Candidate Move in Chess
Candidate Move
Definition
In chess, a candidate move is any move that you seriously consider during your calculation. Instead of trying to calculate every legal move, you first build a short list of promising moves — those are your candidate moves. You then analyze each candidate in detail, calculating variations and comparing the final evaluations.
The concept of candidate moves is central to systematic thinking in chess and is closely associated with the classic training method of Alexander Kotov, especially in his book "Think Like a Grandmaster".
How Candidate Moves Are Used in Practical Chess
During a game, you rarely have enough time to examine every legal move. Instead, you:
- Identify 2–5 reasonable options (candidate moves).
- Calculate concrete lines for each candidate, often one by one.
- Evaluate the resulting positions and compare which candidate is best.
This process helps avoid random or impulsive moves and is critical in tactical positions, critical middlegame moments, and sharp endgames.
Typical Sources of Candidate Moves
A strong player doesn’t pick candidate moves at random; they come from position-specific ideas. Common sources of candidate moves include:
- Forcing moves: checks, captures, and strong threats.
- Moves that improve piece activity: centralization, activating a passive piece, creating a Rook lift or a powerful outpost.
- Pawns breaks: opening files, undermining pawn chains, or creating a passed pawn.
- Defensive resources: guarding key squares, creating an Escape square for the king, or neutralizing opponent threats.
- Sacrifices (or “sacs”): especially a speculative sacrifice or Exchange sac when you sense dynamic potential.
Kotov’s Method and Candidate Moves
Soviet grandmaster Alexander Kotov popularized a structured way to use candidate moves:
- First identify all reasonable candidate moves in the position.
- Then build a calculation tree and analyze each candidate one branch at a time.
- Avoid jumping back and forth between lines, which leads to confusion and missed ideas (sometimes called Kotov syndrome).
This disciplined approach is especially important in time trouble or Zeitnot, where random guessing often leads to a major Blunder or embarrassing moron move.
Example Position: Building Candidate Moves
Consider a simple attacking position (White to move):
- White king on g1, queen on d1, rooks on e1 and f1, bishops on c4 and g5, knights on f3 and c3, pawns on the usual starting files except the d-pawn on d4.
- Black king on g8, queen on d8, rooks on f8 and a8, bishops on e7 and g4, knights on f6 and c6, pawns in a typical King’s Pawn structure with pawns on e5 and d6.
White is better developed and has pressure on the kingside. A strong player might list the following candidate moves:
- 1. dxe5 — opening the d-file and attacking the knight on f6.
- 1. Qd3 — overprotecting the center and eyeing h7.
- 1. h3 — questioning the bishop on g4.
- 1. Bxf6 — exchanging bishop for knight to damage Black’s pawn structure.
- 1. Re4 — a rook lift intending Rh4 and a kingside attack.
Not all of these are equally strong, but they are logical candidate moves worth calculating. A random pawn move like 1. a4?! might be a zero-depth move: legal, but it does not address the concrete demands of the position.
Engine Thinking vs. Human Candidate Moves
Modern engines like Stockfish and AlphaZero evaluate and rank moves in terms of engine eval (measured in Centipawn units), but at root they also select a short list of “best” moves to explore more deeply. Humans imitate this by:
- Looking at the most forcing ideas first (checks, captures, threats).
- Using positional understanding to limit candidate moves to a handful of serious possibilities.
- Avoiding moves that obviously violate principles like King safety or losing material En prise.
While an engine might show that the best move has +0.80 and the second best is +0.60, for a human it is usually enough to pick a move from the top tier of candidate moves that maintains a healthy advantage and good practical chances.
Common Mistakes When Choosing Candidate Moves
Even strong players can go wrong at the candidate-move stage. Typical issues include:
- Too few candidates: You see a tempting Cheap shot and don’t even look for alternatives.
- Too many candidates: You consider 8–10 moves, overload your calculation, and run into time trouble or Zeitnot.
- Ignoring opponent’s ideas: You only generate candidate moves for yourself and forget to ask, “What are their candidate moves?”
- Emotional bias: Preferring swashbuckling attacks or “coffeehouse chess” over solid positional moves, or rejecting all sacrifices because you’re a strict Materialist.
Training Methods to Improve Candidate-Move Selection
You can train your candidate-move skills systematically:
- Pause positions from annotated games and write down 3–4 candidate moves before checking the solution.
- In puzzle solving or Tactic training, force yourself to list all forcing candidates (checks, captures, threats) before choosing.
- Practice slower time controls (Classical player or longer Rapid) to build a disciplined thinking routine before testing it in Blitz or Bullet chess.
- During post-mortem analysis or in an Analysis room, ask stronger players which candidate moves they considered and why.
Annotated Micro-Example with PGN
The following tiny fragment illustrates candidate-move thinking. After Black’s last move ...Re8, White to move might consider several candidate moves:
In a real training session, you would:
- Pause at key turning points (for instance, after ...Re8).
- Write down a short list of candidate moves (e.g., c3, a4, Ng5, h3).
- Then compare your choices with engine suggestions or annotated commentary.
Historical and Theoretical Significance
The “candidate move” concept is at the heart of modern calculation and is a bridge between:
- Romantic era chess, where players often relied on intuition and bravado.
- Modern chess and the Soviet school, which emphasized rigorous calculation and objective decision-making.
Nearly all elite players — from Botvinnik and Tal to Kasparov and Carlsen — describe their thinking in terms of generating and comparing candidate moves. Even in the age of Computer chess and AI chess, the human calculation process still starts from disciplined candidate-move selection.
Practical Checklist: How to Use Candidate Moves in Your Own Games
When it is your move in a critical position, you can follow this mini-checklist:
- 1. Identify the opponent’s threats first.
- 2. Generate 2–5 candidate moves:
- Include all serious checks, captures, and strong threats.
- Add at least one quiet move that improves your worst piece or king safety.
- 3. Calculate each candidate in turn, without jumping around too much.
- 4. Evaluate and compare the final positions; pick the one you trust most practically.
- 5. Commit confidently and only then make the move on the board.
Related Terms and Concepts
Understanding candidate moves is easier if you also study:
- Calculation and Tactics.
- Quiet move and Prophylaxis.
- Kotov syndrome (jumping between lines and getting lost in the calculation tree).
- Best move, Second best, Inaccuracy, Mistake, and Blunder in engine analysis.
Interesting Anecdote
Many players new to systematic thinking are surprised that grandmasters often say they considered “only three or four moves” in a complex position. The key is not supernatural vision, but a refined sense of which candidate moves are worth investigation and which belong in the trash as a likely Boomer move or pure “coffeehouse” bluff. Improving at chess is, in large part, learning to promote good ideas to your candidate list and demote bad ones before you waste time calculating them.
Progress and Self-Tracking (Optional)
If you are working on your thinking process seriously, you might track performance over time:
- How often does your eventual move come from your initial candidate list?
- How often do you miss strong candidate moves (especially tactical ones)?
- How does this relate to your rating trend in different time controls?
Example rating trend placeholder: . Example peak rating placeholder: .