Sunday 23 October 2011

Chess Mastery by Question and Answer

While there is a book with the title of "Chess Mastery by Question and Answer", this is not what I am interested in. What I am thinking about is whether choosing the best move in each position can be achieved by answering a set of questions.
CJS Purdy certainly recommended this approach in a number of articles he wrote, and I have seen variants on his system over the years (including some without attribution). As the definition of 'best' cannot be made without calculation, I think any set of questions would at least give us some candidate moves, which would then be examined.
Some obvious questions include

  • What is my opponent threatening (Purdy)
  • Do I have a mate in one (Babbage)
  • Which move puts my queen en pris (Blumenfeld/Kotov)
and I am sure there are some more obvious (and less obvious) ones.

So to expand my list, feel free to describe questions that you consistently ask when deciding on a move. I would be especially keen to hear from strong players on this topic.

1 comment:

Paul said...

Purdy's recommendation is a gtreat place to start...