Great chessplayers are usually depicted as masters of calculations: men who can see far into the future of the chessboard. However, those who strive for mastery at chess know that calculation is merely one component of good chess. Just as in life, it is sometimes more important to feel what the right course of action is, and this feeling is called intuition.

As a young man, the Argentinian chess grandmaster, Miguel Najdorf, witnessed a game between the world champion Alekhine and Finnish Master Böök. In this famous game, Alekhine sacrificed a piece for no apparent compensation at move thirteen. Twelve moves later, however, Böök was forced to resign. Continue reading Intuition And Decision-Making In Chess →

In this article I want to introduce a training method for improving your chess thinking. To do this properly it is important that you do this rather shortly after you have played the game. That way you have the best recollection of the thoughts and feelings you had during the game, be it general, in reaction to your opponents moves or not.

Below I give you an example of how I conducted this experiment once myself. In the first column I have written down white’s move (in this case my opponent), in the second column I have written down Black’s (my own) moves, in the third column I have described all the thoughts and feelings I had before or in reaction to a specific move (these descriptions are in the same rows as the move that they involve) and in the fourth column I have written down what I felt was right or wrong about these thoughts and feelings from a perspective of objectivity and practicality. Continue reading How to examine your chess thoughts and correct them →

In the summer of 2007 I was following the games of the Dortmund Chess Tournament on the Playchess server. It was the last round and Yasser Seirawan was commentating the games. When Mamedyarov had played the move …0-0 in his game against Leko, Seirawan told the listeners a short anecdote about a former Russian women’s coach whose name he preferred not to mention. This coach had entered the playing hall of some Olympiad or country match shortly after the beginning of the round and would look for a compatriot:

“How are the ladies doing?”
“Well, I suppose they are all right.”
“Did they castle yet?”
“Yes, all but one.”
“Oh no, I’m afraid we have to train even harder!”

Of course castling is not mandatory, but one goal of the opening is to get your king into safety. I must mention that it is not always easy to play openings in such a way that you’re always sure of your king. Some principled lines demand that you leave your king in the center to get an opening advantage. Also castling does not necessarily mean that your king will be safe. In a French opening position for instance you can castle right into an attack. Therefore it is sometimes tempting to delay castling and lure your opponent into an untimed attack so that after consolidation you can reap the merits of your strategy. It is this that I have tried on a number of occasions during the last season, but unfortunately with no success. Continue reading Castle before you leap →

Since the beginning of 2003 I’m taking an interest in (Tibetan) Buddhism.
To me the beauty of Buddhism lies in the fact that one does not necessarily has to regard it as a religion.
If you want to regard it as a philosophy, as your way of live, that’s just fine.
Also, the Buddhist ‘role models’ if you like such as Buddha himself or Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to the Land of Snows in the 8th century and who the Tibetans regard as the ‘second’ Buddha, are not really gods or deities in the traditional meaning of the word, but rather idols who through their great human strength and qualities of wisdom and compassion reached enlightenment and have always inspired many people to strive for the same. Continue reading Buddhism for chess players →

Dutch IM Hans Bouwmeester once told me about the post mortem of his game against young Anatoly Karpov from a simultaneous display that Bouwmeester had given against young upcoming talents. He had noticed the fact that Karpov analyzed so calmly and slowly. And that explains immediately the title of this article: C.A.S.A. stands for Calm And Slow Analyzing.

Calm and slow analyzing means that you analyze more broadly than deeply, register the changes after every move and above all, think and feel well about possible candidate moves for both sides while calculating. The chess player that analyzes in this way will be spared lots of sorrow. A simple example to illustrate this: Continue reading 6 tips on how to calculate candidate moves in chess →