Chess Intuition Versus Calculation –

Understanding What You Need

- By Karthik PM
Preface
“Chess Intuition Versus Calculation” is a book dedicated to all type of
players. It contains different theory aspects on intuition and calculation in
chess, some players will lose on time, and some players will lose quickly by
making mistakes because they lack knowledge on intuition and calculation.
This book will let you know where you stand in the game of chess and
provide methods for improving yourself in chess quickly.

After reading this book, you’ll be able to:

*Understand what intuition is
*Understand different types of intuition
*Understand the methods of improving your intuition
*Understand the relation between intuition and calculation
*Understand situations where intuition is better than calculation and vice
versa
*Understand advantages and disadvantages in having certain type of
intuition
*Understand how a calculation process should be
*Understand the difference between intuition and calculation
*Understand how to evaluate a position properly
*Understand where you’re at chess and how to improve
*Understand much more.
Ever wondered how some players are playing fast without even thinking?
Here we go for the answer.
Contents
Chapter 1. Understanding Intuition
1. Tactical Intuition
2. Strategic Intuition
3. Psychological Intuition
4. Passive Intuition
5. Good Intuition
6. Bad or poor intuition
Chapter 2. Developing Intuition
1. Developing from Bad Intuition
2. Developing from Passive Intuition
3. Developing from Psychological Intuition
4. Developing from tactical/strategic intuition
Advantages in having good intuition:
Disadvantages in having bad intuition
Developing general intuition
Chapter 3. Understanding Calculation
1. Scanning candidate moves:
2. Analysing candidate moves:
3. Possible Opponent’s Move:
4. Evaluating the position:
5. Decision:
Tactical Calculation
Strategical Calculation:
Psychological Calculation
Passive Calculation
Sole Calculation
Doze Calculation
 Intuitive Calculation
Difference between Intuition and Calculation:
Chapter 4. Developing calculation
Developing from tactical calculation
Developing from strategical calculation
Developing from psychological/passive calculation
Developing from sole calculation
Developing from doze calculation
Intuition VS Calculation:
Chapter 5. Intuition Vs Calculation Games
Game #1
Game #2
Game #3
Game #4
Game #5
Game #6
Game #7
Conclusion
Chapter 1. Understanding Intuition

Usually, every chess player will make a board decision on logical

reasoning. I have calculated “a” noticed “b” and therefore I’m making the
move “c”. This type of calculation cannot be applied to every situation on a
chess board. Hence it is a necessity to develop our intuition.
Let’s understand what intuition is.
“Intuition is the ability to guess an approximately accurate move
quickly without proper evaluation or calculation.”
The above definition will give you an idea of what intuition is.
Approximately accurate means the decided move is not 100% accurate,
but it is playable move or it is partially correct move.
Quickly means less than 10 seconds approximately as far as the intuition is
concerned, however, in rare scenarios, Intuitive moves may appear in mind
after calculation fails to prove on the board.
Some may think that thinking for a minute or two is still quick, but even
before start calculating, how would you choose a move to calculate whether
it is right or wrong? It is intuition.
Types of Intuition
1. Tactical Intuition
2. Strategic Intuition
3. Psychological Intuition
4. Passive Intuition
5. Good Intuition
6. Bad Intuition
Let’s understand one by one.
1. Tactical Intuition
Tactical Intuition is a type of intuition where the player seek for quick
tactical moves like
a. Sacrificing
b. Exchanging or offering an exchange
c. Moves that give check
d. Pin, skewer, fork, etc.

Guess a move for white within few seconds

after looking at the position.
Did you start with Bxh7?
You’re doing it right.
Other moves? Let’s go to next one.

Guess a move for white within few seconds

after looking at the position
Moves that will be considered by tactical intuitive minds (Nxd7, Nxf7,
Bxf6, Nxc4, Nxd5, Bxd7)
Some players may not have seen these moves first, don’t worry these moves
are only for Tactical Intuitive Minds.
Other moves to consider (Rf3, g4, b3, Qd1, Qe2, Kh1, Rce1, Rb1, Qf2)
I won’t say all these moves are best, but all these moves are worth
considering while calculating.
“Scanning moves is closely related to intuition.”
We scan moves like given above without much evaluation or calculation,
then we calculate each move and finally decide the calculated move.
But, intuition is making a decision without much calculation.
2. Strategic Intuition
Strategic Intuition is a type of intuition where the player seeks for quick
positional moves like
a. Development
b. Exchange Sacrifice for positional advantages
c. Gaining additional space
d. Opening or closing the center
e. Opening or closing the file/diagonal
f. Retaining a good bishop
g. Exchanging a bad bishop
h. Getting a pair of bishop
i. Controlling 7th Rank.
j. Obtaining superior pawn structure
k. Exposing the opponent’s king
l. Creating outposts for a knight
j. Blockading the opponent’s passer. Etcetera.
Can a player think a move in few seconds considering all or some of the
above strategies?
Yes, with knowledge and practice it is easily possible.
In fact, the strategies given above are very few.
We will discuss on how to develop our intuition later and let’s now
concentrate on knowledge.
 Let’s have the same position here.
(g4, Rf3, Kh1, Qf2, Qe2, Qd1, b3, Rce1, Rb1)
All these moves are for Strategic Intuitive Minds. All these moves have
different strategic plans.
For Example:
g4 – Gaining additional space on the kingside, to drive away the knight and
to make the opponent’s king exposed.
Rf3 – Bringing additional piece to the attack
b3 – Trying to break the opponent’s pawn structure, to get back d3 square,
to open b file for the rooks and to make c4 pawn vulnerable.
Kh1 – Allowing g1 square for the rook so that white can create additional
attack along the “g” file with the rooks.
Qd1, Qe2, Qf2 – Bringing an additional piece to the kingside attacks.
Just by having these things in mind, the moves are considered without even
expecting opponent’s next move.
3. Psychological Intuition
Psychological intuition is a type of intuition where the player seeks for
psychological mistakes from the opponent by
a. Playing out of the book
b. Using opponent’s clock pressure
c. Giving defendable threats
d. Keeping most of the pieces on the board (not exchanging pieces)
e. Complicating position for both of them.
f. Having different mind setups to different players
By playing out of the book moves, the player makes the opponent think and
not use his memory to play the game. Thereby the possibility of making a
mistake gets higher.
By giving defendable threats, low rated players are likely to miss the
defense once.
By keeping pieces not exchanged, more you can attack and use your
theories on the board where low rated players may lack on those theories.
By complicating the position, low rated players are most likely to make
blunders that may cost their game.
These are all little tricks that usually players use to win any low rated
opponents. However, these tricks are being used to higher rated opponents
too.
Let’s take a look at this position.

