How to Use Inert and Forward Images in Chess
Inert imaging in chess involves assessing an existing position and regarding it as the final assessment of the game. Even though the game is going to continue, you’ve made up your mind that the game is over, there are just some minor difficulties to overcome and you don’t feel they will take much mental challenge.
When you utilize inert imaging, you are transferring the present situation to the future and thus weakening your objectivity when assessing current positions on the board. Often an inert image is made in haste and is incorrect, leading you to make assumptions about continued play that also incorrect.
You may feel you recognize a well-known type of position which you think will predetermine the end result of the game. This assumption causes you to relax your attention and you become complacent and often over-confident. You lower your ability to switch your attention and analyze ahead, thus causing you to make errors.
Often you come to see these inert images when you feel you have the better position or even winning position on the board. Feeling over-confident in your position you overlook the possibility of changes in positions. You are guided solely by the present inert image without taking into consideration any changes.
Although inert images by their nature present a negative front because they cause deficiencies in thinking. With practice and training, you can overcome the negative aspects. You need to train yourself to look for paradoxical situations, develop more concrete thinking and look for exceptions to the rules.
Another means to overcome inert images is to take yourself out of your plans and objectives and place yourself in your opponent’s mind. Cross to the other side of the board and look at the positions through your opponent’s eyes. This allows you to discover a more objective approach to assessing each situation and therefore avoiding pre-conceived assessments.
Forward images come about when players are thinking about future changes in positions. Often forward images become so over-estimated in player’s minds that they can appear as though the already exist on the board. Forward images can come in two forms; one is where your opponent’s possible threats become accepted as already present or become such an obsession that you treat them real factors when assessing the current positions. The second is when you put to much emphasis on your own possible future maneuvers that you are unprepared for actual positions.
Another way to describe forward images is to think of them as mirages created by your imagination. Forward imaging causes you to become so wrapped up in the mirage that you can’t transfer your attention back to the reality of the situation.
While future imaging can have a negative impact on your game, it has a positive side also. Used properly it can help you develop your imagination when mixed with perception. Learn to use forward images to foresee events on the board. After our opponent makes his move, take the time to evaluate the forward image, look the board over one more time, re-evaluate your move and then make your move.
Advantage of Using the Retained Chess Image
There are three types of chess images that you’ll use. These are retained, inert and forward. Each of these chess images has active qualities used in chess thinking and playing. Let’s closely examine the retained image first
The retained image is assessing the transference of a previously learned or used position or the action of separate pieces into a new situation that has arisen on the board without altering the retained image. When using this type of play assessment you are letting the past play continue into the present. Using the retained image also causes your thinking to become static and can cause your attention to become reduced also.
With the retained image assessing for moves both present and future you are relying on maintaining control over certain moves or pieces. This limits your ability to transfer your attention and evaluate the situation or positions objectively. The image of a position can become so persistent that you hold onto the belief that your assumptions about that position and concurrent moves still hold true. When, in fact, your opponent’s next moves can alter everything.
For the retained image to work in your favor, you need to record it as not just a single piece on the board and its function or by an individual square on the board. Record it instead as a group of pieces or squares with more complex relationships to each other.
Learn to use tactical and strategic thoughts to imprint the individual pieces, squares and moves into retained images.
Occasionally, you may find yourself with a retained image linked with an optical illusion of the images of pieces which are no longer on the board. The actions of those pieces in previous plays may have been so intense and demanded so much concentration that when you try to turn your attention to other elements of the current positions that you find it difficult, even when these pieces have been physically either exchanged or captured. You find yourself in a battle with a shadow or a ghost instead of your opponent.
When you learn to use the retained image to regulate your attention and promote self-control, you open your mind to creative thinking. The retained image can help you to use ideas that came up earlier in the game in a changed form and apply them to the peculiarities of a new position. It allows you to exercise continuity in thinking.
Using the retained image allows you to formulate premises that help you keep to a general plan which, in turn, makes your play more efficient and allowing for development in each stage of the play. Often a previously conceived plan will contain a hidden nuance which can be used in a future play, even if its immediate play would yield no results. When these situations arise you make a mental note and occupy yourself with waiting maneuvers.
As you learn to view separate moves as linked elements in the development of the game, develops your dynamic thinking and concentration. You learn to divide the game into isolated phases where static, unchanging retained images are transferred from one stage to another as the game progresses.
Understanding Basic Chess Pieces Moves
Each of the chess pieces has its own unique style movement. However, they can all move if no other pieces including your own piece are between the initial piece position and its destination except for the Knights. If there is an opposing piece at the destination square, the moving chess piece can capture that opponent’s piece and be able to remove from the play. The pawn is the only exception because its way of capturing the chess pieces is by diagonally forward.
The King, even though it is the most important piece in the chess game can only move one square at a time at any direction (forward, backward, left side, right side, or diagonally). The Queen however, is the most powerful and can move at any direction same as the King but with long ranges. It can move up to the maximum square available in a straight direction. The Rooks can be moved forward or backward only but also in a long range. The Bishops can be moved diagonally in a long range while the Knights moved in an “L-shape” direction and can jump with other chess pieces. The Pawns, even though they are the most numbered piece in the game, can only move one square forward and no backward or side movements. However, in the start move, they can be moved two squares forward and when they capture, they capture diagonally.
