Academy | Calculation | Calculation Killers
If you’re a developing chess player, your hard-earned calculation skills can be fragile, and it’s important to protect it by avoiding common pitfalls.
Lazy Habits Creep in Easily
Calculation requires concentration and careful thought—it’s hard work. The natural human tendency to avoid this mental effort by relying too much on intuition or “gut feeling” (guessing) can quickly turn into a habit that harms your calculation skills. Over time, this habit weakens your ability to calculate accurately, and you may even have to relearn disciplined calculation.
Too Much Blitz
Blitz chess (e.g., 5-minute or 3-minute games) emphasizes speed and intuition over careful thinking. Masters can handle this because their calculation skills are built from years of practice. For most players, however, playing fast games too often creates a habit of making rushed moves instead of fully thinking through positions. Over time, your brain gets used to prioritizing speed over depth, which reduces your accuracy. That’s why most of your online training games should use longer time controls. A 15-minute game with a 10-second increment (15|10) is a good option for online training games.
Mental Fatigue
Mental fatigue—from long playing sessions, lack of sleep, emotional stress, or even poor diet—severely impairs calculation ability. Regularly playing while tired or distracted can harm your calculation skills more than it helps.
Overconfidence
Being confident that you are in control can make you relax your concentration and miss key opponent moves or hidden tactics. This is especially dangerous in positions that feel familiar or look simple. You need to stay alert, because there are often still important moves to calculate.