After Ne5, Nxe5; dxe5

This position has appeared. Try to think a move for black.
Did you think Nd7 or Ne4?
Most probably you might have thought Nd7 or Ne4.
But Nd7?? Is a blunder and Ne4 is an inaccurate move. The best move
would be Nh5!!.
White has well known how a player would think, and threw a psychological
trap into the opponent.
(Nd7; Qh4!!) Black would lose a Rook.
(Ne4; Nxe4, dxe4; Bxe4) the position becomes normal.
(Nh5!; Bxe7, Qxe7; O-O) black would gain a pawn, or any other variation
is still better for black.
But the disadvantage of using psychological traps is, you may end up losing
to a low-rated opponent. I would not recommend using psychological
intuition always, however, where if the opponent defends the position, still
it won’t affect us, it would be a great idea to use there. In other words, little
bit calculation should be done to prevent losing the game.
4. Passive Intuition
Passive intuition is a type of intuition where the player
a. Make waiting move that won’t affect our position
b. Make waiting move that won’t improve our position
c. Seeking draw and repetition
d. Closing the position
e. Offering or Expecting draw offers
f. Plays a fearful gameplay
These are some characteristics of having passive intuition, most of these
players have the potential to exploit higher rated opponents. But the
problem is, they don’t trust themselves, or they give too much respect for
the opponent.

Let’s have a look at this position.

Guess a move for black quickly.
Did you think hxg4 or h4?
hxg4 would be appropriate in this position knowing that we have some
pieces active on the “h” file.
But, some players may think h4 would close the board permanently so that
no one could play actively hence it is a draw.
Of course, it will be a draw, but the player doesn’t know that he is afraid to
lose. Hence he cannot win.
“Be prepared to face the failure, success will come on its way.”
These type of players also don’t realize that they lost an opportunity to
explore and experience the game further, which would help in the long run.
“Losing the battle is better than compromising.”
5. Good Intuition
Good intuition is a type of intuition which has the combined characteristics
of tactical, strategic, psychological and passive intuition.
a. Looking for quick tactical moves at first
b. Looking for a quick positional moves at second
c. Looking for a Psychological moves in-between
d. Looking passive moves if nothing works.
This is how a good player’s intuition will be, knowing that the tactics are
short term plans, any good player will look for tactical moves first.
Understanding that the strategy is the long term plan, if there is no tactical
gain, the player would switch his thinking to strategic.
Where the position is symmetrical, Psychological moves plays a vital role
on the board.
Where the position is totally equal, and there is no winning possibility,
waiting moves will prevent the game from losing or gives the opponent an
opportunity to make mistakes.
Have this chart in mind.
Tactical > Strategic > psychological > passive
First preference to tactical, then respectively Strategic, psychological and
passive.
 Let’s have a look at this position.
White to play.
Think for a minute, note down all the moves you’ve considered.
Ba4, Bc4, Bxc6, Nc3, h4, h3?
All these moves are pretty natural looking. However, some are mistakes.
Did you consider Rg1!!
Yes, Rg1 is the appropriate move for a simple reason. Preventing the bishop
on b5 will cost g4 pawn and exposed king.
Rg1, a quick counter threat h4.
1. Rg1, cxb5; 2. h4, Qg6; 3. h5, Qg5; 4. Qf3, Ng8; 5. Nc3
Followed by Bxf4 would compensate the bishop for development and space
white has.
First, white looks at some tactical variations like Bxc6, Nxg7, Nd6+. But
nothing worked well for white, so a tactical move Rg1 appeared for a
strategic advantage.
6. Bad or poor intuition
Bad intuition is a type of intuition where the player doesn’t know what’s
happening on the board and trying to decide the move.
Usually, most of the beginners and some intermediate players will have this
type of intuition. After developing some pieces, the player completely goes
blank. The reason for this is a lack of knowledge and theory.
Some characteristics are listed below.
a. Exchanging good pieces
b. Creating many weak squares
c. Breaking own pawn structure
d. Exposing king unnecessarily
e. Using passive intuition as primary intuition
f. Lack of positional knowledge
g. Lack of planning
h. Fear
i. Unprepared attack.
j. Not developing pieces
k. Not developing pieces in right squares
l. Not considering center control
m. Not knowing basic endings. Etcetera.
These are very few characteristics of bad intuitive minds.
 Let’s have a look at the same position.
White to play.
Bad intuitive minds may think some moves that are totally irrelevant to the
game or thinking a mistake or blunder possibly.
(a4, b4, Nd2, Ba6, Kg2, Na3, a3, Bd2) these are some moves that these
players think then may or may not realize it is a mistake.
Hope you’ve noticed which type of intuition you have, let’s go further on
developing intuition, advantages and disadvantages regarding intuition.
Chapter 2. Developing Intuition
It’s been many players’ dream to develop intuition in chess, but they lack
guidance on how to achieve it.
In this chapter, we will discuss what to do and what not to do for different
type of intuitive players.
1. Developing from Bad Intuition
Developing an intuition has two steps,
1. Developing Knowledge
2. Practice
Developing knowledge.
a. Learning Openings:
Learning several openings will give an idea of developing pieces, taking
center control, advantages on lead in development etcetera. It is not
necessary that you need to learn only one opening that you play, just going
through different openings will fetch you good returns in the long run.
b. Learning Strategic theories:
Learning theories like
i. Minor piece superiority
ii. Weak and strong squares
iii. Pawn structure.
iv. Trading bad pieces
v. Not trading good pieces. Etcetera.
Will give your subconscious mind a little bit boost in thinking. However,
you may not get the result in a day, learning every day a new thing will be
appreciated in the long run.
c. Learning endings:
Learning endings from basic like
i. Opposition
ii. Pawn endings
iii. Queen/Rook Checkmate
iv. Double Bishop Checkmate. Etcetera.
Will show a significant difference in your playing style as well as your
thinking style.
Practice.
a. Playing Classical Slow games:
I would recommend you to play a lot of slow games to develop your
playing and thinking skills first. 1 hour each would be appropriate at this
stage. After you notice some difference, slowly reduce the time like 45 mins
each, 30 mins each.
b. Solving Puzzles:
Solving puzzles will make you more aware of tactical thinking which is
primary intuition that every good player should have, whereas playing
games will develop your strategic intuition. Doing these things will promote
you from Bad Intuitive player to passive intuitive player.
2. Developing from Passive Intuition

