Revisiting Jeremy Silman’s Imbalanced-Based Chess Thinking PART 2
After days of pondering about Silman’s thinking method, I slowly remembered important bits and pieces of it. But before anything else, let’s take a look at what a chess player is called to do when thinking the Silman way…
Take Note Of All The Imbalances – In a chess game, there are different major imbalances that exist at the same time. When formulating a plan, you should take note of all the imbalances…not just for your camp but for your opponent’s as well.
Determine Which Side Of The Board You Want To Play On – Queenside, center, or kingside – which side of the board are you going to play on? You should play on the side where a favorable imbalance exists.
Find The All Candidate Moves – Your chosen candidate moves should make use of the favorable imbalance you set your sights on or gives the possibility of creating one. You should make use of your position’s positive imbalances unless you’re forced to play a purely defensive move.
Calculate All The Moves – Yes, fellas! Calculation should come at the end of the thinking process. Not before you’ve found the plan to adopt.
A Little Correction To My Previous Posts…
I think I’ve made some mistakes in my previous post concerning the imbalances involved in IM Jeremy Silman’s thinking technique. Anyway, here’s a brief introduction to them and I’ll be taking on them in greater detail on the next posts on this series…
Superior Minor Piece – This pertains to the battle and interplay between the Bishops and Knights…how are you going to make your minor piece superior to the opponent’s?
Pawn Structure – This is one broad subject. Heck! Books have been written about pawn structures. But we’ll keep it simple and just take note of the important and most common pawn structures seen in play. They would be backward pawns, doubled pawns, isolated pawns, passed pawns, and that’s just to name a few.
Space – This pertains to your territory on the chess board. How far have your pieces and pawns gone from the chess equator? The same question should be asked concerning your opponent’s position.
Material – This means owning pieces that are valued greater than the other side. For example, having more pawns, having a Rook for a Knight, and the like.
Control Of A Key File And Square – Files, ranks, and diagonals – these act as pathways for your pieces. It’s not uncommon for masters and strong chess players to build plans that center on taking advantage of weak squares in the opponent’s camp or force to create one.
Development – This gives you more pieces…more firepower in a certain section of the board. This is a temporary imbalance and you should try to take advantage of it as the opponent will eventually catch up.
Initiative – This means dictating the tempo of the game. This is another temporary imbalance that you should take advantage of right away.
I guess that’s all for now. Hopefully, I’ll remember the details and principles about each imbalance correctly.
Revisiting Jeremy Silman’s Imbalanced-Based Chess Thinking PART 1
A glance through my posts will surely reveal that I’m a huge fan of Jeremy Silman, his books, and especially his imbalanced-based chess thinking process.
Come to think of it – chess is not a game of memorization, although it’s still needed. It’s not a game of hand-speed. Chess is a THINKING GAME.
If you know how to think right and judge the position in front of you, you can almost always come up with the right move. If you don’t, then cross your fingers and pray that your opponent doesn’t know how to think right, too.
Silman’s imbalanced-based thinking teaches the serious and improving player how to think in chess by taking good note of the major differences in the black and white camp…looking at the trumps and disadvantages in both positions.
This makes it easier for one to form a concrete plan.
What Are Chess Imbalances?
Imbalances, according to Silman, are the major differences in both camps. They’re not advantages or disadvantages…they’re just that differences. In his books, Jeremy identified 7 imbalances namely…
1. Pawn Structures
2. Superior Minor Piece
3. Squares and Square Complexes
4. Rooks and Files
5. Space
6. Development
7. Initiative
The Structure
Here’s how Silman’s imbalanced based thinking works…
1. Find and take note of the imbalances on both sides.
2. Form a plan how to emphasize your imbalances…turning them into advantages while neutralizing the opponent’s efforts to do the same.
3. Form a list of candidate moves.
4. And only after you have completed the steps above should you start to calculate.
For example, Black has a backward pawn on d-file…specifically on d6 – that’s one of the imbalances on his camp. On the other hand, you have a semi-open d-file. What would you do?
Simple! Pile up your major pieces on the d-file…put that d6-pawn under immense pressure since you know that it cannot be supported by a fellow pawn. You may even opt to exchange minor pieces since that will reduce the defenders of that pawn. Alternatively, you may choose to station a minor piece, preferably a knight.
You can now pick candidate moves – Rd1 and perhaps follow it up with Qd2, you can also go for Nc3, or eliminate that f6-Knight with Bg5 followed with Bxf6…and so on.
In a nutshell, that’s how Silman’s chess. I’m struggling to recall the in-depth details relating to each and every imbalance. But I will post what I can remember.
