Automatic Decisions: A way to Improve your Chess – Now! by Nikos Ntirlis
About a year ago, I visited Jacob in lovely Glasgow and we made together a series of videos (5 of them) where he explained briefly his theory on the “Four Types of Decisions” we make in Chess. In this article, I’d like to talk about Type of Decision #1: Automatic Decisions and how I realized, one whole year later, why such a simple idea can have a huge effect on the level of the chess I (and I am sure also you) play. If you have no idea what are the “Four Types of Decisions”, you can check the introductory video of the series, where this legendary dialogue took place:
Jacob: “What is the one thing you should always do when you have an automatic decision?”
Nikos: “Maybe check if this is not the only move?”
Jacob: “He is not as stupid as he looks!”
If you want to expand on this topic, there are two books where this theory is explained in detail:
• Strategic Play (2013)
• Thinking Inside the Box (2017)
Also, you can check this video which is dedicated to this type of decision.
So, let me now share with you my recent experiences and why I think I (and you) should take seriously Jacob’s advice on that subject.
First of all, what is an automatic decision?
According to Jacob: “Moves we make almost without thinking”
Some players relate this thing to intuition, or to the first move that comes to mind or what I have heard many times as moves that we would have made in blitz.
Read more…
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