The chess-count quiz now has more settings. For instance, you can disable the timer, or you can be quizzed on total moves, not just checks and captures.
In a previous blog, I posted how a simple move counting game might help chess players remove their blindspots. Since then, I've added a couple new features (see screenshot):
Timer can be enabled or disabled
The screen can be from the point of view of the white player or black player
You can choose which of six move-counting questions to be quizzed on for the current position:
Your legal moves
Your checks
Your captures
Your opponent's legal moves (if you played the null move)
Your opponent's checks (if you played the null move)
Your opponent's captures (if you played the null move)
As before, this is open source, and you can find the code here.
Which setting(s) should you practice with?
I'm not sure on this one myself. The classic beginner mistake, which I still succumb to, is hanging pieces, or overlooking your opponent's hanging pieces. I also still miss checks or my opponent's checks, so I turn those four on.
On the other hand, not every overlooked move is a check or capture, so perhaps the total legal move count version is the purest setting.
I was thinking of this when, during the recent WC Candidates tournament, Hikaru said (jokingly) that Caruana needed to learn how the knight moves, referring to a case when Caruana, one of the best players in history, missed a backwards knight move.
I have no insight into how a master's mind thinks, much less a super GM, but professional basketball players still do layups and basic dribbling practice. Who knows, perhaps even stronger players would benefit from doing very basic training work, like move counting.