Developing Knowledge.
a. Understanding the human opponent:
As we have passive intuitive minds, we may think the opponent is superior
to us, and we are more likely to make mistakes. No, as we already acquired
the knowledge like openings, strategies, and endings, etc. the possibility of
making a mistake is close to equal.
Both you and your opponent make mistakes, spotting and punishing the
mistake is where the game point has been decided.
b. Gaining more confidence:
Make a plan, try to work it out; if the opponent is more clever, then losing
will reward you a great experience and knowledge.
Playing without a plan and just waiting for the opponent to make a plan will
make you lose the game and the reward will be nothing learned.
Have that confidence that your opponent is just a human and may make
mistakes too. Fight till the end.
c. Rejecting draws and draw offers:
Never ever ask your opponent to draw or accept a draw if your opponent
offers a draw. If you feel the position is a draw, let it become a draw by
playing till the end.
Don’t search for repetition by sacrificing some piece unnecessarily where
you have other plans to do. Always fight for a win.
Making a draw offer to any higher rated opponent will anyway be rejected
by the opponent, by doing this, we only lose our respect, and we show our
negligence to the opponent.
Making a draw offer to any lower rated opponent will decrease your rating.
Making a draw offer in losing position to the opponent is the worst thing
you could do to spoil your respect and pride, the opponent will anyway
reject it.
Making a draw offer in winning position is useless.
Making a draw offer in the middle game where the position seems equal
will only indicate your fear towards your opponent, and you lose a chance
to learn and explore chess.
If higher rated opponent offers a draw, it indicates that the position is better
for us.
If higher rated opponent offers a draw, he may be sick.
In both the scenarios, we are going to win the game if we reject the draw
offer and put some real efforts to win the game.
If lower rated opponent offers a draw, it indicates his negligence and fear.
Accepting it will cost your rating points.
By accepting or offering a draw, we may draw the game but surely lose the
chess forever.
“Be determined, try to play for a win always.”
Practice.
a. Playing Blitz:
Playing blitz game will rapidly increase your intuitive strength. Start from
10 minutes timer, after winning several games slowly reduce the time to 5
minutes.
Play a lot of games on this time control, you may end up losing in time or
getting checkmate soon. Never give up, keep playing on this time control.
There are tons of online chess websites where you could play with real
persons, make use of it.
If you’re a person who loses chess games within minutes or doesn't use
your time in classical time format chess games, avoid playing blitz and
concentrate on classical games.
b. Solving difficult puzzles:
Solve many puzzles, take your own time, it may be difficult at the start.
Keep doing, if you’re not able to do it even after 30 minutes of thinking, see
the answer and go to next puzzle.
If you can solve the puzzles yourself, it will help your conscious mind
(Calculation)
If you couldn’t solve the puzzles but you see the answers later, it will help
your subconscious mind (Intuition)
By doing this, you will learn a lot of new ideas that is used in real games.
By this time you would have promoted to a psychologically Intuitive mind.
3. Developing from Psychological Intuition

Developing knowledge:
a. Learning/revising Strategic theories:
Learn strategic theories as I already mentioned in developing from bad
intuition, if already learned revise the same. This will give you a brand new
perspective, and you’re now able to understand most complicated concepts
which you might have not understood earlier.
It is not necessary that everyone will retain the concepts learned earlier till
the end of his life, often revising the theories will be a good idea.
b. Learning openings:
Make yourself aware of most of the openings played and how the pieces
were developed. You might have already learned some opening, take it to
the next level by learning little more moves in openings you play.
We can have a data of how frequently our opening is played and how many
top players are preferring our opening from Chess Base. Knowing this can
tell whether your opening lines are good enough.
c. Learning advanced endings:
This time learn minor pieces endings, bishop vs. knight, bishop vs. rook,
etc. this will take your game to further level.
Practice.
a. Analysing Grand master’s game:
Take some grand master’s game from the database and analyze on yourself,
try to understand what they were thinking and get their thinking process.
Try to guess the move for the winning side. This would help in knowing
new patterns in chess.
b. Solving puzzles
This time go for advanced puzzles where the position will be unclear, and
you have to use your intuition.
Most symmetrical positions and structures are easy to evaluate and
understand. Try to solve puzzles where one’s advantage is compensated by
another’s advantages.

Let’s take this position as an example.

Can you evaluate the position and find who is better?
Can you find a continuation?
In this position, black is clearly better even though black is in exchange
down situation.
Bf7!;
Threatening Rg2!
Bxf4, Qxf4+
(Nxf4??, Rd4!! + -)
Kh1, Qf3+; Kh2, Nxf2! - +
These type of positions where the material is not equal and the pawn
structure is not symmetrical will help you play better chess.
c. Playing bullet.
Start playing bullet games online with 2+1 time control, then slowly reduce
it to 1 min each. Play more than 20 bullets every day, it won’t even take an
hour.
This is the last step in developing your intuition, by this time you would
have reached good intuition/ Strategic intuition/ Tactical intuition.
4. Developing from tactical/strategic intuition
It is easier than you expect.
If you’re having strategic intuition by now, play “e4” online to develop your
tactical skills.
“e4” opening is considered as one of the most favorite tactical openings for
most of the players. In this opening, you may come across many opening
traps and blunders which may cause a miserable damage to both players.
Never quit even if you lose as many as games in this opening, know that
you’re practicing and learning something every time you lose a game.
Making a mistake in this opening may end up in severe tactical calamities
on the board usually.
Example: Pin/decoy etc.
If you’re having tactical intuition by now, play “d4” online to develop your
strategic skills.
“d4” opening is considered as one of the most favorite strategical openings
for most of the players.
This opening may not contain as many as opening traps and blunders when
compared to “e4” opening. Making mistakes in this opening may not lead to
sudden tactical calamities, but it will eventually lead to a strong strategical
advantage for the opponent.
Example: Outpost Knight for the opponent.
By this way, you’re going to play something that you’re not strong in and
will gain a lot of experience.
Advantages in having a good intuition:
1. Easier to manage under times of pressure.
2. Moves can be scanned quickly to calculate.
3. The best move can be predicted quickly.
4. Clock time has been saved.
5. Allowing heart to help the mind.
6. Ability to outcast chess engines.
7. Wrong moves can be easily omitted.
Disadvantages in having bad intuition
1. Possibility of making blunder is maximum
2. Cannot think under clock pressure
3. Time is lost since the player should totally rely on calculations
4. Scanning moves takes more time
5. Doesn’t know where the game is going.
6. Cannot play if the opening line has been changed (positional gameplay is
not possible)
Developing general intuition
Intuition cannot be improved only by acquiring knowledge in chess and
practicing chess. Other factors such as attitude, character, behavior and
discipline can highly influence one’s intuitive power.
For Example: Helping your child in every single thing who is a chess
player, would affect his ability of decision making and intuitive skills.
As we start to learn and practice chess, we should also be ready to make
ourselves more discipline and improve ourselves in other factors.
Chapter 3. Understanding Calculation

Calculation is a major part of one’s chess skill, most of the players have a
question on how to calculate properly, and in this chapter, we will discuss
what calculation is and how to calculate properly.

