The Myth of Calculating Long Lines in Chess

In this video we are going to discuss whether long lines are hard to calculate or not, contrasting them with positions with short, but very challenging ideas.
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What game is this?:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess
Chess is a recreational and competitive board game played between two players. It is sometimes called Western or international chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older games of Indian and Persian origin. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.
Chess is an abstract strategy game and involves no hidden information. It is played on a square chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. At the start, each player (one controlling the white pieces, the other controlling the black pieces) controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "check") and there is no way for it to escape. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw.
Organized chess arose in the 19th century. Chess competition today is governed internationally by FIDE (International Chess Federation). The first universally recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; Magnus Carlsen is the current World Champion. A huge body of chess theory has developed since the game's inception. Aspects of art are found in chess composition; and chess in its turn influenced Western culture and art and has connections with other fields such as mathematics, computer science, and psychology.
One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine. In 1997, Deep Blue became the first computer to beat the reigning World Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov. Though not flawless, today's chess engines are significantly stronger than even the best human players, and have deeply influenced the development of chess theory.

[@michaelf8221]

You're absolutely killing it with these videos recently. Each video shows off more interesting positions than the last!

[@ChessCoachAndras]

Glad you like the content !

[@nickmoore5105]

I paused and got about five moves into it correctly, but I got lost once the pawn moves started coming in. Good practice. Thanks for the video

[@mugbhary]

Final puzzle was truly bonkers .. tried every possible way but the fact that queen was kinda locked in h6,g6,f6 to avoid checkmate is where the puzzle starts making sense

[@lucaswinter9515]

I'm enjoying the skill building content. I think that learning fundamentals will give me far more mileage than memorizing opening lines.

[@Tobi-pn2xs]

"The picture thingy - Instagram!" I Love it.

[@antoniogiamberardino602]

When calculating "long lines" on my chesstempo problems, the hardest puzzles are those where you play a move that's not a check or a capture. You're absolutely right about how you can follow the rabbit hole of forced moves all the way down.

[@jlconn9142]

Not only is the chess content interesting, it's a first class lesson plan and example pedagogical presentation in one very tight package! I will be pinching this lesson (with attribution) for the more advanced students that I work with. I recommend many of your videos to most of my students. Great work, truly appreciated, thank you coach Andras!

[@ChessCoachAndras]

Thanks JL< Glad you like the content! By all means, take what you like, just quote me!:)

[@julienbeghin]

Coach Andras, having you recalling us what is good chess regularly is so nice ! Various content, enjoying content. I hope we will go up all together

[@shanastroskyphazer8172]

Brilliant thumbnail ties in nicely !!

[@dromadrosis]

Yes, Andras: I enjoyed it very much. The last example is so, so beautiful!!! Thank you...

[@cian3785]

After Kg2 I missed Rh2+ Kg1 Kd2# instead only finding the longer but still beautiful Nd2+ Kxh1 Kd2+ Kh2 Ng4+ Kh3 Bf1+ Bg2 Bxg2# I never would have thought I'd be able to calculate 11 moves ahead like that, even if every move is with check, so thank you for this amazing lesson.

[@SLKCHESS]

Thanks for the instructive video

[@xaptive7458]

Would take me 2 hours to calculate that first position, and I'd have low confidence in my results. Doesn't matter if it was completely forcing. I lose the board state after a few moves and have to start over.

[@gusserflys]

always great stuff coach!!!!

[@mugbhary]

I see andras n I watch it irrespective of the content title

[@SaltySingularity]

I absolutely couldn’t see either one

[@tobymonger7884]

That thumbnail is awesome.

[@gamesspeedprodev7497]

Thanks for providing us such amazing content

[@asdf14051]

0:50 "the picture thingy" :D

[@ThortheMerciless]

Late to this one, chico, but it's a most excellent video. Here's my view. People (including me!) say the long calculation is difficult because it requires work! Mental work, of course, but one thing I've found out, after 50 years in professional business, is that most people do not like doing mental work. I won't claim that being prepared to put in the effort is going to move you miraculously up the chess rating ladder, but certainly at around 1800 FIDE, "who works wins". Based on what moves they play, most of my opponents do not calculate very much and prefer to rely almost totally on intuition. Not only do they not spot my tactics, but they also frequently overlook their own. [I should clarify that I recently started playing again after 42 years of no competitive chess and this is the level of player I am currently competing against.]

[@robertrichard2322]

it was extremely difficult for me to calculate, I could not visualize which knight to check with on move 3 of the sequence and I thought 3.Nfg4+ was the right move even though I could not see it all the way to check mate because opponent could play 3...Kg5 or 3...Kh5, it looked to me like 3...Kg5 lead to mate but I could not see for sure on 3...Kh5. Guess I need to train long mating puzzles more...

[@ChessCoachAndras]

Yep. If its hard that's not bad news. It means this is exactly what you need to do!

[@robertrichard2322]

@@ChessCoachAndras Thanks coach I'm on it!

[@buddythompson5284]

While both types of puzzles are correctly label as "calculation" puzzles, the first two rely primarily on visualization while the last one relies primarily on creativity/imagination. Both are critical components of calculation, but at the class level, visualization is the more important to train, IMO.

[@vilmarcabanero2500]

I miscalculated at the first puzzle. I thought it was mate in 6. I forgot there's a light squared black bishop at b7.

