This post is about another common mistake I see a lot as a chess coach. Pretty much all my students do it from time to time, and some of them are especially prone to it; so I thought it might be useful to write about it.
Procrastination: to be slow or late about doing something that should be done : to delay doing something until a later time because you do not want to do it, because you are lazy, etc.
Procrastination in chess decision making means the following:
- You have a rather tough decision to make, like giving up material, castling into a possible attack, etc.
- After some thinking, you simply postpone making a decision, and play a “useful” move instead, while you are still completely unsure what your decision will be.
Here is an example from one of my students who is a black belt procrastinator. 🙂
It is Black to move, and castling right now does not seem very safe, as White can go for the dreaded Greek sacrifice with Bxh7+, or play Qe2-e4 and start a kingside attack. Still, Black has quite a few options to consider:
- Playing 8. … Ng6 or 8. … Nd5 (thus defending the g5-square with the queen), and then castle.
- Playing 8. … h6 to control g5, and then castle.
- Waiting with short castling and try to exchange or chase away the dangerous d3 bishop first by something like 8. … Bd7 9. Re1 Nb4, and if 10. Be4 then 10. … Bc6.
- Preparing queenside castling with 8. … b6 and Bc8-b7, Qd8-d7.
- Pushing 8. … f5, trying to close the d3-bishop’s diagonal. If White takes en passant, Black will have a strong center in exchange for a weakened kingside.
Some of these ideas are good, some are not so good – but obviously a decision should be made about the placement of the black king, as it cannot stay in the middle of the board forever. Also, the h8-rook must join the game in the near future.
What Black did in the game is a textbook example of procrastination. She could not make up her mind, so she left the matter undecided, and played all the “useful” moves she could find on the queenside, until she ran out of them. Notice her knight moves from move 15 – they clearly show her irresoluteness.