“Calculation is an ability to foresee moves, visualize, and evaluate the

position to make a board decision.”
1. Scanning candidate moves:
This is where intuition going to help you much. Finding a bunch of good
moves, it could be 3 or 4 or even 10. It depends on the position.
Improving your intuition helps in the quick scanning of these moves and
help you reject unwanted moves in a glance.
2. Analysing candidate moves:
a. Threat:
Any move you have scanned should have a threat or plan (either good or
bad).
b. Considering opponent’s threat:
Your opponent might have created some threat from the previous move, you
should give due respect to your opponent’s threat and defend or counter
attack them.
c. Improvement:
In some way, your move should help your position get better. If you cannot
reason out a move, never play it!
3. Possible Opponent’s Move:
You should understand forcing moves and non-forcing moves here.
a. Forcing Moves:
i. Capture
ii. Threats
iii. Check
Capturing opponent’s piece will force the opponent to capture back the
piece in order not to lose any material.
Giving mating or material threats will force the opponent to defend or
counter attack for it.
Giving check will make an opponent reply for the check.
These are all the forcing moves that you should consider first.
b. Non-Forcing Moves:
You might be developing your piece or relocating your piece or any other
moves which have no immediate threat played by you, would not force the
opponent to move something, in this case, you’re going to think as if the
opponent and going to find the best move for him.
4. Evaluating the position:
To evaluate any position, you might consider these five factors
a. King’s Safety:
Whether your king is safe or your opponent’s king is safe?
How about the pawn structure before the king?
Who is attacking whose king?
Who has an uncastled king?
And many questions regarding your king should be asked to yourself and
should decide whether you’re better in king’s safety or your opponent is
better in it. After deciding this, move on to the next factor.
b. Pieces activity:
Whose pieces are more active?
How many inactive pieces do I have?
How many inactive pieces do my opponent have?
Whose pieces are controlling more squares?
Any other questions regarding pieces should be asked and should come to a
conclusion whose position is better.
c. Points:
Who is having more point counts after counting pawns and pieces?
If we have more points, what compensation do opponent have?
If we have fewer points, what compensation do we have?
Asking these question will give the answer who is better in this factor.
d. Weak squares: (a square which can no longer be protected by a pawn)
How many weak squares do I have?
How many weak squares do my opponents have?
Can I jump into my opponent’s weak square?
Can my opponent jump into my weak square?
Asking these question will give the answer who is better in this factor.
You need not ask these much questions each and every time you calculate,
but practicing this will improve your intuition and eventually you’ll start
calculating better.
e. Pawn structure:
How many isolated pawns do I and my opponent have?
How many doubled pawns do I and my opponent have?
Are my isolated/doubled pawns are vulnerable?
Are my opponent’s isolated/doubled pawns are vulnerable?
What compensation will I get if I sacrifice those weak pawns?
Any questions like this will fetch you the answer who is better in this factor.
Considering all these 5 factors, evaluate a position to know whether you’re
better or your opponent is better.
5. Decision:
However we calculate various things, when it comes to a decision, we are
allowed to make only one.
a. Decide a move which has easier continuation for you:
Never complicate your position until you know it is clearly better for you.
Until then, choose an easy variation where you would feel easy to play.
b. Decide a move which has a threat or plan:
Without threat and plan, you could never win until the opponent makes a
stupid mistake. It is not a question of making a mistake, it is how we force
the opponent to make a mistake, give threats and have plans.
Types of calculation
1. Tactical Calculation
2. Strategical Calculation
3. Psychological Calculation
4. Passive Calculation
5. Sole Calculation
6. Doze Calculation
7. Intuitive Calculation
Let’s understand one by one.
1. Tactical Calculation
Tactical calculation is a type of calculation where the player spends too
much time calculating
a. Exchanging or offering an exchange
b. Sacrificing pieces
c. Changing move orders
d. Pin/ Skewer etc.
e. Creating quick threats
f. Calculating forcing moves
Usually, players who possess this calculation style tends to calculate tactics
more than anything else in the board. Sometimes, they may sacrifice their
pieces on unclear positions and may lose the game.

Let’s have a look at this position.

Think for some time and find a move for black.
d4??
Some might have thought Nxd3 is good, yes, of course.
Tactical calculative players might have considered “d4” but is actually
wrong indeed.
(bxc5, Bxg2!; Bb5+, Kf8; Qd3, Bxh3) This variation might become equal
or unclear to for both sides.
Bf1!!, Na4; b5, Bd7; Qe4 + -
This variation just makes white better.
The pawn on d4 can be captured by white which will lead white to winning
advantage.
This is one the top reasons why some players lose the game, they sacrifice a
piece unnecessarily which could be defended by the opponent. Sacrificing
something which need not be accepted which will turn into potential
weakness for our side.
2. Strategical Calculation:
The strategical calculation is a type of calculation where the player put
strategical variations first and tactical variations at last.
These players put these things first:
a. Development
b. Castle
c. Outpost for knight
d. Exchanging bad pieces/ Retaining good pieces
e. Gaining space etc.
However the thinking will is good, this is a bad approach to chess.
Players who possess this style of calculation will miss most of the early
winning chances by not giving tactics more concentration.

Black has just played Nf8.

Doesn’t seem anything wrong here right?
Calculate a variation for white.
Most of the strategical thinkers simply play Ne5 because the black knight is
no longer controlling e5, they may also think of playing f4 later and create a
strong attack.
However the thinking is right, they missed simple tactics here.
Bxc8, Rxc8; Bxf6, Bxf6; Qf5!
After this variation, d5 pawn becomes vulnerable and cannot be defended.
A pawn is much more sufficient for a win.
3. Psychological Calculation
The psychological calculation is a type of calculation where the player tries
to play something that opponent don’t like and often not listening to what
the board tells us to do.
These players may:
a. Change the opening to particular player
b. Complicate the position so that it is hard to understand
c. Play unusual openings
d. Try to attack as early as possible even before completing development
e. Make a move where the opponent is likely to make mistakes etc.
Players with this style of calculation often don’t listen to the board but play
some random move to surprise the opponent.
This is a natural approach followed by high rated players to low rated
players to make them think and make mistakes and not use their memory.
However this seems to be a good idea, it will not work out with a higher
rated opponents and hence cannot be relied upon.
Let’s understand how a psychological move looks like with an illustration
below.

Let’s have a look at this position.

In this position, white has played h4!?
This move is quite surprising for most of the players.
(hxg5?; hxg5, Ne4; Nxe4, dxe4; Qxe4, g6; Qh4)
This variation will lead white in the victory.
Any other variation after hxg5 will give white a better hand after O-O-O.
Positionally, h4 is not a good move, but psychologically it is accurate. It
may surprise and confuse the opponent.
However, playing these moves to a better player will get suitably punished.
4. Passive Calculation
Passive calculation is a type of calculation where the player only calculates
defensive/passive moves like
a. Moves which will not affect/improve our position
b. Waiting moves
c. Relocating pieces till the end.
Players with this style of calculation tend to lose many games and usually a
low rated player. They finish the development and don’t know what to play
and how to plan next after finishing development, they spend time
relocating pieces till the attack comes in from the opponent and eventually
lose the game.

Let’s have a look at this position.

h4, Bc6; g4, Nfd7; h5, Rfe8; hxg6, hxg6; Qh2 + -
This is how a passive player plays trying to relocate all his pieces and not
starting an attack.
However they try to defend the opponent’s threats, the game won’t last
longer with only defense.
5. Sole Calculation
The sole calculation is a type of calculation where the player totally
dependent on calculation and not using his intuition.
These players usually:
a. Lose on time
b. Cannot play blitz/bullet type of chess games and win
c. Really slow in making a move
Since the players with this style usually use only calculation, it is hard to
manage time and sometimes hard to play on positions which are
complicated.

