My System of Calculation in Chess Middlegames | AEC(P) method

Intro:

Hi everyone, welcome to today's blog of mine! Now I have a question. Have you ever wondered which system of thinking you should follow? There are quite a few systems to think about it. Like for example the CCA method, the SWOT(I) analysis, Blunder check (or anti-blunder check), the process of evaluation, planning, etc.

These all are good but you might still not know in which positions, which system you should follow, and sometimes you're just not sure. Well that's why I have arranged these Calculation systems into one functional system. 

Now without farther waiting, let's dive in.

Details:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction to the AEC(P) system
2. Part 1: Analization
3. Part 2: Evaluation
4. Part 3: Calculation
5. Part 4: Position (Optional)
6. What you do after?

Introduction to the AEC(P) system

As you all know, chess is a hard game. It involves serious thinking and a lot of patience. But by practicing, you should have a decent idea about chess. Now, there are three stages of a chess game: Opening, Middlegame and the Endgame. It is often said that Middlegames are the hardest stage of them all and that's why in this blog, we shall focus on that. 

So, I have created a simple process by which you can almost understand every middlegame. It is called the AEC(P) system. 

Now first thing's first, let's look at what AEC(P) stands for.

A -- Analization 

E -- Evaluation 

C -- Calculation 

(P) -- Position (optional)

As soon as you're out of opening theory, you should start this system in your head. Now let's dive in.

Part 1: Analization

Here, by analization I mean understanding what's going on in the position.  Here you just check out what strengths and weaknesses are there in your and your opponent's position. Let's look at an example for what I mean.

So, here  I used an Opening trap so maybe some of you already know the solution but we will still use it. Here, it is white to move.

Now, first let's look at what strengths we have.

• We have three developed peices.
• We have a semi-open file for our rooks on h1.

Now let's look at our weaknesses.

• The knight on h3 is awkwardly placed on the rim.
• We right now have a bishop c4 which is hanging and is currently being attacked by black's queen.
• The Rook on a1 and the King's bishop is still inactive.
• The king can't castle.

That's it. 

Now our opponent, his strengths are--

• He has two developed peices.
• Has a queen attacking our bishop.

And that's kinda it.

Now their weaknesses.

• Their queen is awkward.
• Most of his peices are still asleep.
• The dark colour complex on the kingside is the bit weak.
• Currently the pawn on c7 is hanging and if our knight captures it, it's a fork.
• The f6 square is weak and black can't put a knight there.

Okay. So it seems like we have kinda understood the pros and cons of the position. Now we shall move on to the next step. And by the way this may seem overwhelming but that's only because I'm writing and when these all are in your head it is way easier and faster. And also chess it just hard. You just need to practice. 

Part 2: Evaluation 

Now, Evaluation means comparing the points and seeing whose better in the position and why. Analization and Evaluation go hand and hand. So, now let's evaluate.

Evaluation has mainly four steps. 

1. Material 
2. Peice activity and space
3. King safty 
4. Pawn structure 

The material means how much points of material do you have. It is like being down or up a pawn, being a peice up, etc. We all know how to count so here the material is equal.

Next step is peice activity and space. Space refers to how much breathing room you have for your peices. More the space, the better petce activity and thus a better position. Here, neither of the players have much dpace since the centre is closed. But we do have the open file in our hand, and our peices are kinda active, but black's isn't especially the quess is almost traped. 

Next step, king safty! Now both the King's ain't that safe. But our king is not exposted to immediate threats On the other hand black's king can be forked to the rook with Nxc7+. 

Next is pawn sturture. White again is slitly better in terms of pawn structure especially because the e5 makes black's queen less mobile. Also the kingside of black is weak due to that pyramid structure as I said. We also do have a weak pawn on e4 but it can be protected with d3. 

So, summing up, white is slitly better, here. But that's only due to the current position and material and if you consider a few moves ahead white is actually winning. But for now slitly better. You will, later know why white is winning.

Part 3: Calculation 

Now comes the actual part, knowing the best move and playing it. For this section, we will use the CCA. This stands for--

C -- Checks 

C -- Captures

A -- Attacks

For first we need to understand the concept of candidate moves.

Candidate Moves are moves that are selected to be played on the board that are possiblaly good moves. We can obtain them by taking all the legal forcing moves and removing all the pointless and bad moves out of them.

Forcing moves are moves that forces your opponent to do something. You should always look for Forcing moves especially the ones played on your opponent's half of the board. These Forcing moves are checks, captures and attacks, as I said. They are in the order from the most to least Forcing. Now let's calculate. 

First Checks, the four Checks are Nxc7+, Qe6+, Qd7+, and Nf6+. Out of all of them, only Nxc7+ makes sense, every move else is a blunder.

