Last night I had a lesson from my IM chess coach. He described what he called 'power moves,' which as the name suggests are powerful moves that should be considered in order of most powerful to least powerful when calculating, and in this way you will organize your thoughts efficiently. The power moves are:

1. The Double Check. This is the most powerful power move because it forces the enemy king to move. Both attacking pieces can be hanging, yet the king must move because both threats cannot be countered through any other means (interposition, capture, etc.)

2. Check. Checks cannot be ignored, they must be honored which makes a powerful forcing move. The capacity to check can grind to a halt your opponents combination and flow if they allow it.

3. Taking a Piece. Taking material from your opponent puts pressure on them. At some point they must try to equalize by taking material back, though not necessarily right away.

4. Threatening Mate. Mate threats must, of course, be countered. The best way to counter a mate threat is to dissolve the threat while simultaneously creating your own threats, perhaps by attacking another piece.

5. Threatening a Piece. The threat to capture a piece weighs heavy in your opponents consideration. Threatening pieces will make your opponent defend them or reposition, and this may potentially create weaknesses in the enemy camp, particularly in pawn structure.

Last but not least the concept of LPDO. Loose Pieces Drop Off!

What do you guys think, would you re-order anything, add anything, ammend?

I know in his Novice Nook columns, Dan Heisman often talks about looking for "checks, captures, threats" on every move, which is pretty much the same thing. Your coach just broke it out into a little more detail (type of check, type of threat).

--Fromper

Sounds pretty much like what I have... it's like a mantra for me.

"Look at all checks, captures and forced moves."

This is only half the equation, although a very important one, because games between players below master are usually decided by a tactical error. But what do you do if you find yourself staring at a position where there aren’t any combinations? The answer is found in the Slightly philosophical question thread!

i think once you get used to playing, going to this double check, mating check, etc, will be just secondary by nature, as you gain experience you will just look at the whole board, and on the spot you will know what moves that needs to be check