![]() This is the correct form of calculating! Kotov does not analyze this move. White could play differently in the initial position:Īfter analyzing the variation with 24.b5, it would be possible to go back to the initial position and question if the idea with 24.Nxg7 would not be immediately possible. Can you find out how black maintains the balance?Ģ9…Qd1+ 30.Kf2 Qc2+ 31.Kg3 Qxf5 ! 32.Qxf5 Be6 = and the match ends in a draw.) (27.h3 !! +- is a subtle move, allowing some “air” to the king. (26.Nh5 is another interesting candidate, not analyzed by Kotov. But the surprises in Kotov’s analysis are not over yet. (25…Bxc4 26.Nf5 ! now the white wins in all the variations. The fact of “not allowing” to come back in the variations prevents an idea discovered during an analysis to be applied in a previously studied line.Ģ4…Bxb5 25.Nxg7 ! This is the fundamental idea of the position. Moreover, that is a disadvantage of the strict method proposed by the Russian author. We will see that one of my ideas of the main line can be immediately used. ![]() However, curiously, it is not the only way to win (not even the strongest). This method is important to practice decision taking and intuition.įlohr has a winning position, but ruins everything when it comes to calculating.Ģ4.b5 !! Is the move suggested by Kotov. As the time is up (or before that) decide which move to play, even if you have not analyzed enough. Set 15 minutes in the timer and try to analyze the position. Try to use the suggested quick scan + candidate moves technique. For the training to have the desired effect, I suggest that you analyze how you would play in all three positions of the diagrams. I offer to the readers one of the most interesting examples of this historic chapter of “Think Like a Grandmaster”. Nevertheless I must do him justice: in his time there were no computers to check the lines. In the most complicated cases, after the quick analysis of the most forced variations, we should go back to the initial position of the analysis and, using the ideas studied in the quick scan, make a meticulous list of the candidate moves.Ĭuriously, Kotov himself misses many CM in his analysis, as we will see. In many cases, when the position is not that complex, this quick scan will already be enough to find the best move. At this moment we should not worry about a meticulous list of candidates. First we should take a “quick scan” of the position, analyzing the most tempting moves and the most forced lines. The best way to calculate, in my opinion, is the one recommended by John Nunn in his book “Secrets of Practical Chess”. How to Actually Use the Candidate Moves Tecnhique? In the picture: Petrosian, Kotov, Keres, Averbakh and Geller. Kotov’s idea ended up being revised and improved by authors like Dvoretsky and Aagard. Anyway, the concept is very useful to find ideas in positions with a lot of possibilities. I remember having read every detail of this chapter of the book, including trying to draw the analysis tree for each exercise.īut Kotov’s view was very strict and no grandmaster calculates this way. So, depending on the position, the analysis tree can be composed of only one branch (forced variation) or have many ramifications (positions with many CMs). In short, his recommendation to calculate correctly was to use the CM to create an “analysis tree”, more or less like this: a) select all the interesting moves in a given position b) calculate them in an orderly fashion, without ever coming back to the beginning of the line c) do the same for the opponent d) draw conclusions for all the lines. According to Kotov, amateurs calculate going back and forth in the same variations, without getting to any conclusion in most of the cases. ![]() The book, written in the beginning of the 50s (I have an 1974 edition in Spanish, which my dad acquired in 1977), owes its fame mainly to the chapter in which the Russian Grandmaster explains his technique to calculate correctly. The first mention in chess literature to the Candidate Moves Technique (from now on referred to as “CM”) reports to the classic “Think Like a Grandmaster”, by Alexander Kotov.
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