Try to evaluate this position and guess a

move for black.
The position is equal even though white is up an exchange, black still has a
pawn compensation with passer in the center.
Bf5; Bxf5, gxf5; Bg5, Be7.
This could be a possible variation. Sole calculative players may find it
difficult to play these type of positions since one’s advantage is
compensated by another’s advantage.
6. Doze Calculation
The Doze calculation is a type of calculation where the player totally relies
on intuition and not use his calculation much.
These players usually:
a. Talented low rated player
b. Don’t utilize their time to think
c. lose/win quickly
d. Have good theoretical knowledge.
This is the worst kind of calculation style that a player could ever have.
These players may have good knowledge and talent, but they lack patience.
Plenty of knowledge might have learned, but still, the results will be close
to nothing. They use their intuition in classical games and may lose the
game making blunders.
7. Intuitive Calculation
The intuitive calculation is a type of calculation where the player scan
moves with the help of intuition and verifies every move by calculation to
arrive at his decision.
These players usually:
a. Higher rated player
b. Can play both blitz/bullet and classical chess games
c. Fast in scanning moves
d. Fast in decision-making

Since the players with this style use both intuition and calculation for a
move, it is easy for them to manage time and play any format of chess
games. This is the best style of calculation that should be adopted by
players.
The difference between Intuition and Calculation:
1. Intuition is the base for calculation
2. Intuitive decision may not have logical reasoning unlike calculation
3. Calculation takes too much time where intuition may help in few seconds
4. Calculation drains human energy, Intuition doesn’t drain energy.
5. Knowledge and practice are the way to improve intuition whereas
calculation can be improved only by practicing.
6. Calculation is superior to intuition in most of the scenarios and intuition
cannot be trusted completely
7. Intuition may help where calculation fails (unable to evaluate the
position) (only to experienced players)
Chapter 4. Developing calculation
To develop calculation, we have several methods directly and indirectly.
Let’s discuss on how to develop calculation for each type.
1. Developing from tactical calculation
Being a tactical calculative player, we may make mistakes like:
a. Overlooking at a position
b. Sacrificing a piece and calculating as if it was there
c. Omitting strategies often etc.
To avoid these type of errors, we have to follow the instructions below.
a. Learning Strategies:
Learn strategies like pawn structures, how to plan, space, center types,
static, and dynamics, etc. Keep track on what you learn and try to apply the
same in any test games you play online or with friends. Doing this will
eliminate your negligence towards strategies and will enable you to play
more effectively.
b. Practicing Visualisation Technique:
Get some notations of GM chess games and try to visualize the entire game
without the help of a chess board, this practice will enable your ability to
foresee the position after several moves and evaluate it accordingly. This
will highly reduce the risk of the wrong sacrifice.
c. Solving strategical puzzles:
Solve puzzles where the puzzle’s ultimate aim is to create some strategical
advantage and not a material advantage.
Advantages could be:
i. Space
ii. Outpost for a knight
iii. Getting superior pawn structure etc.
Practicing these type of situations will enable us to look for these
advantages on the board and will eliminate overlooking at a position.
d. watching/reading GM’s game with annotation:
By watching/reading GM’s game with annotation, we will learn tons of
strategies used in their game. We do understand that we need not make a
sacrifice and win a game, but we can slowly develop our position to win a
game too.
Watch games which are especially longer than 35 moves to make sure the
game deliver strategies and not tactics.
2. Developing from strategical calculation
Being a strategical calculative player, we may miss an early opportunity to
win a game and may not consider tactics as primary calculation.
To avoid these errors, we may consider the following.
a. Learning tactics:
Learn tactics like Pin, Skewer, X-ray, etc. We might have already known
these things but may not know these things in-depth and how to use it.
Simply revising these things is also a good idea to start with.
b. Solving puzzles:
Try to solve as many as puzzles where the ultimate aim of the puzzle is
material advantage and checkmates. By doing this, we consciously develop
our knowledge on tactics and will come to know its importance.
c. Taking risks:
We often get afraid whether the sacrifice is good or bad and end up playing
something other than that, try to explore and sacrifice pieces in test games
which you may play online or with friends. This will allow you to know
new patterns and compensations for an advantage that opponent possess.
3. Developing from psychological/passive calculation
Being a psychological/passive calculative player, we may consider few
things below to enrich our abilities in chess.
a. Understanding your human opponent:
“Chess is 35 to 40% psychology.” – Judith Polgar
However, psychological traps will not always put your opponent in trouble
but sometimes put ourselves in trouble. Always think that your opponent
knows your threat and will defend it. Even after the opponent’s defense, the
position is normal, you’re good to go with it. Most psychological thinkers
may risk their game by giving a fake threat which could be defended with a
powerful counter-attack, these fake attacks should be entirely stopped.
If we make only passive moves, our opponent will come with a plan which
we may defend once or twice, but after several attempts to attack, obviously
opponent wins.
“Defending is a tougher task compared to offending.”
b. Understanding what the board speaks:
Listen to the board with your calculation,
If the board is demanding us to develop our pieces, develop.
If the board is demanding us to attack, attack.
Always play what your calculation tells you to do and not anything your
fear tells.
4. Developing from sole calculation
Being a sole calculative player, we waste time thinking too much in simple
positions, we may also overlook position and make it too complicated.
We may consider the following to eliminate our errors:
a. Learning about intuition:
Learn what is intuition and its types and how to develop it. We only depend
on calculation, and it is not good all the time. Try to play some games
without proper evaluation in your test games online or with friends, this will
enable your intuitive thinking.
b. Playing blitz/bullet chess games:
Playing quick chess games like blitz/bullet will enable your intuitive
thinking and develop your intuition rapidly so that we may save a lot of
time and energy calculating moves.
c. play games with compensation:
Try to play games with compensation like “minor piece for three pawns”,
“Rook for a pawn and a minor piece”, etc. in your test games online or with
friends. This will make your calculation little difficult to stand up, and
intuition comes to help you.
5. Developing from the doze calculation
Being a dozen calculative player, we usually trust the intuition more than
calculation and end up making blunders, we may consider the following to
improve ourselves.
a. Meditation:
Practice any type of meditation, it could be a normal meditation or sitting
for some minutes before the chess board trying to concentrate on the board.
We have to understand that we possess less patience than we actually need.
Try to increase your patience by any means.
b. Understanding calculation is better than intuition in most cases:
Playing quickly only allows our intuition to work and will not give our
calculation power a chance to help us. Calculation is better than intuition in
most cases, and we need to take some time for good calculation before a
move.
c. Blitz/bullets games are strictly prohibited:
Never play blitz/bullet chess games, know that your intuition is strong
enough already to defeat most of the players who use their calculation. Try
playing long classical games which will help your calculation and give it a
boost.
Understanding “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Try to understand that your practice need not necessarily result in
proportional results in tournaments considering short term, it takes
reasonable time for the results.
As bodybuilders make hard work each and every day with an utmost
dedication to building their muscles, we work to shape our thoughts, both
takes considerable time, effort, rest, proper diet, etc.
Most of the players quit chess like a person who quit gym after a month or
two not knowing that they’re actually improving.
Most of the parents put additional pressure on players for their failures, it
only creates a lack of patience and similar negative effects towards chess. In
fact, except coaches, no one has the right to criticize a player - including
parents. As a player, have this self-confidence.
Most parents don’t understand they’re trying to help their kid in chess but
end up stuffing misconceptions into the player’s head. These
misconceptions really make it hard for a coach to teach a kid who has
already wrongly learned something, he needs to erase all misconception and
feed new concepts, making it a double work and even longer to improve
chess. As a player, trust your coach and be interactive with him to help you
better.
Chapter 5. Converting Advantages in Time
Pressure

