Hi guys!
I recently noticed when I am playing a game of rapid or classical, I don't always find the best move for myself but for 98% times find the best move for opponent...I tried thinking that I am the opponent to find the best move for myself but it didnot work...is it a defect if myself? or can it be repaired? How can I improve
That's weird. Maybe try Aagaard's Excelling at Calculation book
You are not alone. I also have this problem
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"The Inner Game of Chess" by Andy Soltis is an excellent source for learning how to calculate better. Another good book of his on calculation is "How to Choose a Chess Move", but it is unfortunately out of print, and used copies tend to be expensive. Soltis's books vary a lot in quality and usefulness, but these two are among his very good ones.
I must have more precision !
Great thread !
If you're picking the opponents moves, could it be your subconscious mind is secretly aware of your own mistakes ?
Just guessing here !
Please share any of your own theories on what actually may be going on inside your minds ?
Well, the thing is that you dont have a clear path or image of what is your actual plan.
For instance, if your opponent has a weak pawn, set your plan to capture said pawn, which means coordinating all your pieces to pile up, maneuver to get the best order to exchange, etc.
When you have already a plan, its very easy to find candidate moves, as all of them are actively working to advance your plan.
When you dont have a clear plan, you will end up with misplaced pieces, and while they might be in decent squares/outposts, they do not necessarily contribute to your plan, and are not even considered to move because they are "well placed". Or it could happen that you do have multiple plans and you are executing them at the same time, but you are short in material in all of them and you dont consider moving some pieces to commit to one plan because you want to have options, and you end up doing nothing at all.
Just focus on what you want to achieve in the next 5 moves. Whether as simple as just maneuver a knight to an outpost, getting control of a diagonal/column, changing the order of the queen/bishop battery. Or as complex as setting a trap for the queen or a mate pattern.
If you have a plan, as simple as it may be, the piece you have to move and/or the squares you want to control/land will almost glow very bright in your head.
@jaggerdog after playing a move, when I see the board i can easily find the best move for opponent out of nowhere!
Is it really calculation skills that are the issue? Calculation issues are when you're having issues analyzing sequences of moves, often ones that involved checks and/or captures and visualizing resulting positions and evaluating defensive opportunities during those analyses. Your struggle seems to be you aren't finding good ideas/plans, but seem to spot good ideas/plans for your opponents, which is a different issue. If you're spotting the weaknesses in your own ideas/positions then you should harness this more to play a pessimistic chess approach where you scour your positions for weaknesses and then try to figure out how to mitigate/remediate them. A good place to start with this on your move is to ask yourself if it was my opponents move now, what would I expect him to be playing?
-Jordan
