Move first, think later: sense and nonsense in improving your chess

256 Pages·2014·10.247 MB·English

by  Hendriks, Willy

1
Move First, Think Later
WINN ER of The Engl ish Chess Fede ra tion (ECF) Book of the Year Award
“What a fantastic book! I have not enjoyed reading an instructional book so much in
years. I was laughing out loud throughout, because it is very witty, but it is also
a really important instructional volume.”
Steve Giddins, aut hor of ‘50 Ways to Win at Chess’
“Hendriks uses many new examples to make his point (..) A very entertaining and
provocative read. I’m sure readers will improve their chess.”
IM Art hur van de Oudeweetering, ChessVibes
“One of the most unusual chess books published in recent times. The author approaches
his subject from a perspective of philosophy, psychology and modern learning theory.
His central thesis is an attack on how chess is taught in conventional text books (..)
Hendriks writes in a humorous style and there is plenty of good chess to enjoy!”
The Judges of the Engl ish Chess Fede ra t ion Book of the Year 2011 Award
“I can’t really express just how much I enjoyed the new book
‘Move First Think Later’ by Willy Hendriks.”
Mark Crowt her, TWIC
“Really a fantastic book, loaded with fresh ideas and excellent examples (..) After
reading this book you will feel like Neo in the film The Matrix, when he discovers that
his life so far was an illusion and that his real life will start only now.”
Mar tin Rieger, Europa Rochade
“Much of the book consists in a well-considered critique of the ‘nonsense’, but there is
a significant constructive aspect, too (..) Extremely readable.”
GM Luke McShane
“The book is like a breath of fresh air. It is refreshingly different from the usual chess
instruction, because of Hendriks’ methodology as well as the way he lavishly enriches
his exercises with anecdotes and curiosities. That’s what makes the book so
vivacious and readable.”
Remco Heite, Leeuwarder Cour ant
“Hendriks takes to task the often vacuous and conflicting advice offered by chess
authors that often resembles that found in self-help books.”
Joe Petrolito, Australasian Chess Maga z ine
“Although ‘Move First, Think Later’ is set up as chess instruction, it is primarily a
clearly written, entertaining book on the chess playing brain.”
Marco Kamphuis, Filosofie Mag a zine
“Of course Hendriks knows very well that there are rules that help you to find good
moves. But it is refreshing that he shows (..) that in many cases it is merely about
intuition and calculation, and that quite a few trainers, commentators
and chess journalists are just windbags.”
Johan Hut, Gooi en Eemlander
“Undermining axioms, deep-rooted but not proven by research, is at the core of
‘Move First, Think Later’ (...) Its tone is humoristic.”
Minze bij de Weg, Schaakmagazine
“This book’s method is different from other instructional works.
It is about WHY we make errors.”
Hans Böhm, de Telegraaf
“A page-turner (..) a provocative but well-founded attack on classical chess instruction.”
Bab Wil ders, Nederlands Dagblad
“I very much recommend this book for a high-quality training. Based on rational and
logically presented foundations there are numerous suggestions
and concrete methods for improving your game (..).”
Uwe Bekemann, Ger man Cor re spon dence Chess Fed er a tion
“Hendriks takes the time to critically examine many of the platitudes and clichés we
often take for granted in chess (..) [He] does offer an alternative:
a trial and error approach.”
Ed ward Scimia, About.com Chess
“’Move First Think Later’ is not just bashing established theories. Hendriks also stresses
the positive aspects of certain training methods.”
Rich ard Vedder, Schakers.info
Move First, Think Later
Willy Hendriks
Move First, Think Later
Sense and Non sense in Im prov ing Your Chess
© New In Chess
First edit ion June 2012
Sec ond edi tion Oc to ber 2012
Third edit ion March 2014
Published by New In Chess, Alkmaar, The Netherlands
www.newinchess.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from
the publisher.
Pho tos: NIC Ar chives. Il lus tra tion on page 190 is by Adri Smit.
Cover de sign: Volken Beck
Cover draw ing: Zander Dekker
Su per vi sor: Pe ter Boel
Proof read ing: René Olthof
Pro duc tion: Anton Schermer
Have you found any er rors in this book?
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them in a poss ib le next edit ion.
