HOw many moves ahead can a titled player see in a very complicated poition?

Fischer or Kasparov?

Knight moves or bishop moves?

A bit of a silly question. I can 'see' ahead 20 moves in some situations in that I'll know when a pawn endgame is winning. Or maybe more if it's a K&2B vs K.

But then I've seen grandmasters commenting on their own games where they are only looking ahead 3 moves in certain positions.

It's completely dependant on the board, and depends how forced the replies are.

Exactly. And then again, maybe they're looking 3 moves ahead at each of their opponent's three possible replies, and seeing that he's better at the end of each line.

One of the WGM videos on here she admits to not being able to see 8 moves ahead normally but instead knows that a resulting position is good so she doesn't need to see that far ahead.

Any normal master 

capablanca said he can see only 1 move ahead but the best one..

Even amateurs can play blindfold games.  Some can even play more than 1 at once!  And this is visualizing an entire game in their head.

So a titled player can "see" as many moves ahead as they need to.  But calculation involves more than just visualizing moves, you have to evaluate the position as you go, and direct it by trimming variations.  If the position is complicated enough, they may not see more than 1 or 2 moves ahead.  If it's a very forcing position, they may take the time to see 20 or more moves ahead.

In short, this question doesn't have one answer.  It depends on the position.

Agreed. It varies based on the positions and the type of player.  I don't usually bother trying to look more than 3 moves ahead, because the position will change so radically by then that another assessment becomes necessary at that point.  However, I'm more of a positional player.  A more tactical, attacking master probably looks more moves ahead than a defensive, positional master though.  If you're going to makes lots of sacrifices and go after the opponent's king early, then you need to look many moves ahead, to make certain that your sacs are not in vain.  Masters don't often just "gamble" that a sac will pay off, like a novice coffeehouse player might.  However, if you are playing positionally and trying to eek out a small material advantage and then trade down to a winning endgame, it's more about development, position and space than deep calculations.  You also have to counter what your opponent is doing, so constant reassessment of the position is necessary.

I also love how we all didn't read any of the other comments that had already been written and posted just the same.  The comments here must be the most redundant of all threads in the forums.

Sorry kenpo, I was trying for irony.

What if we split this thread into sub-threads:

a)....after 15 drinks?

b)...while walking on hot coals?

c)...when facing a much better player and under pressure?

They say around 20 - 25 moves are the capacity of the world best to calculate. They mostly rely heavily on intuition and common sense to win. Most answer in chess are counter-intuitive, which make difficult to find it since the human brain think in cognitive way.

I am not titled and I can see hundreds of moves ahead.  Put two Kings on the board and it’s easy.  Put 32 pieces on the board and it drastically cuts down the number though.

Having read Kasparov's book on life and chess he says it is a bit of a misconception that the top players seeing so many moves ahead is why they are good. You don't really have to be good at chess to see 20 moves ahead, infact a top player would have to forsee fewer moves as they know what a good move/position is.

KREMPOV the best chess mover in the world

said his secret was searching 2 to 4 moves deep in positional situations and scoring the outcomes more accuretly than othere GM.

He said in more forsful situations he searched 7 to 12 depth if captures or trades in site.

He lastley claimed his ability to search ahead was in truth in a tree like fassion 70 depth scoreing multipul outcomes was his potensiol. But unaccurecies happen and its not worth the super human offort.

Magnus GOAT Carlsen can see at least 80 moves ahead, calculating each position.

Next time a GM says he sees 6 moves ahead, smack him in the face and ask "Did you see that one coming?  Did ya, huh?"

1, but it is the right one.

Mikhail Tal said that by the time he was 12 he could confidently work out a forced mating line pretty easily. He mentioned it in a position with a forced mate in 9 full moves. 

Any master who has enough time on the clock should be able to work out a simple series of checks to the end of the line no matter how long it is. In most positions, a player really only needs to look 3-4 full moves ahead.

One of the hallmarks of a true master though is knowing when to stop analysing! I was once analysing with Peter Svidler, and he stated emphatically that a pawn move was best. I started analysing to try to work out why. He stopped me and said that it's best because "it just is". He was right!

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