Most players reach advantageous position and often make blunders and lose
the game in time pressure, there are few techniques which will really be
helpful. Let’s start learning.
1. Simplification Method:
We might have heard a rule “Exchange pieces when you’re up in material”,
Simplification method is quite similar.
Simplification method refers to “Sacrificing any material to end up with
simple winning game”
We may have lot of pawns/pieces but we’re confused how we can convert
this material advantage to win, we may be afraid of opponent giving
fake/real checkmating threats etc. In these types of situation, we are going
to use this method to simplify the game.
Generally, after sacrificing any material in this method, we will end up with
a position where we can simply use our intuition to win the game.
These moves may not be the best moves on the board, but are very
effective.
To better understand this, let’s discuss with some examples.
Example 1.

A typical queen + pawns vs queen + pawns ending.

Most players usually hate this ending since a wrong move may lead to
perpetual draws/losing.
White has six pawns and black has only four pawns, white is ready to enter
a pawn ending and win the game easily but black’s queen is the trouble.
1. Qd5+!
White just wants to trade queens and wants to enter into a simple pawn
ending where white is clearly up with a pawn.
Another idea is breaking opponent’s hope. Queen is the only hope for black
in this position, black may try to find perpetual with his queen or create
some random threats on pawns with his queen.
By trading opponent’s queen, we are breaking his only hope for his
victory/chances of draw.
Qxd5+; 2. exd5, Kxd5; 3. Kd3 1 – 0.
 Example 2.
In this position, white is clearly better. However, there are no files for white
rooks. White may consider “g4” break and open “g” file for his rooks.
It is sometime really harder to play against knights, particularly when they
are well placed, we may end up giving away a full piece in fork which will
change the game entirely.
White is 3 points up in this position, never mind giving away a point to
make this position little simple to play.
1. Rxc4!, dxc4; 2. Kxc4
Position just got simplified, all white need to do is to find some open files
for his rook.
h5;
To stop g4.
3. b5
Trying to open files for the rook, so that it can penetrate into opponent’s
camp and attack other pawns. “cxb5” will also create a passer for white on
“d5”
Nd2+
(c5; dxc5, Nxc5; Re8 +-)
4. Kd3, Ne4; 5. Rxe4! 1 – 0.
Any other variation also miserably fails after Rxc4.
Sometimes, it is not the best move that matters, alternatives are little easier
to go with.
This method not only applies at the ending, but also to middle games.
When opponent has sacrificed some piece and attacking rigorously, trying
to sacrifice back some lesser valuable piece to stop the attack is also
simplification method.
2. Increment Method:
This method refers to “Increasing the clock time with fake moves”
When players are in time pressure but need more time to think, this method
comes in handy. This method can only be applied to games with increments
and not straight finish.
Repeating 2 times would fetch 2 minutes in clock in FIDE system of games.
Random checks, passive moves also increases time to think rather than
going all the way to attack and making a blunder.
It is not that we’re becoming passive, sometimes we need to wait with
patience.
3. Utilising our time when opponent is under pressure:
Most players do this mistake, playing rapidly trying to make opponent’s
clock flags.
We need to understand, opponent has pressure on time, why do we need to
takeover that pressure to our head? Playing your best move will anyway let
your opponent think more and put much pressure on them.

This was the endgame appeared after 35th

move in one of my student’s position.
White to play
He was black and had plenty of time of think and his opponent had time
pressure ticking in seconds.
White has an extra pawn, however e3 pawn is hanging. Black has a bishop
in the centre with good diagonals controlling “a8” square. Black also have
“h7” outside passer.
1. d5!
Trying to reach “d7” after which the pawn is unstoppable.
Kxe3; 2. d6!
Black’s king cannot capture the knight on “f4” since after “d7” promotion is
unstoppable.
Bc6??
Looks very logical at first instance, but is a mistake.
(b2, Kxb2, Bc6; Nd5+!, Kd4 =) would have drawn the game
3. Nd5+!
Now black king has no good square.
(Ke4?; Nf6+ followed by d7 + -)
Kf3; 4. a5, h5; 5. Nb6, h4; 6. d7, Bxd7; 7. Nxd7; h4; 8. a5 1 – 0
Black had resigned knowing h1 is not possible since a8=Q skewer. We may
think Queen versus rook pawn on 7th rank is draw, but black has a pawn on
“b3” which could do the waiting move needed to checkmate the black.
For example: h3; 9. a6, h2; 10. a7, Kg2; 11. a8=Q+, Kg1; 12. Qg8+, Kh1;
13. Ne5 followed by Nd3 and Nf7#
Bc6 was the mistake done by black considering white’s clock pressure
which changed the game entirely.
It is totally opponent’s responsibility to handle his time, never try to make
him pressure on time but by position.
Chapter 6. Intuition Vs Calculation Games

Obviously, calculation is what you should trust the most, however in some
positions calculation may not help you, then intuition comes in handy.
Keeping calculation as primary decision-making tool will save you from
many disasters like making mistakes, blunders, etc.
However, keeping intuition as primary decision-making tool will save you
time and energy, but it is not 100% reliable.
Intuitive calculation is the best way to make decisions where the move is
decided by intuition and verified by calculation before playing. It will save
a lot of time on your clock, and the possibility of making a mistake is also
reduced, however, you may miss out on the best move in a rare scenario
which is usual for any human.
Intuitive games are the games which are played without much calculation in
a blitz/rapid time format. Still, both the players won’t make blunders.
However, there will be some errors. Let’s spot and analyze it!
Game #1
1. e4, e6; 2. d4, d5; 3. e5, c5; 4. c3
A natural French advanced variation, well I knew the theories about this
game that black has to play on the queenside and pressure on d4. Since it is
a closed position, we may slowly develop our pieces!

