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.