Calculate

Work a plan through, step by step, to the end before you commit to it.

Why it matters

A plan that looks good for two steps can fail on the third. Counting the sequence to the end, as a chess player counts captures, turns a hopeful plan into a known one, and shows the step where it breaks. Where the later steps cannot be foreseen, commit in stages and count again as you learn.

The question to ask

If I do this, then what, and then what, until it settles?

At work

Before agreeing a delivery date, walk through each hand-off: who does what, what it waits for, and the step most likely to slip.

In study

In a maths or science problem, write each step and check it before the next, instead of jumping to the answer you expect.

Lessons

Count it throughFollow a chain of consequences to the end before you agree to the first step.
Patterns save thinkingLearn the common shapes by heart, so the obvious answers come at once and your thinking goes where it is needed.
Find what everything depends onFind the one part that holds everything else up. Strike it if it is theirs; back it up if it is yours.
Look at three before choosingBefore you choose, name at least three options, including one you had not first thought of, and compare them.

Shown and practised in chess: Piece values and good trades, Checkmate, stalemate and other draws, Checks, captures and threats, Back-rank mate, The fork, The pin, The skewer, The discovered attack.

Practise it in a game, about five minutes against bots: the Nim lab.

Use it in a work case, a short story of linked decisions: The rushed website, The café's coffee beans.

New to chess? The examples here use it. Play your first moves (five minutes), then learn chess from the beginning, one short lesson at a time.

Practise and review

Questions from every lesson above, in mixed order. You do not need to finish a lesson first.

Your level: Not started
In the games: Not started
Due for review: 0

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Review Calculate questions

In the reference

Count it throughFollow a sequence of moves to its end before you start it, counting what each side wins.
Patterns save thinkingLearn common patterns so you recognise them at a glance instead of working them out each time.