chessmec: This is indeed correct. The difference between a better player and a worse player is not so much in the ability to think ahead as it is in the ability to formulate a plan. The real difference is that the amateur formulates a bad one or doesn't formulate one at all. (I say all this of course knowing that I have not yet reached what I consider "good" so anything I say is subject to scrutiny) (p.s. I should rant about losing a single game to a master player and ending up with a provisional BKR of 1616!)