Nc6; 5. Nf3, Qb6; 6. Bd3

The pawn on d4 cannot be captured since (Nxd4; Nxd4, Qxd4?; Bb5+)
black would lose the game.
Bd7!;
Prepared to capture on d4
7. O-O!?
A pawn sacrifice on d4 for rapid development, capturing it would be met by
(Nxd4, Qxd4; Nc3) again a sacrifice on e5.
While black is enjoying capturing pawns, white is developing its pieces
rapidly.
However there are proper defences for these kind of gambits, it makes
opponent in situation where most of his choices are mistakes and right
choices are really less.
 cxd4; 8. Nxd4, Qxd4; 9. Nc3
Capturing again on e5 will be met by Re1 followed by Nb5 or Nxd5 or Qf3
then Bf4.
Where all the pieces of white will be attacking, and black’s pieces would be
sleeping.
a6!
Controlling the key square that will be used to attack (b5)
10. Re1, Ne7; 11. Be3, Qxe5
White has developed almost all the pieces, whereas I did not have Proper
Square for my kingside knight and bishop, if I develop the bishop on e7,
Knight would not have Proper Square for development. Hence I chose Ne7
followed by Nc6 plan.
However playing Nc6 will create a pin along “e” file and “d5” pawn could
become potential weakness for black.
After Ne7. g6 followed by Bg7 and O-O might have also very effective.
Once black completes development, it is clearly better.
 12. g3, Nc6!?; 13. Bf4, Qd4; 14. Be3
I’m just a single move away from developing my black bishop, which
would turn the game normal and I would be 2 pawns up.
As we can understand, the opponent is repeating the moves. Now I have
only 2 squares for my Queen, b4 or e5.
Other squares like f6 would be met by Nxd5
Qb4 will still be met by Nxd5 then the position will be little complicated,
by my heart said don’t go for a draw.
Qb4; 15. Nxd5!

My queen is under attack and Knight is also

threatening c7 fork.
(exd5??; Bc5+)
Qd6
I had only two options again, Qa5 or Qd6.
(Qa5?, Bc4)
16. Nb6, Rd8; 17. Nc4; Qd5; 18. Bb6
One thing that I liked from my opponent is he tried so hard to keep my
pieces undeveloped by giving back to back threats.

Can you guess any intuitive move here?

I didn’t calculate much
Nb4!
Decided to sacrifice the rook and the position gets little complicated after
exchange sacrifice and undeveloped pieces and hanging knight on d3. Still,
something said everything is going fine.
19. Bxd8; Nxd3; 20. Nb6, Qf5!; 21. Re2, Bc6!

White has resigned in this position

considering Bc5, Qf3, etc.
Game #2
1. e4, c5; 2. Nf3, d6; 3. d4, cxd4; 4. Nxd4, Nf6; 5. Nc3, g6;

Most common nowadays Sicilian Dragon

variation, I’ve played hundreds of games in this particular line which really
helped to plan fast.
6. Be3, Ng7; 7. f3, O-O; 8. Qd2, Nc6; 9. O-O-O, Bd7;
Usually, I would like to go with Bc4 before castle to stop d5 (Yugoslav
attack) however O-O-O is also quite natural which will save a tempo.

Now white can right away start attacking with

usual h4 > h5
10. h4, Rc8; 11.g4, Ne5; 12. h5
Didn’t take much time on calculating, the basic plan for the opening has
been played.
Nc4?; 13. Bxc4, Rxc4
Here comes a little tactic that the opponent didn’t expect.
 Try to guess a combination from this
position for white.
14. hxg6!, fxg6; 15. e5!
(dxe5?; Ne6!) Double attack.
Ne8; 16. Qh2
Black has resigned in that position knowing
(h6; e6, Bc8; Bxh6) eventually black loses the game.
Ne5 and Nc4 are quite natural moves in Sicilian trying to exchange either of
the bishops and start attacking on the queenside for black.
However, the intuition helped my opponent to make a mistake.
Game #3
1. d4, d5; 2. c4, c6; 3. Nc3, Nf6; 4. Nf3, Bf5; 5. cxd5, cxd5; 6. Qb3, b6?

Slav defence, It is quite normal until Qb3. b6?

Natural looking move that every intermediate player will consider, to
defend the b7 pawn b6. Quite logical.
But, black didn’t take care of white squares on the Queen side.
7. e4!
My intuition has just asked me to open the white bishop with a tempo, so I
sacrificed a pawn.
dxe4; 8. Ne5, Be6; 9. Bb5+, Nbd7; 10. d5

As we could see, all the pieces of black are tied

with something and can’t be developed.
Bf5;
So I chose to bring more pieces to play.
11. O-O!
Now black should try to develop his kingside bishop and castle to get the
position normal, trying to drive away the bishop on b5 by a6 is still useless
after Bc6.
g6; 12. Bg5, Bg7; 13. d6, Be6;

Find the best continuation for white!

At this position, I couldn’t resist myself from sacrificing my queen even
without calculating properly.
14. Nxd7, Bxb3; 15. Nxf6+, Kf8; 16. Nd7+, Kg8; 17. dxe7, Qc7; 18. axb3
All the moves are pretty forced, and I now have 3 pieces and a passer pawn
for a queen, and I also have superior pieces.
h6, 19. Nf6+
Most of the players are afraid to give a queen for two rooks or three pieces
or any other better or equivalent material, this is just a psychological fear
that they may have.
Try to understand the exchange value of pieces if the pieces are not same.
 Black has resigned from this position knowing
that after Rd1, Rd8 is not stoppable.
This is how a small, intuitive mistake will cost your game.
Game #4
1. e4, e6; 2. Nf3, d5; 3. Nc3, d4!?

The calculation starts from the beginning, by

playing d4, black would gain more space on the queenside.
4. Ne2, c5
Protecting the pawn with a pawn gives more safety to the pawn. So c5.
5. d3, Nc6
Now both the sides should concentrate on developing their pieces.
6. g3, Nf6; 7. Bg2; Be7; 8. O-O, O-O; 9. h3

White keeps the control on g4 which will

prevent black’s knight from coming there and also allows white to push g4
followed by g5 attacks.
e5;
Gaining additional space in the center, if you know the king’s Indian
opening classical line, this will closely resemble the same but the color is
different and white has gained some tempos.
10. Ne1, Ne8
White plans to play f4 and start kingside attack, and black plans to bring his
pieces to the queenside and start attacking by c4.
We know the concept of closed position, creating pawn levers.
These concepts have been explained in my previous book “Chess games
with conceptual explanations” to have in-depth clarity take a look at that
book.
11. f4, f6;
Very close resemblance of king’s Indian opening, where the opponent
would close the position by playing f5.
But in this game, I experienced a totally new variation.
12. Kh2, Be6; 13. Ng1?!, exf4;

Where my idea was to start a kingside attack if the

opponent takes the pawn with the bishop, or to target the pawns if the
opponent takes with g pawn.
14. gxf4
Finally, I’ve managed to create some weakness in opponent’s camp. F4 and
e4 pawns. Now my entire game will revolve around demolishing it.
f5; 15. Nef3, fxe4; 16. dxe4
anyone may think that f4 and e4 pawns of white are controlling some key
squares in the center and can be advanced at any time, but I look those
pawns as potential targets to demolish.
Nd6;

I’ve started attacking the pawns.

