I have an issue wherein my thoughts are on repeat. My counselor told me to pick an affirmation that I should repeat all the time. Will such repetitive thoughts affect my ability to visualize and calculate?
1 Answer
I think that chess calculation is one of the most difficult parts of chess training.
If my memory does not betray me, in the first book that was written about chess calculation "Think Like a Grandmaster", the former world chess campionship candidate Alexander Kotov recommended to think about every line just once.
However, it is a difficult task. Also, there are other books about the topic. What I have found useful is practicing chess calculation. The more you practice, the more that you will be better at. Following this line of thought, I play a daily "long" game on lichess.org (Long games in lichess.org are called classic). I also avoid any other of time control. It is true that the best chess players play blitz daily. However, I have noticed that avoiding blitz in combination of a daily LONG chess game has helped me to improve my chess calculation.
There are other options like solving chess puzzles daily. If you go in that direction. You need to try to solve them perfectly. You need to pick chess puzzles according your level.
Why is it important to try to solve them perfectly? The idea is that you need to put your maximum effort to improve. The same with the daily chess game.
One strategy to save time, it is to play just ONE daily game and ONE chess puzzle. Of course, you can do more, but I have noticed that it is better to try very hard, and if you play a lot of games or if you solve a lot of puzzles it is more difficult, even though not impossible.