The technique I'll share with you today is one of the most interesting and effective things I've found for helping our brains engage with calculations. Especially those long, demanding calculations that are so fraught with danger.
During those calculations, it's often difficult just remembering where each of the pieces are.
This technique, adapted from the work of fellow Aussie, FM Bill Jordan, may help.
Now, as with anything like this, it may not work for you. We each have our own conceptualization models and our brains will resonate with different approaches.
In my experience trialing this with adult improvers, it seems to connect more with visual-leaning thinkers than with verbal-leaning ones. But not in every case. Give it a try, either way.
I first discovered this technique in Bill's book, Optimize Your Chess Thinking. A coaching student had picked it up, found this section interesting, and wanted my thoughts on it.
It got my attention immediately.
Bill presented a new take on one of the most complicated things our brains need to do during our Chess games: accurately hold a future position in our mind while looking at the current position on the board.
Here's how that process usually goes.
We look at a position on the board in front of us and we think, "I play here, then they go there, then I do this, and then they do that…" etc etc.
With each move, we start to selectively distrust the position we can see in front of us. We add the changes each move makes, and try to ignore the things that are no longer accurate.
I like to think of it as adding layers to an image in Photoshop. Each move adds a new layer that covers over parts of the layers below. We create our sense of the future position by merging all of these layers together.
When it's just the one layer, it's very simple to navigate. The more layers we have, the more processing power it takes to merge down accurately.
With a Photoshop image, the computer handles the merging process for us. We don't have that luxury with a Chess calculation. Our brains have to do all that merging on the fly, working out what's changed in the position, which details from all those moves are still relevant. And things start to go wrong.
We forget about the file that opened on the 3rd ply. Or the diagonal we closed with a pawn move on the 5th ply. Or that our knight has moved twice already and isn't really on e5 anymore.
I knew I was hooked on FM Bill Jordan's approach when he wrote, "It's often desirable to remember the moves in a variation. However, this is a different task than visualizing." (emphasis mine).
It's not an idea I'd found before, but I loved it. Our sense of the future position and our memory of the moves that get us there are different things. For many of us, they can be separated.
(Conceptualizers who build their models around sequences may not find it useful to separate these things. Again, your mileage may vary!)
Bill's solution is to let go of the variation and instead directly compare the current position with the future position.
"It's useful to make good use of the real chessboard," Bill writes. "The look-ahead position will often have much in common with the current position."
The position in front of us serves as our background. A lot of the information on it is unlikely to change as we calculate. Bill argues we should embrace that.
Then, as we calculate, we regularly ask and answer three questions to compare the position we can see to the future position in our heads:
- Which squares can I see are empty but have pieces on them in the future position?
- Which squares can I see have pieces on them but are empty in the future position?
- Which squares have a different piece on them in the future position than the one I can see?
Then all our brain needs to do is look at the position in front of us and remember those answers.
It's irrelevant when your knight left c3 or when it arrived on e7. The exact variation doesn't matter. What matters is simply that there isn't a knight here anymore, but there is one there.
Much less information to juggle. Much less load on your working memory at a critical moment.
Give it a try with this example. Here's a position to start things off.
Now, follow this sequence:
- Be2 Ng4 2. Bd3 d5 3. Bf4 Bd6 4. h3 Bxf4 5. Bxh7+ Kh8…
(10 ply is plenty of moves for most of us to get fuzzy.)
Now, answer the questions about that future position.
- Which squares can I see are empty but have pieces on them in the future position?
- Which squares can I see have pieces on them but are empty in the future position?
- Which squares have a different piece on them in the future position than the one I can see?
(If you're finding it difficult to reach the end of the variation, answer the questions about whichever position you can reach. Chances are you'll feel much clearer afterward, then be able to keep going!)
Once you've answered, look back at the image, think about the future position, and reflect.
Does it feel a little easier to hold that future position now? Can you conceptualize it more clearly after comparing the positions?
If you are finding it easier, then you may benefit from applying this technique more regularly. There are a few different ways to go about it.
You could train yourself to do this with every move in your variations. That's a bit of work, but could be worth it if this technique super resonates with your brain.
Or you could use the technique during your calculations to refresh your sense of the position and help avoid overloads. Taking a moment to compare the positions whenever you need can make a big difference to your sense of clarity and confidence.
Or you could pull it out of your toolbox when you hit a branching point during a calculation. The more working memory space you can free up before you tackle a branch, the better. (This works great with the labeling method)
Practice in any situations that require you to calculate or follow a sequence of moves. Games, books, puzzles, whatever. If you like it and it works for you, you need to put the practice in.
If this idea works for your brain, I hope it brings you that little bit of extra clarity in critical moments.
Sometimes that's all we need. That little bit more to go one move deeper, or notice that one extra detail about a move.
Here's to the journey,
Aiden