There are also special moves in the chess game. One is by castling. Once in every chess game, each King is allowed to move in a special move known as castling. Castling is when the King moved two squares towards the Rook. The Rook is then placed immediately at the far side of the King. Castling can only be made if first, neither the pieces that will be use in castling are previously moved during the game; second is there must be no other piece between the Rook and the King; third, the King is not currently check or the King will be placed in check position; and lastly, the King and Rook must be standing in the same rank.
Another kind of movement in chess is called the En passant. When a Pawn moves in two squares, if an opposing Pawn is positioned on an adjacent file that is next to the destination of your Pawn then, the opposing Pawn can be allowed to capture it and move on its next turn to the square where the Pawn was passed over.
Next is called the promotion chess. When your own Pawn advances to the eight rank and successfully moved to the opponents’ side of the chess board then it is promoted and can be exchanged to any choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight of its color. The most common promotion of a Pawn is chosen to be a Queen because two Queens in a chess board game is better than one. However, this is very hard to achieve, as your opponent will see to it that you do not get an advantage by promoting your Pawns.
What you should know about chess image
If you want to improve your chess game, you need to analyze your thinking process when you are playing the game. Once you determine the defects in your thinking processes, you can find ways to overcome or become more efficient in your thought processes.
Typically, chess players think in terms of images. You imagine or picture certain chess images and over time you accumulated a large number of these chess images which consist of typical positions about which you have formed assessments. These typical positions are used to assist you in creating variations that let you transfer from one typical position to another. A chess image becomes not only a picture of the position on the board but also an assessment of a typical position and becomes a generalization of the relationship of pieces with their possible moves.
Once you go beyond seeing the pieces as the characters carved out of wood or molded in plastic or metal and begin to see those pieces as having the properties of moving a certain way on the board, you move beyond a beginner and into the realm of the chess lover. A chess lover sees the piece for its significance as a knight, king, queen or even pawn.
When you step beyond the beginner status, you step deeper into the combination of moves. You notice fewer things outside the moves on the board. You know they’re there, like walking down the street and not paying attention to your surroundings. You’ve walked that street so many times you know what’s there at every turn; you just don’t notice it as much now. You concentrate more on where you’re going than what is around you.
Although you see the chess pieces in your mind, as you gain more experience as a player, those pieces no longer remain just pieces. They become more abstract in that they start representing moves and variations. The board, in turn, moves from black and white squares to move configurations.
You will begin to form chess images in your mind. A chess image will become a combination of meaning and structure. You will learn to assess a situation or the elements of the actions of pieces on the board.
As you grow as a chess player you will learn to evaluate a multitude of positions by using the knowledge you gain from each game you play, becoming more comfortable with strategies and tactics, and relying on logic. As new plays are presented to you, you will use your previous experience as well as comparison and assessment to consider a number of positions. You will then determine how to precede as positions present differing chess images. You’ll be able to move from more concrete, practical moves into abstract evaluation of counter moves.
Playing chess involves learning to use the chess images in your mind to your best advantage. You will take those images and apply them to concrete positions or assess alternative more abstract positions to give you an advantage over your opponent.
Chess Pawn Strategy that can be Handy in a Game of Chess
The Pawns, in spite of the fact that they are the weakest and have the lowest value point pieces in the chess game, they also play a vital part in winning a game of chess. They can yield a defense line as well as move offensive in the battle that often sets the speed of the game.
In this article, you can find basic chess pawn strategy that can be you guideline as you play the game. You can use this to improve your game play as well as your skills rapidly.
The Pawns in the chess game are the foot soldiers of the game. Unlike any other chess pieces on the board, the Pawns can only move in one direction which is one step forward and can capture an opponent’s piece when moving one square diagonally. As your Pawns move forward, they can open up diagonal lines for the Bishops to move. The Bishops are used for protecting other pieces as well as leading the way to battle.
When a Pawn successfully reaches the final rank of your opponent’s side during the play, it can be promoted into any other powerful pieces like the Queen. Remember that two Queens are better than one. In a chess game, you are permitted to have more than one Queen on your play however; it is very rare for a Pawn to reach the final rank or to see two Queens of the same color on the board. But if you successfully have this rare kind of luck, you could borrow a Queen from other chess set or sometimes if you have captured your opponent’s Rook, you could turn it upside down because it can represent the second Queen. Although this is hard to achieve, you must try to make strategical plan on how to achieve this.
You should avoid if possible having a doubled Pawns. This doubled Pawn usually occurs when you capture an opponent’s piece and land in front of your other Pawn. In most other situations, you can take advantage of this weakness. If laid an opportunity to do so, do not hesitate but just do not rush either.
In the middle game battle, the Pawn structures often define the ways in attacking. In the opening game, the Pawns are formed into chains of Pawns. These chains of Pawns are great help to form a defense barrier that can help you defend your King and immobilize or capture more of the opponent’s chess pieces.
Some of the reasons why chess players take care of their Pawns much and care to preserve all eight Pawns in their game play are because taking even one Pawn can immensely destroy the formation of the Pawn chain which is your game defense barrier. In addition to that, in the end game, the leftover Pawns you have determine the position you will be.
In general, think very carefully when moving your Pawns, and developing chess pawn strategy. They can be a great help but can also bring disaster in your game play when not move effectively.
