This is a position from the Achutti vs Teixeria, Rio de Janeiro, 2000. Take 60 seconds to study the position and then try to set it up on a board or on the computer from memory…
Ready! Go!!
How well did you do? With experience you get better at doing this, but you can also adopt a system that will help you memorize such positions. In fact, the way in which one goes about is based on positional characteristics that one assesses anyways when studying a position.
Why would you want to do this? At some level, it is a reflection of experience and your ability to make observations about a position quickly. But it also helps to set up positions on the chess computer from a diagram in a book – it’s much easier if you’ve memorized the position.
Let’s go through the steps that one might take when memorizing this position.
Material
You should not get this wrong, even if you end up putting pieces on the wrong square.
First, count material for both sides using the method I taught you in a previous post. Here, we have 1-2-1-2 and 1-2-1-2 for both white and black. And we note that the bishop for both sides are both on the same color squares – and both are light-squared bishops.
You might notice that white’s bishop is a “good” bishop since his central pawns occupy dark squares whereas black’s bishop is a “bad” bishop.
Pawn Structure
First how many pawns does each side have? – Seven.
Now look at the pawn balance, that is, the extent to which pawns oppose each on the files. This position is perfectly balanced. Every file that has a white pawn also has a black pawn and vice-versa.
Look for open or half-open files. In this case, the e-file is completely open.
Castled Position
The castled positions are mirror images for both sides, with pawns on f2/f7, g2/g7, and h3/h6, and kings on g1/g8. The rooks are in the original position they would be in after castling (f1/f8).
Other Symmetries
The other rooks are on their original squares (a1/a8).
The center d-pawns are locked. On the queen-side, white has slightly more space with the b- and c-pawns, but has not yet advanced these pawns to the fourth rank.
White’s knight on f3 is opposes the black’s knight on c6.
Both bishops have moved to the third rank (relative to each of white and black’s side of the board).
Non-Symmetrical Elements
Now we get down to the point where things become more challenging. But this is still not too difficult if you focus. So what about the remaining pieces, especially the knights and queens?
Note that one of black’s knights attacks white’s d3 bishop.
And white’s other knight is on the same rank and right next to the black knight.
Black’s queen is sort of pretending to be a knight on f6. We can also see that the black queen pressures white’s d-pawn, which is obviously a critical strategic point.
White’s queen has moved one square forward to d2.
You should now be able to easily set up most if not all of the position from memory. With practice and experience you can do this rather quickly.