When To Stop Thinking

@grasputin said in #20:
> @Kingscrusher-YouTube -- wasn't there a video or a blog you created on the same topic -- "when to stop calculating"?

I had a blog about having a "No" attitude to threats from opponent or even seemingly good moves, but maybe Lasker's advice is a better way of capturing it and reusing it. I think Kasparov mentioned in the pre-increment clock times that players should try and make maximum use of their clock time and only later try and speed up. Of course you ideally need to put more time into the "critical positions" but then how do you know if a position is "critical" or not until after the game analysing with engines etc.

@Kingscrusher-YouTube said in #21:
> I had a blog about having a "No" attitude to threats from opponent or even seemingly good moves

Yes, I did read that blog.

But also years ago you did ask the same question about when to stop calculating, and gave your thoughts on it. (I'm pretty sure, because I found your question interesting, and have thought about that often.)

I don't know how to find it though, and am not certain if it was a video or a blog. I think it may have been a video.

@Kingscrusher-YouTube -- (in fact, when @CheckRaiseMate published this blog, I tried to look for your older video so I could post it here for comparison, but couldn't figure how to find it.)

@Kingscrusher-YouTube --

Perhaps it was this video -- "When to stop calculating? || Chess Calculation: "Endpoint theory" || Magnus Carlsen examples" -- youtu.be/wNV13vqOZpY

(but in my recollection, the examples you'd used weren't Carlsen's)

For anyone else interested, here's a video by ChessDojo on the same topic --

How To Calculate Lines & Knowing When to Stop | Dojo Lessons -- youtu.be/pzhiqSyv8v4

grasputin - that's a good point - Magnus Carlsen can reject moves if he thinks the opponent has dangerous counterplay - and stops calculating further sometimes. So sometimes he ends up playing a more practical move which has no obvious downsides.

Also relating back to my example above (Bf2+ missed), maybe sometimes it is "better to burn time than to burn bridges". My miss of Bf2 is a bit gutting because the Queen is about to go off the board forever - maybe when there is something very committal about to happen, to try and examine further all the options available.

Figuring out if a position is critical for your fog level, might be part of the experience based learning. Having self-awareness of how confident one is about ability to see long term given the current position.

Some may call if "familiarity" with ....

I have to say that this blog article was the most helpful chess article I've read in a while. Maybe it came at just the right time for me, but after reading it, in the games I've played, I've gotten into time trouble less and just made better decisions. Good enough is good enough, and perfect can truly be the enemy of good. Thanks!