"Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you." - Arnold Palmer

Friday 22 March 2013

A New Simplified Attitude To A Position Assessment?

Some of you who watched recently London Candidates Tournament might notice that on the official website there is rather innovative system for assessment of the position and player's advantage. ChessCasting simplifies the problem using just four categories. Those who are familiar with Silman's system for instance may welcome this kind of innovation. 
Let's briefly have a look on the Silman's technique.

Jeremy Silman, an American international chess master, writer and chess coach, developed a  thinking technique when the position is assessed base on 6 factors:

1. Minor pieces and their superiority
2. Pawn structure
3. Space
4. Material balance
5. Key files and squares control
6. Lead in development and Initiative


ChessCasting uses four categories which seems to be quite logical:

1. Material balance
2. King safety (sometimes bit underestimated)
3. Pawn strength (perhaps an equivalent of pawn structure)
4. Mobility (parameter which covers development, coordination of pieces etc)

These four factors then generate the final "advantage" in percents.


candidates2013.worldchess.com

On the picture above you can see the assessment of the final position from the game Svidler-Carlsen played yesterday.
Maybe this simplified mindset can be useful for teaching juniors how to assess the positions.




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