🔗 🧠 Noticing Vacated Squares in Chess

By FJ Snijman - He writes about divorce, electronics, passive income, ZX14R, local SEO and small businesses -

The author, a Chess visualization expert, highlights a common blind spot for players of all levels: failing to acknowledge the "second order effects" of a move, specifically the vacated square a piece leaves behind. While players are skilled at recognizing the active effects of a move, they often overlook what is no longer happening or the opportunities created by an empty space. This tendency stems from human psychology, which prioritizes immediate threats, impacting Chess by leading to missed tactical opportunities and blunders like not noticing newly opened lines. The author proposes building a habit of identifying at least one consequence of a vacated square with every move to mitigate this weakness and improve overall Chess performance.