Thinking about thinking

Chess is 90% tactics but it's 100% mental.

Happy New Year and welcome back to Chess in Small Doses. Over the holidays I took a break from writing and then promptly got sick. Call it professional hazard from working in the ER. However I’m back and today we’re going to talk about thinking in chess.

For an admitted over thinker, this game presents all sorts of challenges for me.  For example:  When do I think deeply about a move?   When do I just play a move?  How far should I calculate? Should I save time for later or use it now? Since I began getting serious about chess 3 years ago, I’ve been obsessed with finding two things:  the “perfect” opening and the “perfect” thought process.  While I can tell you there are no such things, it appears I am not alone in thinking about thinking in chess.   Let’s dive in and try to get some clarity about the metacognitive challenge that chess can present.

Searching for Perfection

Like many adult improvers I’ve read a lot of books and articles hoping to get to the holy grail of “perfect thinking” where I could figure out what to do in any position. Looking back over my notes from lessons and readings, it’s been a constant theme for me.  The first chess book I ever read (Chess Openings by Michael Basman) had an entire chapter dedicated to the Principles of Opening Play. It introduced me to the idea of a mental checklist for chess and from there I was hooked.   When I went looking for books and resources on thought process I found it was a popular field.  A quick review of just a few of the books on thinking in chess:

• The Improving Chess Thinker by Dan Heisman

• Think like a Grandmaster by GM Kotov

• Think like a Super GM by GM Adams

• Thinking in Chess: A How to Guide by GM Kramnik

• The Amateur’s Mind by IM Silman

Online there’s a ton of resources, so many in fact it can be overwhelming. Here’s just a few from the first page of the Google search

• How to Think in Chess from FM Chudnovsky

• Simplified Thought Process (that works) from Path to Chess Mastery

• How to Think in Chess… Discipline is Required from Expert Chess Strategies

• and of course YouTube has a few videos

So what do we make of all of this?   The topic of thinking about thinking in chess has many opinions but maybe not so much data. There are some common themes however in many of the articles, call it chess conventional wisdom. I’ll present those later with the checklists but first I wanted to address the experience of being an adult improver who’s working on their thinking.

Getting Lost

Chess can be a maelstrom of ups and downs, where each win can seem like validation and each loss can seem like abject failure of your thinking process.   Looking over my notes, I’m amazed at the number of times I’ve written down other people’s thought processes in the (so far) vain hopes that they’ll stick.  The overwhelming experience I’ve had is that I often get lost in my thoughts. I find I focus a lot on the part of the board my opponent just moved in. Somehow the rest of the board just doesn’t exist in that moment. Often either I miss an obvious threat or I spend a lot of time thinking about what to do, only to make a blunder because of my limited board vision. As my skill has improved and my experience grown, I’ve felt less lost but it still happens more often than I’d like.

Some authors have suggested tips to help us improvers. In his book, Studying Chess Made Easy, GM Soltis said we only need to calculate variations 1 1/2 moves ahead and then evaluate which resulting position is best for us.   I’ve tried to do this and it’s much harder than it sounds (at least for me).  Dan Heisman argues instead we need to calculate until the position is “quiescent”.   I’ve taken this to mean we calculate until there are no more forcing moves.   However, when I try to do that I end up using up some much time I have little for the endgame.  Essentially the mistake I make is I start calculating immediately, before I’ve looked at the whole position. Other times my mind is tired and I move too quickly just to avoid the fatigue.

I’ve spent a lot of time wondering if there was a better way.   Now, 3+ years into chess improvement I have an answer… well at least my answer.   There is of course no perfect thought process. Inevitably you’ll get to a place in a chess game where you don’t know what do. If there’s one thing I’ve learned its that humans (myself included) do not like uncertainty. We apparently find it very stressful. When you’re playing chess and don’t know if a move is good or not, some people might feel anxiety or fear. Some others feel overconfident or impatient. Fearful players might over-think a position. Over-confident players may under-think (aka moving too fast) the position.  Both are mistakes. Improvers might benefit from some boundaries and structure for our thinking to avoid falling into these traps. Let me suggest 3 steps.

Three Steps

Step 1) Pay attention to what has your attention (thanks to David Allen for that one). 

Being aware of your mental state can give you the most powerful tool in life: choosing how you’re going to respond.  Call it mindfulness if you will, but we need to be aware of the thoughts in our head while feeling separate from them.  Our thinking brain doesn’t always like to work. Our emotional brain drives most behavior but often acts irrationally.  Feeling fear over the chess board, you’re likely to overestimate an opponent’s threats.  If your mind is distracted, you’re more likely to blunder.  Bringing the sound of your own thoughts into your awareness is the first step in getting mental space from them.  After that you can make choices on what to pay attention to. Without it, we’re destined to respond to the latest and the loudest things.  This first step is so critical, Harvard Business Review states “To Control your Life, Control What you Pay Attention To.” So check in with yourself while playing, try some breathing techniques to clear your mind if you’re stressed. Then peek over at the clock.

Step 2) Set time limits. 

