Chess lessons › Good chess habits
Seeing the board in your head
Follow a line to its end in your head, and work it out before you play the first move.
The idea
See a line to its end in your head before you play the first move.
- The queen takes on h7 with check, and the king has to take her.
- This rook swings over to h3 with check, and the king goes back.
- Then the rook mates on h8, guarded by this bishop.
In a game: Before a forcing line, picture each move and where every piece lands, then play it.
How the lesson begins
In a game you cannot move the pieces to try a line. You have to see it in your head: each move, where the piece lands, and what it attacks from there. This is called visualisation, and it grows with practice.
Try it now. Do not step through yet. Read this line and picture each move: 4.Nxe5 Qg5 5.Nxf7 Qxg2 6.Rf1 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Nf3. What has happened at the end? Then step through and check your picture.
- 4. Nxe5 Qg5 The queen attacks the knight on e5 and the pawn on g2.
- 5. Nxf7 Qxg2 6. Rf1 Qxe4+ 7. Be2 Nf3# Checkmate. The bishop on e2 cannot take the knight, because it stands between the black queen and its own king.
A question
White to move. Picture Qxh7+ Kxh7 Rh3+, without moving anything. The queen gives herself up, the king has to take her, and the rook swings over to the h-file with check. Where can the black king go then?
Show the answer
Only to g8.
Right. The rook covers the whole h-file, and the bishop on b2 covers g7 along the long diagonal. Keep that picture: it matters for what comes next.