← 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
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
h8
g
f
e
d
c
b
a
Black to move · middlegame · Catalan Opening
Save what is hanging
1/9 · Split the board in four
Black to move. One of your pieces can be won. Danger counts towards U exactly like opportunity does.
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.