Chess is a game of time based decision making.  We would do well if we’re using our time to make good decisions rather than racing through the moves.  Each game will have a time limit which will give us a rough estimate of how much time we have per move.   A quick and dirty way of calculating the time per move is one equation:   [Game time + (increment x 40 moves)] / 40 moves.   Alex Crompton had a blog post on this topic with a chart:

The idea is that we need to use the majority of our time ideally on positions that have the greatest influence on the outcome. Of course we have to be able to identify what are the“critical positions” and use more of our time for these moments.  Conversely we need to save time on non-critical positions and just move. But how do tell which is which?   To beginners and improvers every position seems potentially critical.   One quick way to know if it’s critical is if there are lots of forcing moves or checks in the position.   If so, then take extra time to think.  If not, save time and just look to improve your position. Time management is a whole other skill to practice in this sense. The key thing is that when the time we’ve allotted to find a move ends, we need to make the best move we’ve found and live with it. But what are we doing with all that time? How do we go about finding that “best-ish” move?

Step 3) Use a Checklist

Checklists (if used regularly) can really help when you’re looking at a position to find a move. Checklists serve to clarify where to focus and what to look for. Our brains are good at looking for patterns, so a checklist can give use patterns to look for. There’s a saying that “What we focus on expands.”  Choosing our point of focus is an essential step but it’s one that can have strange consequences for our minds.   So pick carefully a checklist that helps you where you’re weakest.

Each of us is different so I will present 5 separate checklists from 5 separate sources and you can choose which works best for you (or make up your own).  I’ll go from most complex to most simple.  Using any one of these will help you understand what’s going on in a position by reducing what you’re looking at.  However, they each go about it a little differently.  Whichever one you choose, make it a habit and stick with it.

The Checklists

#1) Aagaard’s 3 questions

GM Aagaard wrote in his book Grandmaster Preparation:  Positional Play that to understand a position, you need to ask questions of it.   He suggests 3 questions:

1. What are the weaknesses?

2. What is the worst piece?

3. What is my opponent’s plan?

After answering these 3 questions you can at the very least improve your worst piece.  Ideally you’ll respond to the opponents plan and also take advantage of the weaknesses in their position. Only by asking the question of the position will you be able to see the dynamic possibilities that are there.

In my personal experiences short questions (like these) often get long answers. I cannot argue with his list, but understand that they’re designed to get you thinking about a position deeply. That can be overwhelming initially, but over time like all things it becomes easier.

#2) CCTP

CCTP is an acronym from RB Ramesh that stands for:

• Checks

• Captures

• Threats

• Pawn Breaks. 

Mentally just acknowledging each of these elements in a position will get your brain working on them and deciding which is most important.  You can use this either in your move time, on their move time, or both.   We don’t really need to calculate variations just yet but simply go through and identify each of the elements on the list in the position.  (Judit Polgar has a variation of this she suggests called CCTV with “Variations” at the end)   Sacrifices are one thing I often overlook but asking about the threats in the position will get me at least thinking about them.  That being said, personally I find I can get lost in calculation sometimes when I use this one.  I just can’t (yet) resist immediately thinking through variations.

#3) Noel Studer’s Two Questions

In a recent blog post, GM Studer said there are two questions to ask with every single move.  They are:

1. What is my opponent’s move doing? and;

2. What will my opponent’ do if I play my move?

This is really quite simple.  Before each move try to identify all the things your opponent’s move does.  Are there any plans connected to it?  Any immediate threats?  Did that move create any weaknesses that I can exploit? After that, think of your own ideas for a move.  Before you play that move, double check and try to anticipate what your opponent will play in reply.  Pay attention to any immediate forcing moves like captures or checks.

#4) PPL

Another acronym I came across although now I cannot remember which book I read it in.   It stands for “Pieces, Pawns, and Lines”.   You physically look at each piece for one side starting with the King and then proceeding to the next piece of lesser value (Queen, Rook, Knight/Bishop).  Just look at each piece to see what you notice. Do the same again for the other side.   Then look at all the pawns for each side, noting the structure and any weak pawns.  Lastly, look at the lines (diagonals, ranks, and files) especially the ones that end on the kings.   After that, possible moves often become clear. You’re not really calculating so much as looking around.

I’ve found this one helpful for me in that at least it gets me out of my head and simply looking at the pieces one by one. It’s like going for a walk around the board with permission to just observe, at least for me.

#5) What was that?

There’s a simple (maybe too simple) “One Question” option for anyone with checklist commitment issues like myself.  Classify each of your opponent’s moves as either: a developing move, an attacking move, a defensive move, or a mistake?  It will help you identify the point of the last move or at least get you thinking about what just changed in the position.  Also, it will at least get you asking if they just made a mistake. If you do think a move is a mistake then you’ll start looking how to exploit it. Most of the other (more complex) checklists start first with the opponent’s threat. So if you can’t bring yourself to go deep in the weeds just yet, or are a speed racer then this simple check might just slow you down enough to notice what your opponent’s up to.

Just Do It

Whatever way you go about structuring your thought process, any structure is better than no structure.  Just simply saying “Always have a plan” is a structure.  Without one, we’re likely to simply be reactionary to our opponents moves which is an easy way to lose in chess.  Chess may be 100% mental but it’s also an emotional game.  Using some structured thinking can reduce emotion and get us back to solid decision making.   Even with a good thought process, there’s no guarantee that you’ll win.  In fact I can promise you won’t win them all.  However, you’re more likely to identify your opponent’s threats with any one of these options.  GM Karpov made a legendary career this way.

“Success in chess, as in life, often comes from being one step ahead. Anticipate your opponent's moves and plan your strategy accordingly.”   

Thanks for reading and I hope some of it was helpful! Please leave a comment or share if you like it.

P.S. I’m returning to OTB chess this month. Next Chess Report will come out in February with my results and games. See you then.