ISBN: 978-90-5691-398-4
Con tents
Prefa ce .....................................................7
On the ex erc ises ..............................................9
Ac knowl edgements...........................................11
Chap ter 1
Ex er cises .............................................13
First move, then plan, then judge...........................14
Chap ter 2
Ex er cises .............................................21
Look and you will see vers us trial and er ror...................22
Chap ter 3
Ex er cises .............................................29
My most beau ti ful move .................................31
Chapt er 4
Ex er cises .............................................40
Reco gn izi ng the simi l ar..................................42
Chap ter 5
In search for the mast er’s und ers tand ing – back to De Groot......48
Chap ter 6
Ex er cises .............................................53
Patt ern-like knowle dge ..................................56
Chap ter 7
Ex er cises .............................................65
If White ad vances with g4, block his agg res sion with ...g5 .......66
Chap ter 8
Break ing news: knights are su pe rior to bish ops................73
Chap ter 9
Ex er cises .............................................77
Free Ad vice ...........................................78
Chap ter 10
Pro to col ver sus con tent ..................................88
Chap ter 11
Ex er cises .............................................93
The par tic ul ar and the gen eral.............................94
Chap ter 12
Ex er cises .............................................99
Big plan, small plan or no plan at all .......................101
Chap ter 13
Ex er cises ............................................111
See ing com bi na tions and mak ing plans.....................113
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Move First, Think Later
Chap ter 14
Ex er cises ............................................121
Watch out, it’s a crit ic al mo ment..........................122
Chap ter 15
Chance in chess.......................................127
Chap ter 16
Ex er cises ............................................135
The sad ist ic exam .....................................136
Chap ter 17
Ex er cises ............................................142
It plays chess in me....................................143
Chap ter 18
Ex er cises ............................................154
Trust your chess mod ule................................156
Chap ter 19
Ex er cises ............................................166
Quan tity is a qual ity too ................................167
Chap ter 20
Ex er cises ............................................176
The hu man stan dard ...................................178
Chap ter 21
Ex er cises ............................................186
The chess nur ture as sump tion............................187
Chap ter 22
Ex er cises ............................................192
The sci en tific scrup les of the chess trainer...................193
Chap ter 23
Ex er cises ............................................200
Qual ity .............................................201
Chap ter 24
Ex er cises ............................................215
Ex pec ta tions .........................................216
Chap ter 25
Ex er cises ............................................222
Strat eg ic exe rc ises .....................................224
Chap ter 26
Ex er cises ............................................233
Rand om puzz ling .....................................234
Chap ter 27
Ex er cises ............................................240
Con clu sions..........................................241
The dis cus sion con tin ues......................................247
Ind ex of Names.............................................253
Bibl io gr ap hy...............................................255
6
Pref ace
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jjJJ__SS__JJll..
..__JJ__DD__JJtt
qq..__JJiiJJ__II
..__..ii..ii..__
__..__..bb..nn..
IIiiII__..__..__
__..kkRR__..__RR
Yes, I cons ider my self to be a ra tio nal per son.
Yes, I played 20...®b8 in this po si ti o n.
No, plenty of time left on the clock.
Spent more than ten min utes on this move.1
Play ing chess can be con fronti ng, and it sure helps if you can look with a smile at
your own per for mances. I have known some play ers with a long ing for perf ec tion -
ism, who could n’t ac cept their shortc om ings and quit play ing.
The term ‘con front a tion’ in a sen tence like ‘play ing chess con fronts us with the
work ing of our brain’ seems a bit strange. But, al though it’s our own brain, we
don’t seem to have great ac cess to it. This well-known fact is a ma jor theme (prob -
lem) in the whole hist ory of the philos ophi c al and psyc hol ogi c al inv est ig at ions of
our cognitive powers.
In the last de cades the cog ni tive sci ences (cog ni tive psy chol ogy, ar ti fi cial in tel li gence,
neu rol ogy, neurobiology, phi los op hy and oth ers) have made considerable progr ess.
From gen eral con cepts and the or ies we are mov ing to wards knowl edge on a more
em pir i cal and mi cros copic level, to sum ma rise it briefly and (too) sim ply.
Some of the old ques tions and new in sights of the cog ni tive sci ences form the
source of ins pi rat ion for this book. Are they of any use for the player try ing to im -
prove his chess? Do they shed new light on our dif fere nt train ing meth ods? Or even
sug gest new and dif fere nt forms of traini ng?
If you play chess, try to im prove your chess or try to help oth ers to im prove their
chess, a lot of ques tions from the cog ni tive sci ences au tom ati cally come into mind.
Can we make good eval ua tions by fol lowi ng some sort of to-do list? Does the
r ecent att ent ion on unc ons cious dec is ion-maki ng proc esses have some value for
chess thinki ng? Is sign ifi c ant imp rovem ent poss ib le by purely psyc hol ogi c al
means? Is tal ent an over rated con cept and can we all be come grand masters?2
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Move First, Think Later
This book wants to be an in quiry into these and rel ated quest ions. A lot of the or ies
and books about our think ing and about im prov ing in chess will be re viewed, with
the em pha sis on their cog ni tive as pects.
It is not my in ten tion, however, to re lease a thoro ughly sci en tific work. The way
in which play ing chess gives us some sort of ‘in side view’ into our mind is one of
the fas ci nati ng things about our game. Even if the starti ng point of this fas ci na tion
is the well-known ‘how on earth could I play this move?’, a ques tion that might
turn out to be the ‘ul ti mate’ one as well. This int ere st and amaze ment is what I
hope to keep alive in this light-hearted inquiry.
This book is about im prov ing in chess, but apart from bei ng a the or eti cal dis cus -
sion it also wants to make a prac ti cal con tri but ion to wards this goal. Theref ore, the
ma jor ity of the po si tions that are dealt with will be pres ented as exe r cises (puz zles)
at the be gin ning of each chapter.
