Teaching a thinking process

Checks–captures–threats, the blunder check, candidate moves and a calculation routine students can actually use at the board.

Most games below 2000 are not lost to lack of knowledge but to a missing routine. Students know what a fork is; they simply do not look for it at the right moment. Teach a short, fixed procedure and insist on it until it becomes automatic.

The move routine (every move in a slow game)

1. What did the opponent’s last move change? What does it attack, what does it threaten next, what did it stop defending?
2. Forcing moves for me: every check, every capture, every threat. Look at them even if they seem silly.
3. Forcing moves for the opponent: the same list from their side. This is where most blunders hide.
4. Candidate moves: write (mentally) two or three serious options, not just the first idea.
5. Calculate the candidates, starting with the most forcing, and evaluate the final positions.
6. Blunder check: before touching the piece, look once more at the position after your move — any undefended piece, any check, any capture?

Calculation method

• Identify the candidate moves first; do not dive into the first line.
• Calculate forcing lines to the end; stop quiet lines at a position you can evaluate.
• Look at the opponent’s best reply, not the one you hope for.
• After calculating, evaluate: material, king safety, piece activity, pawn structure.
• Train with “solve before moving” puzzles and by writing lines down in the lesson; for stronger players set a time limit and compare with the engine.

Evaluating a position (beyond material)

• King safety — who is more exposed?
• Piece activity — which pieces have no good squares?
• Pawn structure — weaknesses, passed pawns, open files.
• Space and the centre.
• Who has the initiative (the ability to make threats)?

For young beginners reduce it to one question: “Is my move safe, and what does my opponent want?” Ask it out loud during training games until the child asks it without you.