Learning Chess Workbook Step 3 Thinking Ahead

The group of students for whom the book is useful is very broad. The first target group are those students who have worked through all the workbooks from Step 1 to Step 3 plus (including Thinking Ahead Step 2 of course). In addition, all chess players from the higher levels who have gone through all the steps too fast. They improve too slow or make no progress so they can still benefit from using this workbook.

The importance of such workbooks is increasing. Thinking ahead is an essential skill in games from the moment the opening theory stops and you have to think. Thinking ahead flawlessly is necessary throughout the game and, in fact, until the moment when you stop playing chess altogether. Practicing is therefore worthwhile.

It is remarkable that the ability of many players to think ahead without mistakes is clearly stagnating. Why? This skill is much less practiced when working with the computer. After a move, the move of the opponent comes back directly and you don't have to keep the position in mind. Being able to hold the positions in your working memory is necessary to increase your playing strength. In addition to the tasks with moves below the diagram, the blind exercises in this workbook are suited for this purpose even better.

The different exercises are more varied than in the other workbooks. The topics from Step 3 return partly. This gives an indication of what information needs to be retrieved from long-term memory. In this way a large part of the working memory is available for thinking ahead then.
Have a look at some example pages.