply that my opponent made. I told him I thought it was because it was different having to look across the board and move towards me rather than my pieces directly infront of me moving towards my opponent.
His suggestion:
Play a game but play with the pieces that are opposite of you and your opponent play your side of the board. I haven't tried it yet as I don't have the opportunity to play much OTB but what are your thoughts on this? Do you think this would be a good exercise to improve my calculating?
Originally posted by tmstwrt88Hmm, I've never tried playing the opposite side of the board. (Other than moving the black pieces while I'm going over a game).
Once I played a guy and while we were playing he was talking about ways of studying. I told him I could see my possible moves a lot of times but sometimes I couldn't see the reply that my opponent made. I told him I thought it was because it was different having to look across the board and move towards me rather than my pieces directly infront of me moving t are your thoughts on this? Do you think this would be a good exercise to improve my calculating?
I'm not sure what you mean when you say that you sometimes couldn't see the reply that your opponent made. Do you mean that you didn't consider that move as a potential reply, or that you didn't even see that particular opponent's piece? (Sort of like, "I swear, his bishop just magically appeared out of nowhere!" )
If it's the former, then I think that's more like a problem visualizing variations, which is more related to calculation skills. If it's the latter, then I think that's more like a lack of "board vision" (being able to see what's going on everywhere on the board).
My uneducated guess is that playing the opposite side of the board probably wouldn't help much at all. If it did help any, I'd guess that it might help with board vision but not calculating.
Dan Heisman talks about board vision in one of his Novice Nook articles:
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman32.pdf
Originally posted by tmstwrt88but isn't that what you effectively do anyway (not permanently, but on move-per-move basis), when considering your opponent's reply before you move? surely you consider his potential response, i.e. as if you were him, kind of playing against yourself, no? *confused*...
His suggestion: Play a game but play with the pieces that are opposite of you and your opponent play your side of the board. Do you think this would be a good exercise to improve my calculating?
Originally posted by tmstwrt88When playing at classical or longer rapid play time limits, you are entirely free to stand up, walk around the board and look at the game from your opponents point of view. I don´t normally do that myself, but here I´ll frequently use the flip analysis board feature, which sometimes helps me find my opponents´ tricks.
Once I played a guy and while we were playing he was talking about ways of studying. I told him I could see my possible moves a lot of times but sometimes I couldn't see the reply that my opponent made. I told him I thought it was because it was different having to look across the board and move towards me rather than my pieces directly infront of me movin ...[text shortened]... your thoughts on this? Do you think this would be a good exercise to improve my calculating?
I don´t know whether playing a game with the board back-to-front is going help from a training point of view, but it may be kind of fun as you could add forfeits for moving the pawns in the wrong direction - which is going to be an easy mistake to make in a minimal material endgame. It´ll probably be more fun than reading endgame books, at any rate...
My chess club meets tomorrow, so I´ll see if I can find someone to try it out with.
Thanks DeepThought. Comparing it to the flip board option is a good way to get what I'm saying across.
How many times do people play a game, win or lose, and flip the board during analysis afterwards only to find that their opponent could have made a move(that you didn't even see) that would have given them the advantage?
Looking at the board from your opponents perspective while playing from the opposite side of the board may give you an advantage in an actual game because you learn to find the opposite sides best move because in the type of game we're talking about, the opposite side is you.
This may not be some crazy new method that will make your rating go up dramatically but could it hurt?
Originally posted by tmstwrt88I'd suggest reading this Thread 113784. I reckon it's what you're after with your query here... and yes, Analyse Board and Flip Board options are there for a reason 😉
Thanks DeepThought. Comparing it to the flip board option is a good way to get what I'm saying across. .. be some crazy new method that will make your rating go up dramatically but could it hurt?
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It certainly does help to be able to see what threats or plans your opponent has. In fact i'd say it's probably the most single important factor in a game. far more important than your own ideas, at least initially.
Johnathan Rowson in Chess For zebras describes the process as having to listen to your opponents story. yes you have your own story you want to write but you must be aware of your opponents storyline all of the time. you must take it in to account before every move you make.
The way i see it, Chess is a war game and as we know from history, details of the enemy battle plans are priceless! It's why codebreakers were so important during WW 2. To be a reasonable chess player you have to become a code breaker yourself and any way you can find to enhance this ability i think is time well spent.
Actually International master Alexander Bangiev, has a principle, which he terms the 'I', principle, which states that we only look at the board from our own perspective, and view all our opponents plans as merely attempts to undermine our own plan or strategy. i have tried it, but as one who gets his A$$ handed to him on a regular basis, its hard to say if it works.