DEVELOPING INTUITION IN CHESS https://onlinechesslessons.net/2012/03/14/developing-intuition-in-chess/#.VHsJA8lNfsE Developing intuition in chess can be achieved in two principal ways. The easy way to improve your chess intuition is through basic pattern recognition. This primarily occurs through experience, for example if you have studied/played the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense you will be very wary of allowing white to occupy the critical d5 square with a piece. Just as Kobe Bryant has trained his muscles to take jump-shots, so can the brain develop a parallel type of muscle memory. Pattern recognition allows the brain to save time and energy in nearly all cognitive functions, and this rule especially applies in chess where the number of patterns is limited by 32 pieces on 64 squares. Every game of chess that you play or study contributes to your pattern recognition and should thus further develop your chess intuition. LEARN FROM WORLD CHAMPIONS Pattern recognition is effective, but you simply can not experience meaningful growth with respect to intuition in chess without working hard to improve your deep, positional understanding of chess. I don’t mean memorizing rules in chess – you actually need to understand the reasons behind the rules. For example, it’s easy to recite why you don’t want to have your pawns on the same color as your bishop in the endgame. But it’s much more effective to have put in hard work studying the reason behind this rule. Let’s take a look at a classic game from the 1984 World Chess Championship Match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. In this round 9 encounter, Karpov perfectly demonstrated the power of his positional understanding and intuition in chess by applying consistent pressure in the opening to achieve a dangerous initiative in the middlegame and subsequent endgame. Karpov’s deep play left Kasparov constantly defending, resulting in the following incredible positional tactic: Karpov vs Kasparov - Position after 43. ...g5 - Developing Intuition in Chess Karpov vs Kasparov - Position after 43. ...g5 Here Karpov’s intuition directed him to play 44. Bxf5! Bxf5 45. Ne3 Bb1 46. b4!? gxh4? 47. Ng2!! After 44. Bxf5! Karpov has achieved a very large positional/long-term advantage with a classic good knight vs bad bishop scenario. In a position of material equality with very few pieces left on the board, Karpov sacrifices a pawn to open a new front for his pieces to attack. Without immense imagination and finely tuned chess intuition, there’s no way you could even consider 47. Ng2!! Karpov went on to win this endgame in very impressive fashion
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:00:01 +0000