Now Captures, three captures are there and again Nxc7+ is the best and others are blunders. 

Now attacks and threats, now there are three of them again. Like Ng5, c3, and d3. You might say how is d3 an attacking move? Well, that's because it is has a potential threat. Now except d3 the others hand the bishop to a no to them.

So our candidate moves are-- Nxc7+ and d3.

Now Let's look at them.

Nxc7+ 

So, what will happen when we play this? That's right the king will move because it's a check. Let's say it moves to f8, then? You may say "Oh cool lemme take the rook." But you can see now that our bishop is still hanging so Queen takes. On top of that the knight is now traped. So this move isn't actually that good as we thought.

Now the other move.

d3 

If we play this, notice the queen is now fully traped. This also defends our bishop. And do you know what's coming....c3! Even if d6, an attack on our queen, we simply drop back to e2 or f3. And now e3 is unstoppable and black's queen is lost!

So that's the the solution to the puzzle and infact that's why I said white is winning. 

Part 4: Position (Optional) 

Now, in our example we did have a tactical solution. But often in your middlegames there won't be any such tactics and sometimes you may have a rather strategic position with less tactics for the moment. In that case you may need this additional step. Here, I'm going to be introducing a system of thinking called the SWOT(I) analysis. Here is it's full form.

S -- Strengths (Your move)

W -- Weaknesses (Your move)

O -- Opportunities (Opponent's move)

T -- Threats (Opponent's move)

(I) -- Ignoring the threat (additional)

This system is used mainly in engineering and etc. But it is also usable for chess. So first let us pick an example to understand this process. 

So here you're white and it is your move. Now here are two moves that let's say you considered-- c3 and Castles. Now let's check them. 

c3 

Now in your move you always look for your move's strengths and weaknesses, and compare them.

Strengths:

• The move prefers for a centre break with d4. 
• It gives a space for our bishop to escape if the knight attacks it hoping for an exchange. 
• It gives your queen a way to come out and take action. 

Weaknesses: 

• It takes away the natural developing square for our knight ♞. 
• It makes the d pawn a bit weak but it doesn't really matter.

Seeing this we can say that c3 is a good move.

O-O

Let's see.

Strengths: 

• It brings our king to safty.
• Our rook can now join the party.

Weaknesses:

• The only thing it doesn't do is that it doesn't give our bishop a breathing room and so Na5 and the knight with be exchanged for the bishop which is something Italian players don't like (I mean the opening, not the country). 

So which move is better? It kinda seems like c3 is better, especially if you take in count it isn't too necessary to immediately castle. You can still delay it with c3 and then castle. So, We choose c3. And yes, it's the solution. But remember 0-0 isn't a terrible move. Infact both are different variations and both are quite popularly played. 

Now let's look at our opponent's move. For that we use opportunities and threats. Let us first look at an example. 

Here, black just played b5. Now we shall analyze its opportunities and threats.

Threats:

• He is expanding on the queenside.
• He is threatening to kick our knight. 

Now, I quite know a lot of people will see this threat and play a3. But this brings us to the 5th step which is Ignoring the threat. Here if he attacks our knight....Well no problem! And instead of reacting you should look for the flaws of your opponent's moves, that is, the opportunities. So, let's analyze.

Opportunities:

• He isn't developing any peices.
• He isn't conquering the centre.

Seeing their cons, we can use two chess principles to find the solution. 

Offense is the best defence.

An attack on the flank is met by a counter-attack on the centre.

So, do you see the move? Yes, it's d4, striking in the centre! That's the solution! So, make sure you know your chess principles! 

What to do after? 

Now, This process is going to be used only at the beginning of the middlegame were you don't know anything. But since this might be a bit time taking, you shouldn't always use this.

You can also get an idea of the best move by using the concept of consistency. It means that if your move is suitable as a follow up to your previous move, it often is the move you should play.

But to confirm it is not a blunder, you can use the blunder-check method. Where you first check if your king is in danger, then your peices (if it is hanging or something), then your opponent's king (if you can attack it), and finally your opponent's peices (if you can win it). 

And after using this method for some moves, you will notice two things. 

1. The game is becoming tactical. Or
2. The game is becoming positional.

If tactical, you should use the CCA method. Plus, you will use your tactical training and mating patterns and attacking principles. 

If position, you use the SWOT(I) analysis. And also you will use your chess principles and all those positional concepts.

Now, that's exactly how you can play your middlegames. And as I said, it may seem overwhelming and too much, but once you make this a habit, you will crush your opponents. 

Outro:

That's what I had for this blog. Hope you enjoyed it and I would like to see the results of this. Thanks for viewing my blog and I shall see you in my next one.

Bye! 👋🏻