Calculating Ahead

“A strong memory, concentration, imagination, and a strong will is required to become a great Chess player.” – Bobby Fischer

One of the oldest strategies in chess is calculating ahead. Calculating ahead in its most basic form is predicting what your opponent will play in response to your move. Here is an example.

Doing Calculation

In blitz or bullet, you probably won't be able to calculate ahead that much, but in rapid, classical, and daily (correspondence) matches, you can do a lot. Try moves that seem bad, and see if they could actually turn out good. Sometimes you can find a brilliancy from what seems like a blunder! In the game in the thumbnail of this blog, Bobby Fischer calculated ahead to find a winning combination from a bishop sacrifice.

In long time controls, you can spend time trying out possible tactics in your head by visualizing. Doing tactics and blindfold chess help your visualization as well.

Puzzles

How can you checkmate? If you see a possible tactic, try not to do it on the board until you know the full continuation.

A bit more advanced: How can you win material?

What happens if the queen takes on g6?

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