Expert: Tony D'Aloisio - 8/24/2011

Question
hello sir my first question is when should we start caluculating and when to end the caluculation.and my second question is my freind told that white will attack on kingside and black will attack on queenside here who will win?then what will be the forced caluculation between both ex:najdorf be3 variations

Answer
I'm afraid I'm probably not going to be able to offer too much help for your questions.  In chess it's very difficult to give specific answers to generalities.

Regarding your first question, the simple answer is:  "It depends."  You should probably only try to calculate forcing lines, and continue until there are no more complications and you have evaluated the ensuing position.

As far as the second question goes, again it very much depends upon the specific position.  One factor though in favor of the kingside attacker, practically speaking, is that he can sacrifice a great deal of material and still win, since checkmating the king is after all the goal of the game; the queenside attacker does not have nearly that much latitude.  This however is a relatively minor consideration, and queenside attacks can be every bit as successful as attacks on the kingside (I am throughout this assuming that both players have castled on the kingside).

One more thing:  opening variations are seldom forced lines.  They are usually only plausible continuations, and forced wins are rarely their outcomes (if so, those are often what's known as "traps").  The evaluations at the end of each line denote who has the better chances of winning from the resultant position (assuming the two players are of equal strength).