How to calculate

@TheKingClash: Can you be a bit more specific, maybe some game? Your description is indeed very general, fitting both to losses on amateur level as well as to losses of grandmasters.

@Sholmes49: I did hear some good things about Aagaards books, although I don't have read them myself. I have the books of Kotov, they did not help me at all. John Nunn convincingly explains, why the approach of Kotov is impracticable ("Secrets of Pratical Chess").

@HDGhog: Of course one looks for obvious things first. Mate and gain of material - but watch out for traps! CCT (Check/Capture/Threat) is more about awareness. Puzzles should be an exercise for the game. If you solve puzzles in a mechanical way using CCT, this can have an undesired influence on your game. Like ending up in time trouble or overlooking strong quiet moves more often.

@TheKingClash said in #1:

Normally in a chess game I don't think ahead so many moves, I just play the move which looks right and is part of a plan, but sometimes it fails because my opponent gets there before me or stops my plan. Does anyone have any tips on how to calculate better in Chess?
Check what your opponent wants to do, then prevent it... otherwise do ur plabs

@oberschlumpf said in #11:

@HDGhog: Of course one looks for obvious things first. Mate and gain of material - but watch out for traps! CCT (Check/Capture/Threat) is more about awareness. Puzzles should be an exercise for the game. If you solve puzzles in a mechanical way using CCT, this can have an undesired influence on your game. Like ending up in time trouble or overlooking strong quiet moves more often.

Like ending up in time trouble or overlooking strong quiet moves more often.

=> I DEEPLY AGREE that is why I have some time trouble in blitz but in rapid or long game it is the way of playing I think. And step by step you will improve your intuition and calculation to be better at blitz

If you solve puzzles in a mechanical way using CCT, this can have an undesired influence on your game. => That is why know I have problem to implement it. I need to feel the moment or do it every time which is merely impossible

@TheKingClash: Probably everybody here understood, that you are asking for tips to improve at your level. If you don't add some examples, then naturally the answers here are very general. Like:

To improve calculation exercise difficult puzzles and endgames and review them afterwards (at least the failed exercises: why did I fail?). And in shorter time controls stop calculation earlier and trust your intuition (aka gut feeling). Because otherwise you will get good positions and lose many of them in time trouble.

Do you think like a tree? I don’t think like a tree.

Yeah. Play classical first and calculate. Then when you get accustomed to calculating then play blitz/bullet. I don't play blitz or bullet.

I read Alexander Kotov's "Think like a Grandmaster", half the book is about analysis and calculation. It helped me improve calculating forced and non-forced variants by a lot. Apart from that, I just played slower time controls and tried to apply calculation in real games.

analyse your games after without an engine.

in a typical game there's likely a few positions where you were in trouble but you both didn't see it. also likely positions where you had a tactic but you both didn't see it. The trick is when you're analysing it post game without an engine, you have no pressure, no time pressure, no anxiety about making a bad move and losing, so your brain can be looser and more creative, also you don't know if there is a tactic there or not (as apposed to doing puzzles were you know there's a tactic)

after analysing without an engine, turn the engine on and see how well your post game analysis was.

fyi, I never analyse my games. or study, or do tactics, etc.

To calculate appropriately you probably need a forcing line, it allows little to no deviation. But if a variation has a lot of ramifications, i actually prefer to stop and dont dig too deep, as some moves from a certain line will stick to my head, and i will play a though that move was made until i realize its too late.

But if your move aligns with your plan, its probably a good move, now, the only thing that you have to do prior to actually moving is to act as if your opponent knew your plan and check if he can stop it, or if you get the better part if he gets in the way. If he can stop it, well, make a new plan.