← The Viveka Method
Learn it step by step
Each worked example takes about two minutes. The board shows every number as you meet it: what is at stake, where your moves go, which quadrant wins, and how each candidate scores. Predict before you reveal; then see what Stockfish says.
1. Take what is loose
2. Save what is hanging
3. Nothing at stake: follow the options
4. A check is worth about a pawn
5. Opening: develop towards the centre
6. Endgame: the same two equations
7. When the method misses
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Black to move · opening · Italian Game: Two Knights Defense
Opening: develop towards the centre
1/9 · Split the board in four
Black to move. An opening position. Most best moves in the opening land in your own half.
Split the board through the middle both ways. The quadrants are always named from the side to move: your half or theirs, queenside (files a–d) or kingside (e–h).
- Q1 Own half · queenside (a–d)
- Q2 Own half · kingside (e–h)
- Q3 Enemy half · queenside (a–d)
- Q4 Enemy half · kingside (e–h)
The first equation tells you which of these four to search first.