White cannot advance any of those pawns now to defend it. Advancing e5
would give away the strong f5 square for my knight, and advancing f5
would be met by Nxe4 followed by Qc7+
17. Re1, Qc7!
This is where calculation helps, Qc7 is a natural looking move indirectly
attacking f4 and pinning that pawn, connecting the rooks and allowing the
rooks to get into d file for a future attack, indirectly creating Rxf4 threats.
So many ideas in a single move.
18. b3, Nb5
White tries to control the c4 square which is readily available for black’s
Knight and bishop, but creating yet another weak square on c3
Black is trying to get into the weak square c3 and also opening the queen
diagonal and threatening Rxf4 sacrifice.
19. Ne2, Nc3; 20. Nxc3, dxc3;
 I’ve opened the d file which will be dominated
by my rook on a file. And the Rxf4 threat is still there.
21. Be3
I’ve been waiting for this
Rxf4; 22. Bxf4, Qxf4+; 23. Kh1, Qg3; 24. Qd3, Bxh3

25. Bxh3, Qxh3+; 26. Nh2, Qxd3

White has resigned at this position considering after Rd8 and Nb4, Black is
clearly better at this ending.
Game #5
1. d4, Nf6; 2. c4, e6; 3. Nf3, b6; 4. g3, Bb7; 5. Bg2, Be7;

Queen’s Indian opening, I love this opening

cause of long diagonal bishops which may give lots of opportunities for
attack.
6. O-O, O-O; 7. Nc3, Nf6; 8. Qc2, Nxc3; 9. bxc3!?
No one likes to have a doubled pawn, but in this position I’ve played bxc3
just to maintain my Queen on b1 to h7 diagonal. (Doubled pawns are not
always weakness)
c5??
A tempting move, most of the players make this mistake trying to make the
white’s pawn structure weak, black trusted his intuition here and didn’t
calculate much. I’ve spotted a weakness (unprotected bishop on b7 and
Vulnerability towards b1 to h7 diagonal)
To win any chess game, you should spot or create two weaknesses in
opponent’s camp, having said this, we’ve already spotted two weaknesses.
 Try to find the best continuation for white.
10. Ng5!!
Threatening Qxh7# or Bxb7.
Bxg5; 11. Bxb7, Bxc1; 12. Bxa8
White has just gained an exchange, and the game was 1 – 0 after several
moves.
I always say trust your intuition, but never forget to verify it.
In this game, black has made an intuitive mistake, and white has found the
best continuation with calculation.
If white choose to apply intuition in this game, he may end up playing Rd1
or Bf4 or Rb1 and might have missed Ng5.
Game #6
1. e4, e5; 2. Nc3, Nf6; 3. Bc4, Bc5; 4. f4!, d6; 5. Nf3

A converted King’s Gambit declined system.

f4 pawn is sacrificed for a rapid development and open “f” file for white
rook, Black has declined the gambit, however, the “f” file may become
open for a white rook.
Bg4?!
A natural looking Pin, but the book move was c6 followed by b5 to gain
some good space on the queenside.
6. h3, Bxf3; 7. Qxf3
Since black can’t waste a tempo by getting back his bishop, he chooses to
lose double bishop advantage in the very beginning.
Nc6, 8. d3, Nd4!
Black just found an excellent square for his knight attacking the queen and
threatening Nxc2 fork. Black had thought the only move to defend both the
threats is to play Qd1 and undevelop his queen.
9. Qg3!?, Nxc2+; 10. Kd1, Nxa1?
 Black could have played (Nh5; Qf3, Nxa1;
Qxh5) variation to minimize the attack compensating 2 knights for a rook
and a pawn.
Black’s Nxc2 followed by Nxa1 was pretty obvious. Everyone does without
even proper calculation by using their intuition.
11. Qxg7
Attacking the rook on h8 and threatening Qxf7#
Rf8; 12. fxe5!
Capturing the pawn on e5 and threatening exf6, this move also opens the
diagonal of the bishop on c1 and file for the rook on h1 to join the attack on
h6.
dxe5; 13. Rf1, Be7; 14. Bg5!, Nxe4?
Black realized that the knight on f6 is trapped and sacrificed it to get a pawn
on e4. Instead, he could have tried something like Qd7, c6 followed by O-
O-O for a better game compensating 2 knights for a rook and a pawn.
15. Nxe4, f5; 16. Qxh7, Bxg5, 17. Qg6+, Ke7; 18. Qe6#
Game #7
1. e4, e6; 2. d4, d5; 3. Nd2, c5; 4. Nf3, Nc6; 5. Bb5, dxe4;

When “e4” is replied with “e6”, it is usually

known as French Defense, white’s third move “Nd2” classifies it further
into French Tarrasch Variation.
6. Nxe4, Bd7; 7. Bg5, Qa5+; 8. Nc3, cxd4; 9. Nxd4, Bb4
Black simply exchanged pawns on the center and now trying to put some
pressure on c3 to win a pawn.
Usually, in any opening, players will consider only to develop their pieces
and not to attack without proper development unless there is a clear
advantage.
10. O-O!
Any intermediate player will handle this situation by supporting “c3” and
try not to give away the pawn.
Here, white barely developed and castled without considering the loss of
pawn on “c3” since white has several moves forward than black.
Black exchanged some pawns on the center, in that situation we may note
that white’s knights came to the center and got further development, this is
the reason why black is in several tempos below.
Bxc3; 11. bxc3, Qxc3?;
 Find a winning variation.
Just by looking at this position, we can understand that white has 3 minor
pieces attacking the opponent’s camp, whereas black’s minor pieces are
defending and black’s Queen is very much exposed to get attacked.
12. Nf5!
Threatening Nd6+ and Nxg7+. If black captures on f5, white is getting “e”
file opened for his rooks to join the attack.
exf5;
(Qc5; Nxg7+, Kf8; Qh5 + -) this variation might have given less damage to
black.
13. Re1+, Be6;
(Kf8?; Qd6+) directly losing two pieces.
14. Qd6!!
Just another waiting move, but an effective one.
This move directly stops “Ne7”, allows white’s black bishop to get into
“d2” square and attack Queen to remove “c6” support. Stops O-O and O-O-
O in future.
a6; 15. Bd2!
Black queen has only two squares, “c2” and “f6”
(Qf6?; Bxc6+ +-)
Qxc2; 16. Bb4
Threatens “Rd1” followed by Qf8#
axb5; 17. Qf8+, Kd7;
(Rad1??, Nge7 - +) Playing Rd1 now will allow black to develop his pieces
and black will be completely alright and white will become some pieces
down.

18. Red1+, Kc7; 19. Qxa8

Black has resigned in this position, knowing (Nxb4?; Qd8+, Kc6; Qd6#)
Any other moves will not fetch black anything, black’s undeveloped Knight
and Rook on the king side makes black’s gameplay even more difficult.
Conclusion
Always use calculation in every single move if it is a longer game, use your
intuition if it is a blitz or any short time games. Never trust your intuition
100% without calculation, however, if you cannot calculate certain position
trust your intuition 100%. Be sure to get your intuition improved which will
highly influence in faster and better calculation.
Thank you for purchasing my book “Chess Intuition Versus
Calculation.” I hope you have found which type of intuition you have and
found where you stand in the game of chess. However this book doesn’t
contain lots of strategies and tactics on chess, having knowledge about
intuition will surely influence your intuitive power, time management in
chess, etc. stay tuned for the series of upcoming books where we will learn
ultimate strategies, openings, endings, middle games, etc.
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