Calculation Principles

Calculating precisely in your games is one of the most important skills in chess. If you are able to think forward more accurately than your opponent, you will win the game with a good chance. One of the best ways to practice and improve this skill is solving tactical puzzles.

But what is the best method for calculation? The answer for this question is extremely important because if you just calculate randomly, you won’t be successful in the long term. So, there is a calculation system what you should use. That’s what I call ’The Tactical Thinking Method’. Let me share the process what I teach and use even in my own games, too.

Tactical thinking method (forcing moves):

1. What is the opponent’s plan? (his checks, captures and attacks)

2. Candidate moves from our checks (we start with the one which leaves him the least options)

3. Candidate moves from our captures (capture his queen, rooks, minor pieces, pawns)

4. Candidate moves from our attacks/threats (mate in one threat, attack the opponent’s queen, rook, etc.)

Tactical thinking method (principles):

1.) Always start your calculations with checks. If they don’t work, search for captures and if they don’t work either, search for attacks / threats.

2.) Before you start calculating one given line 2-3 moves forward, create a list from the possible candidate moves in the given position. (at first, candidate moves from the checks, if they don’t work, do it from the captures, etc.)

3.) Never stop the calculation after your opponent’s move without looking for your next forcing opportunity (even if you are down materially). Don’t stop your calculation until you run out of forcing moves (checks, captures and attacks / threats).

4.) You have to search for candidate moves in each move within your line (not only in the 1st move but in the 2nd and 3rd move, too), so if your first-calculated line won’t work, you’ll always know what to continue with. Don’t judge the 1st move of the line according to your first-chosen (wrong) 2nd or 3rd move!

Let’s take a look at the following example (White to move and mate in 4 moves): 

What is the opponent’s plan? He wants to take our queen for free, so it’s good to keep in mind.

What are our checks? Qxf7+ ; Bxf7+ ; Bxh7+

Which one should we start our calculation with? Always start with the one which leaves your opponent the least options (even if it loses material)!

After 1.Qxf7+, he has 1…Rxf7 or 1…Kh8, but the second one leaves his rook hanging, so he has only one real option which is 1…Rxf7.

After 1.Bxf7+, he has 1…Rxf7, 1…Kh8 or 1…Kh7, so he has three options.

After 1.Bh7+, he has 1…Kxh7 or 1…Kh8, so he has two options.

According to this, 1.Qxf7+ is the most forcing move in the starting position, so let’s calculate that line.

As I wrote above, after 1…Kh8 we have 2.Qxf8#, so the only question is 1…Rxf7.

What are our checks? We have Re8+, Bxf7+ or Bxh7+.

The most forcing one is 2.Re8+ because he only has 2…Rf8.

What are our checks? We have Rxf8+, Bf7+ or Bh7+.

The most forcing one is 3.Rxf8+ because he only has one option: 3…Kxf8.

We only have one check now, but that’s a really strong one, that’s a checkmate: 4.Re8#