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Hello friends! Position 3.2 from The process of decision making in chess Volume 2, goals and plans. Black to play, apply your tactical observation to solve for black.

The following game is a classic from 1834, by two of the immortal early chess legends. At the final position black is under check, where should his king go? Provide an assessment of the position resulting from your suggestion based on the expected game result in your opinion.

Dear friends, Please feel free to enjoy the new lecture, part of our "Chess Insights" series on YouTube: You can visit our YouTube channel, which is NOT monetized and has no commercials whatsoever, here: http://bit.ly/2xGZhdh Don't forget to subscribe, have fun!

Dear students, The following position, black to play, presents the player with a dilemma: he needs to asses the position to decide, push and play for a win or, if this seems to bee too risky, content himself for something more quiet? Make sure to prove your claims!

Dear students, I would like to share with you my recent post, its about my outlook at teaching chess. https://www.chess.com/blog/Spochman/the-challenge-of-teaching-chess-a-personal-insight Enjoy!

I've been playing a game now, and I just learned something valuable: Every game will build up tension until a climax, which will be initiated by white or black at a given time.Your goal is to successfully build up tension while not giving up your position, in such a way that when you finally reach the climax and the tension will be broken, it will either be broken by you by choice, or by your opponent because of a lack of choice.I won't write about all the thought involved that led to this position and why certain moves were played, but I will give a little bit of a background:I played white very aggressively, and we had reached the following position after 5 moves, where I (previously) placed my black bishop on g5 in order to create a 'delayed pin' on black's knight/pawn against his queen - moving one would pin the other. Black chose to ignore the knight and not open the pin, so that he has the option to either move the knight or the pawn later in the game, when the move would possibly have more momentum. Black just castled, which in my opinion, was a mistake - I now have the option of how to build an attack while not opening up my king too much, and I know where black's king will be for the rest of the game.How would you play the position? What's your path of attack? Where can you build up tension? What are black's potential weak spots? Note: This game is currently near the end, and I will post successive practice sequences for anyone who's interested.

Take a look at this small puzzle- being 4 pawns up, can white win? support your answers with variations.

Dear members of our study group, in this forum thread you will receive updates about matches still for your enrollment. right now we have the following matches still open: http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=321436 http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=321120 http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=321118 http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=321116 http://www.chess.com/groups/team_match?id=321112 Please feel free to participate and join!

The following example is taken from the second volume of "The process of decision making in chess", which is currently in the final editing stages! In this position you are required to perform an observation for black (threats analysis, positional highlights), come up with goals and plans to achieve them:

The following position is arising from "Bird's opening", White to play. Suggest plans for white (not necessarily only one move ideas, plans are mostly sequences of moves designed to achieve certain goals). Base your ideas on calculations and effects on the positional criteria.

In this position it's white to play. Identify the nature of the position (strategic/tactical) and show the solution in detail. Are there number of reasonable solutions for white? base your decisions by reaching the point of quiescence of the suggested variations.

Hi All, I wondered if there were 3-6 people here that would like to form a small group here on chess.com where motivation to improve is the bond that links us. Playing team sports as a youngster i find i'm best motivated in a team environment as i don't want to let the rest of team down. My standard rating is around 1000 and would be hoping such as group would be useful for players 800-1500. My idea would be to play tactics trainer 6days a week and spend other time on analysing 2-3 positions per week using Phillip's method (both long and short) as in "The Process of Decision making in Chess" (either your own positions or we could all do the same position each week and compare answers then when all are submitted we could check them with a strong engine and discuss). Just checking if there are 3-6 such people in this group that would have this type of time and would benefit through group/team motivation and help motivate others in the group. Reply here if interested. Thanks, Dean

Im not a very good player, but I just checkmated an opponent in live chess rated 200 elo higher than me in only 22 moves, because he was content with pawn pushing. How does somebody rated 1485 not understand the concept of "develop your pieces"!?!? And though the pawn pushing was more extensive in my game than other games hes played, the "pawn push mentality" seems to be heavy in all his games. Yet im his only loss in the last 10!?!? Do people really struggle with this strategy or am I justified in being totally bewildered by this?

In continuation to practice position #1, we deal with the subject of pawn sacrifice for compensation. This time, the question is how should black continue- allow white to take on d5 or not? can you prevent it without concessions? is it a concession for white to grab it? suggest the next move for black, and back your suggestion with calculation of the results.

A new series of positions for you friends to practice using the process (any process you like, I'm not biased at all... ). Let's start easy with the following position- black to play, share your opinion and I'd be happy to guide you through:

This was a 5/0 blitz game. I was white and tried to force an attack on the king, losing a pawn and giving up position to black on the (formerly) kingside of the board. My attack didn't work out as planned, and I found myself in this position.White to play. Solve this one :)

Hi everyone, I thought it can be a great idea to start a new tradition in our study group- weekly Q&A videos especially recorded for our group's members! So if you have any question about chess- write it here and it will be answered in the weekly video. The videos will be accessible for everyone and posted on the group's forums for all the members. Also, if you have a great game you played and want it analysed, you can also post it here and if it's a really instructive game I'll include its analysis in the videos. Open discussion is encouraged so feel free to answer others questions and express your opinions! To break the ice, I'll write the first question. It goes like that: "Is there any universal and reasonable opening for black that I can play as a response to any first move by white without knowing any opening theory?" Waiting for your questions! -Philip

And I shall chain all angels to the ground, pull down the moon and every cloud that proudly flies above my head, and putting out the stars, with my little finger, I shall shout towards the heavens and to the creator of all, man or angel: Are you stronger than me? You've chewed her soul long enough, you've stolen too much of her lovely flavour much to much, dear god, with your trials so please, I beg you, put her problems on my shoulders bring her monsters in my way for I will take good care of them I will send them back to hell if you're not willing to step in, for I am stronger than you in this world, as it seems.

Hey all. I just got the book today and I think it's going to help me a ton. I also plan to take lessons in the near future. But what I was wondering is, are there any sets of puzzles that you can use this method on to find the correct move. Well, I know I could with any position, but I mean something that will tell me if I analyzed it correctly. Thanks for any help.

hey folks! I promised some of my students to publish a chart for the process of decision making in chess, here it is: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-lghaCOP6iIMmhUb256bDJYOHM The chart is incorporated in the new guidebook I'm writing, specially designed to support my students in their study programs, I hope you'll like it! The guidebook is now available for pre-order at 20% off from my coach page, where you can find more details: http://www.chess.com/coach/philip-ochman Pre- ordering the book, you will immediately receive the prototype version, not including all the examples and extra material the final Christmas edition will include (working on it this very moment!). Once the final version is out at Christmas (~100 pages), you will automatically receive it by email. I'm also currently working on a new video lectures series, hoping to finish everything before Christmas! -Philip