[@blackmirroxx]

First puzzle was solved as a mate in #8 but there is a mate in #7 as well. it is difficult to find because it involves a silent move, allowing the opponent to take away a key attacker : 1. Qxh7+ Kxh7 2. Nxf6+ Kh6 3. Neg4+ Kg5, 4. h4+ Kf4 5. g3+ Kf3 6. Kf1 gxf6 7. Nh2#. .. it took me 2h to figure that one out. That silent move 😢

[@Schnebbler]

Can you recommend any resources for the "long straight lines"?

[@sayan64]

I have been trying the last puzzle ever since you gave it. I couldn't solve. I had lots of ideas. Even Rf8 Kh7 with the idea of Ng4. But nothing works. In the end, today I saw the solution. I had nice time while trying

[@nickmoore5105]

In the king chase, how did you know to start with Nd3 and not one of the other available knight moves?

[@acsu96]

Nd1 looks silly and puts both knights out of the game so you can't chase down the queen. Also Na4 and Nc4 both can get harassed by the king. The real reason is calculating far enough to realize you need the knight centralized to deliver mate when the king runs up the board though

[@ChessCoachAndras]

@@acsu96 well said

[@cobeferraro3464]

Any good book recommendations for improving raw calculation power?

[@ChessCoachAndras]

Forcing Chess moves is one of the many.

[@Markd315]

You say it's easy but I thought Ng6 would be checkmate after the bishop/knight double-check because I didn't see the king could squirt out towards white's kingside, whether or not it was eventually still dead. That was a "long line" of 3 moves for me to calculate, and I just admitted that I got it wrong. So I would have messed this up. But I am an 800-rated rapid player who has been playing less than a month, so perhaps I am on the wrong video.

[@Hypercube1729]

*@**7:02** Nxh6 is not mate as the black Nf7 is guarding it. Only Ne7 mate works!*

[@futurefox128]

Black's only move to avoid Ne7# is to move the f7 knight to give the king a flight square, in which case Nxh6# is the move as it is no longer guarded.

[@rumpelRAINS]

I fell for Be4+

[@eschiedler]

Nope, couldn't find the long mate sequence. It's a bit of a grind, tbh

[@whycantiremainanonymous8091]

8:52: But the queen doesn't have to take on h3. What if, say, black plays Qd6 instead?

[@futurefox128]

Took me a while too to grasp the main motive here. The main eye-opener is that in the initial position we're actually up a piece. The only problem is, that white is attacking two pieces: The bishop and the rook (with the knight). So the main goal is to not lose a piece back (for free) and MAINTAIN a winning material advantage. It just so happens that the only way of doing that is by threatening various mates. The first move already accomplishes moving our first piece - the rook - out of danger. But to answer your question: If *Qd6 Qxg2# is mate* . ^^' --> The queen has to stay put. Anything else, we could just move the Bishop out of danger.

[@ludwigchurr7744]

As a noob @840 elo I thought of better lines for white to play and the computer agrees.

[@wannabe2700]

I disagree. The second position was very difficult as I have trouble giving away my queen. In the third position it didn't take me too much time to see Rf8 and Nd7. Though I failed to see Kg1 Qe1 mate and instead thought Qd4, Qxb6 was forced and then couldn't see a win after Qc8. Rf8 and Nd7 is much more natural to me than blundering a whole queen.

[@mahmoudkchaou1799]

I found all the variations of the 5:13 puzzle, literally. I already know the other puzzles. Thanks coach for the content as usual

[@mauer1]

the 10 move calculation involving the Queensac wasnt hard. if you see that the queensac can lead to something.

[@dust__chess]

Do you have any suggestions for people with aphantasia, or an inability to visualise positions in their head? I can sort of sequentially process positions if I am staring at the board, am rated about 2100 on Chess.com, but I have never really mastered visualisation, instead I sort of have a flow chart way to remember where everything is.

[@sophiewisa2493]

I'd love to know as well, aphantasia makes these things a lot more difficult and I'm still trying to find a way that works while having it

[@TheFlagMaster.]

Aphantasia is very poorly understood by current science, and I am aware of many current neuroscientists who are leading toward believing that it either doesn't exist or is more of a spectrum rather than a yes/no thing. What we do know is that there are many, many people who were medically diagnosed with aphantasia who have trained themselves to be able to visualise normally through deliberate practice.

[@vladpetre5674]

1. If the 2nd study (at 5:30) were an actual game, I think any sane player would look for a mate, get stuck and then go back and look for a perpet. Nobody sane continues down the line where you need to give the queen away in order to find a 2 knight mate unless you know for sure one exists. 2. In the 3rd study after Rf8 c7 is it clearly winning? I mean clearly Ne2 idea doesn't work anymore cause black plays c8=Q and Rxf1 is illegal. I mean ok, black saves their bishop and is up an exchange but still the white pawn on c7 is at least scary :)

[@pepega3344]

you miss the point of puzzles

[@tomas-wi8dy]

check/check/check lines not even need to be calculated accurately at the end, because doing the moves, at the point always can see 3 force checks, and the mate is it somewhere, just look with open eyes .

[@kevinnick6475]

Interesting head

[@sudhirmeghwal7258]

Hey i solved the last one yuhoooooo

[@chessforfunonly1586]

Long variation, wrong variation.

[@ChessCoachAndras]

Yea nah, I am not sure about that one….

[@Socrates...]

My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine.