MSK Chess's video: Practical chess techniques : Motif of function

Ever wondered when a chess master proclaims that a certain side is better and then fails to state why they are better or where they are better? The amateur player is left scanning the chessboard for possible signs and is usually left bereft. Its happened to me many times as I have listened to chess commentary. Perhaps it has happened to you too? I like to read chess literature and I came upon an article that was originally published in Purdys The search for chess perfection volume II in an article entitled Combinations verse planning. Purdy himself got the idea form an article published in New Zealand Chess Player entitled Ortivin Sarapu coaches and with permission reproduced it in his own book. Tracing the technique back even further it seems that it was credited to the famous Russian Grandmaster Levenfish, also a famous writer and analyst. Essentially the technique seeks to ascertain which side is better and why they are better by looking at the motif of function. By making a piece by piece and pawn by pawn comparison ascertain where the relative strengths and weaknesses of the position lie. This is of fundamental importance because as Purdy himself states usually we can affect one of the following 1. Strengthen our own position. 2. Diminish our weaknesses. 3. Negate our opponents strengths. 4. Accentuate their weaknesses. Now naturally in order for us to do so we need to understand where the strengths and weaknesses of a chess position lie and this is where Grandmaster Levenfish's technique is designed to help the chess player do just that it in a methodical and systematic way. Now it can be argued that this would have been found by looking at forcing continuations, which of course is absolutely true, however the Levenfish technique forces us to observe many things that we could easily miss in a less methodical way and instead of wondering what move our opponent is likely to play when infact they can only make a single move, it is a good use of time when it our opponents turn to move and attempting to extract the information from the chess board may help us form plans and ideas. Furthermore we can practice the technique when looking at tactics and trying to ascertain what the elements where that led up to the tactic being made possible. Try applying the technique when you are practising tactics and you might be amazed at what information you can glean from the chessboard to help you formulate plans and ideas. music is form my favourite band - the Leftovers check them out. https://soundcloud.com/the-leftovers-3/sets/cover-by-the-leftovers msk chess: https://www.facebook.com/msk.chess https://www.chess.com/blog/robbie_1969 chess, echecs , ajedrez , xadrez , shahmati , szachy , sjakk , schach , schaken , satranj , шахматы , شطرنج