How to Think Three Moves Ahead in Chess

Think it sounds easy, huh? It's just three moves, how hard can that be? Well, let's take a look at what it means to really think three moves ahead.

Look at the picture, and calculate for white to move.

What it really means to think three moves ahead is to look at more than one possible move, and more than one possible response, etc. Ah, now you see why chess gets so difficult, and why those world champions stare at the board for such a long time!

Let's consider at least four possible moves: 1.Capture the pawn with Bxd5, 2. Move the Bishop back with Bb3, 3. Capture the pawn with exd5, and 4. Checking the king with Bb5. Start with option number one. Visualize the bishop capturing the pawn on d5.

What are some possible responses for black to Bxd5? 1.The knight captures the bishop, Nxd5. 2. The queen captures the bishop, written Qxd5. 3. Black could ignore the Bishop's capture of the pawn and just develop.

Of these possibilities white will be happy if he does anything other than Knight takes bishop, because if he captures with the queen we can recapture the queen with the pawn on e4, and the queen is worth nine pawns, while the bishop we exchanged is only worth three. So we would come out ahead by six pawns! If he ignores the Bishop's capture of the pawn and does something unrelated then we are ahead by one pawn.

When you are calculating moves you must always assume that your opponent will make the best possible move.

The second branch of the first move tree was to move the bishop back by playing Bb3. What are Black's possible responses.

1. Black pawn takes pawn on e4, 2. ignore and do any number of moves unrelated to the pawn tension on e4 and d5. Let's start with black pawn takes the pawn on e4. What are white's possible responses.

1. recapture the pawn with dxe4. 2. Ignore and simply lose the pawn, making any number of moves unrelated to the pawn capture. 3. Push the pawn to d5 to avoid another capture. First let's consider the recapture of the pawn since it seems to be the most logical. Then what can black do? 1. He can now trade queens since the file is open.

If he trades queens white will be in check and have to recapture with the king, and he will not longer be able to castle. Besides this, the knight can now capture the white pawn on e4 for free. We can eliminate Bb3 based on this information.

Now we have considered two of the four possible moves we were going to consider at least three moves deep. And see how much work we have done? We still have two more moves to consider!

At this point weak players get tired. They say to themselves things like, "I'll just move and find out what happens," or "Oh who cares I'm tired." Sound familiar? But let's keep going anyway.

Next let's consider the white pawn captures the black pawn on d5. The white bishop doesn't have to capture the knight. It can stay where it is. Remember, just because you can capture a piece doesn't mean you have to. If there is no reason to trade pieces then don't trade, especially since you will be leaving him with the two bishops, which can be considered an advantage, especially in an open position (one where the center pawns have been traded).

This isn't three moves ahead, it is only two on this branch, but it is enough to know you that you would be3 giving up a center pawn (a pawn on one of the four center squares), but in exchange for it your opponent loses one tempo (move gaining time) by moving a piece twice in the opening.

Finally let's consider checking the king by Bishop to b5. The best possible move for black is pawn to c6, because it gains a tempo by chasing the bishop away. Then you would lose the pawn on e4 when dxe4, dxe4, Qxd1, Kxd1 and then the e4 pawn is free for the knight on f6.

Now you can look at the diagram and try to do those four options in your head. This is how you look three moves ahead in a chess game. Good luck, hang in there, it seems hard but it gets easier to do with practice.