To an tic i pate a little: the au thor is of the opini on that you learn chess only by work -
ing with conc rete pos i tions. Solv ing exe r cises is one way to do this.
One of the main propo s i tions of this book seems to be that the form in which
we write down our moves on our scores heet is suf fi cient ‘lan guage’ to learn chess,
and that no fur ther words are needed. (So why is n’t this book just a col lec tion of
puz zles, you may ask – and in deed, that could have been a wond er ful out come, had
the au thor not been so fond of hear ing himself talk.)
If you do the ex er cises, you will learn the most from this book. Some may say: you
will learn at least some thing. There is a fair chance that not ev eryone will en dorse
the points of view that are de vel oped in this book – to a considerable ex tent they
con flict with the doct rines of main stream chess didactics. Al though the au thor is n’t
a French phi los op her, he does pref er claim ing the op pos ite rather than putti ng for-
ward some small ref ine ment.
The chess frag ments in this book are caref ully se lected. Since they are not pre -
sented as ex am ples of some big ger prin ci ple or truth, they should be able to speak
for thems elves.
No board is needed to play over these frag ments. Al most all of them com prise a
di a gram and just a few moves, so ev ery one with some skill in vi su al isat ion will be
able to fol low them, ly ing on a couch or in some other pref erred position.
So let’s start our jour ney into the cav erns of our chess-play ing mind. I cann ot prom -
ise the reader that, hav ing reached the end of this book, he will not play moves like
20...®b8 any more. But he will cer tainly have doubts about his rat io nal ity!
1. Dam-Hendriks, Dutch Youth Champ i ons hip 1985 (no, I did not win the cham pi ons hip
that year).
2. To avoid false ex pect at ions in adv ance: had my an swer to this last ques tion been posi -
tive, it would have been on the front cover of this book.
8
On the exercises
In or der to ap prec i at e somet hing as a so lu tion, you had to face a probl em to be gin with.
..__..__..ttMMtt
(cid:113)
__LL__DDll..__..
JJqq..jj..__JJ__
__..__IIjj..__..
..__..__NN__..__
__..__..__..__II
..iiII__..__BB__
__..__RR__RRkk..
(White to move)
A. Fi nally, the pair of bish ops will de cide the is sue.
B. Care fully de lib er at ing the pos si bil i ties is ad vised here.
C. It’s a pity they don’t ad journ games anym ore.
D. Who was to move, you said?1
In my ca reer as a chess trainer I have built up a col lec tion of well-tested and oft en-
used ex er cises. A lot of them have been included in this book to il lus trate my story
and I hope the reader will en joy them. But to get the most out of it, I strongly rec-
om mend to try to solve the ex er cises (puzz les) that are pres ented at the start of each
chap ter.
These are so-called mixed ex er cises: some are of a tact i cal nat ure, some more
strat eg ic. Mostly you have to gain the adv ant age (small, big, win ning) but some-
times you have to def end as well.
With very few ex cep tions, the puzz les are pre sented with no fur ther clue. Just as
in a real game. Un for tun ately, in train ing it’s very dif fi cult to app roach real game
cond i tions. The fact that a pos i ti on is pres ented as a puz zle al ready feeds the ex pec -
ta tion that there will be a some how spe cial move avail able that is much better than
the al ter na tives, and guar ant ees the ad vant age. As a rea s sur ance to the reader: this
ex pec ta tion will be jus ti fied in al most all cases.
When you alr eady know the sol u tion to a prob lem, it’s easy to un dere s ti mate how
dif fi cult it will be for othe rs. Most chess traine rs will be fam il iar with this fact.
I guess a de cent club player will have a hard time solv ing all the puz zles cor rectly
(I know, now ad ays you are sup posed to say they are ‘chal leng ing’). Some of them
should be solv able by ev ery one, most of them are aimed at the strong er club player
9
Move First, Think Later
and above. And there are a few, I dare say, that are no easy tasks even for a strong
grandm ast er.
This is not meant to dis cour age the less strong player, and I would ad vise ev ery one
to try ev ery puz zle and, even if you have no clue, to de cide on the move you would
play.
There is a prov erb which goes some thing like ‘moves are made one at a time’, so
even if you have no clear idea about the fol low-up, your move still might be a good
or even the best one. A well-known chess player’s com plaint (af ter a loss) re lates to
this last fact: ‘The id iot turned out to have seen noth ing at all’. And in deed, some -
times play ers make good moves with out see ing why, and avoid all kind of threats
and tricks with out not ic ing them.
The best way of rea lly de cid ing on a move is to write your choice down. I men -
tioned the rel axed set ting of read ing this book ly ing on a couch, no pen cil at hand,
maybe this maybe that, ‘is this the so lu tion?, yeah, had some thing like that my self’.
No – I have to be strict, this won’t do. Play ing chess is all about mak ing (real) de ci -
sions!
Notes
1. A diff i cult ex er cise to start with, I hope you dec ided on E. 1.Àc5!, win ning a piece,
since 1...dxc5 al lows 2.©xg6 mate (Potapov-Henrichs, Pardubice 2006).
10