Chess lessons › Good chess habits
Using an engine well
Review the game yourself first, then let the engine check you, and always ask why its move is better.
The idea
Review the game yourself first, then let the engine check you.
- Black is a pawn up, and the engine’s number is small.
- Yet only one rook move holds the draw: to b2, in front of the pawn.
- Find your own move first, then ask why the engine’s is better.
In a game: Where the engine’s number changes most in a game, study that move first.
How the lesson begins
An engine is a chess program that plays far better than any person. Use it after a game, never during one: help from an engine during a game is cheating, online and over the board.
After a game, go through it on your own first and write down what you thought at the important moments. Only then switch the engine on and compare. If you start with the engine, you learn its moves without ever finding out how you think.
A question
Here Black has no knight on b8. The engine shows a number above +4. What does that number mean?
Show the answer
White is well ahead: the number is counted in pawns, so +4 is about four pawns’ worth of advantage.
Right. Plus is good for White and minus is good for Black. A knight is worth about three pawns, and the engine also counts how freely the pieces can play.
In numbers
Positions to practise
64 positions in the study, every result proved by the tablebase: 30 are wins, 29 draws and 5 losses for the side to move, with best play on both sides.