Fischer-Larsen during their 1971 match |
Andrew
Soltis wrote that when it comes to guessing your opponent's next move
fifty percent is a good number to shoot for. I assume he was talking
about his fellow Grandmasters, but if that's true the figure for the
rest of us must be pretty low! So, maybe my method of selecting a
move isn't so bad after all. My method is:
We
all make mistakes in calculating, but Soltis claims that you CAN
learn how to calculate and reduce the number of mistakes. He adds
that during portions of the game such as openings, textbook endings
and forced combinations you can be reasonably sure of you opponent's
move, but again, I assume he was talking about his peers. Most of us
average players don't know openings all that well and we miscalculate
tactics all the time. And, endings? How many average players know
textbook endings or can even explain the opposition or
triangulation?!
From what I have run up against on
the internet on quite a few occasions, some players don't even know
what a tactic is, so they certainly can't calculate them. I am
talking about players who play something like Bxf7+ in the first few
moves without reason. Apparently they think the “sacrifice” is
playing in tactical style and they've heard “tactics win games”
but don't realize there's a difference between a sacrifice and just
giving away a piece. I like CJS Purdy's advice because it's more accurate. He said always look for a sound tactic (back in the old days we called them "combinations.") before you do anything else.
Once we get trained in tactical
motifs, if we ever do, (see Chess Tempo for a complete list) the
number of oversights will sharply decline. Even if we get a winning
position, wins slip away by either an outright oversight or because of
other factors. Even Bobby Fischer wasn't immune to such gremlins as seen in the following game against Bent Larsen.
According to psychologists, one of
the most difficult moves to spot is the backward retreat of a well
developed piece because we just aren't trained to think that way. In
this game a backward move by Larsen ended all of Fischer's attacking
chances and all he was left with was a Q-side that was a total wreck.
Re 'Fischer-Larsen during their 1966 match', the photo is from the 1971 candidates semifinal match.
ReplyDeleteCorrect. It was on the 1971 cover of Chess Life.
ReplyDelete