What is "thought process"? It's related to thinking, of course, but there is a difference between thinking and thought process. In a sense, we can break "chess thinking" into three different types, each representing a different class where you may make errors. Let's put process in class one, knowledge in area two, and analytical in class 3. The latter usually occurs at a higher level, but it's useful to know how errors during analysis can happen. There is also a grey area, which we can call "visualization errors;" that is when you are looking at a position, analyzing it, but you can't clearly see it in your mind. In this new series, Dan Heisman's examines the most common thought process errors of class players. Each video will highlight a common error with discussion and examples. Typical errors include quiescence errors, visualization problems, focusing too much on one candidate, moving too quickly or slowly, just because it is forced, not considering all the things a move does, not taking into account the state of the game, hand-waving, and hope chess. This video covers errors where the thinker stops his analysis too soon when the position is still not "quiet".

Today's show: The error where the not-optimum question "Why did he make that move?" is asked and the answer "Because it is forced" allows the thinker to erroneously assume that's the only reason for the opponent's move.

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