Taking Problems Head-On

Breaking Through Our Limitations Through Deconstruction

The skill of Deconstruction allows us to go beyond any limitations of domain knowledge, expertise, past training, past experience, or any other artificial boundaries we keep creating around ourselves. It allows us to take a problem head-on, completely at its face value, and solve it from first principles. Deconstruction takes us away from all limitations of "not knowing" a concept.

Deconstruction makes concepts "obvious" and "self-evident".

In this article, we will demonstrate the power of deconstruction by applying it to a chess-puzzle. This article, however, is not about chess. This article is about deconstructing a problem. Even those who are not actively involved with chess would experience how they can effortlessly arrive at a very elegant solution to this fairly complicated chess puzzle.

What we would demonstrate below is - that the thought "I am not a chess-player" OR "I am out of touch with chess" has no bearing with one's ability to solve chess puzzles as complex as this, or even more.

As we have seen earlier in the article The Science of Deep Thinking, Deconstruction primarily requires two steps :

(i) Breaking down the problem into simpler components, and

(ii) Finding the perfect representation for the problem.

We would use the chess puzzle mentioned in The Science of Deep Thinking as our subject of discussion here.

The Black is supposed to play and win in a few moves. This is quite an advanced puzzle, and ranks among the puzzles prescribed for very high ELO rating chess players.

The usual approach of deciding upon chess moves, especially by those who are not active chess players, is always based on "lookaheads". We pick up a possible move that feels best from amongst the candidate moves, and then analyze everything that could happen when that particular move is played. Clearly, every option gives rise to several other options, and then every option at the second level gives rise to several other options and very soon, we find that it becomes extremely complicated to analyze.

This is the kind of analysis that leads to "analysis-paralysis". Analysis-paralysis is the result of an exponentially bloated set of possibilities, making it impossible to reach any conclusion.

In this discussion, we would take a different approach. Instead of "trying out" possible candidates, we will arrest this "forward motion" of thoughts and instead, make an attempt to "think deep". As we discussed in the previous article, Deconstruction is the portal to Deep Thinking, - we would Deconstruct the puzzle.

The Black Attack

Since the puzzle requires the black to play and win in a few moves, the objective for us is clear - watch out for the possible attacks by Black.

There are two direct lines of attack that is quite evident.

Attack 1 :

The Black Queen at the square D5 attacks the White Pawn at G2 as shown above. Backed by the Black Bishop on the same diagonal (C6), Black threatens a check-mate.

However, the White Queen thwarts this check-mate possibility by defending the White Pawn at G2.

In order for Black Queen to have its way, this defence by the White Queen needs to be countered. This can be done in two ways -

(i) EITHER, ensure that the White Queen is not there to defend the pawn anymore. This can be done by capturing the White Queen, or forcing it to move away.

(ii) OR, the White Queen's reach out to the White Pawn at G2 is blocked. This can be done by placing another piece in the line of White Queen's. This could be Black's piece, or White's own piece. It is obvious that White won't deliberately place a White piece in its line of defence. White needs to be forced to do that.

There is no easy or obvious way to capture the White Queen. There is also no obvious way to force the Queen to move away. However, these options could arise through a sequence of forced moves, and are open for exploration. The obvious possible options for Black are to block the White Queen either by a Black piece or a White piece.

Attack 2 :

The second very obvious attack is by the Black Rook at E6 that attacks the White Rook at E1. This Black Rook is supported by its partner Black Rook at E8, providing the covering fire for the first Black Rook's attack of the White Rook.

This attack is thwarted through two White pieces :

(i) The White Rook at F1 defends the White Rook at E1.

(ii) The White Bishop at G3 defends the White Rook at E1.

Clearly, since there are two Black pieces attacking E1, and two White pieces defending E1, this attack is already neutralized.

Black could make this attack if :

(i) EITHER, the defending White Rook is captured or moved away,

(ii) OR, the defending White Bishop is captured, moved away, or blocked.

It is easy to observe that :

(i) there is no direct way to capture this defending White Rook

(ii) there is no direct way to capture this defending White Bishop

(iii) there is no direct way to get the White Bishop to move away.

The Strategy Begins to Emerge

Summarizing all possible options that Black has to counter all existing White defences :

(i) Capturing the defending pieces - which doesn't seem very viable upfront.

(ii) Forcing the defending piece to move away - could be possible in 2 or more moves.

(iii) Blocking the defending pieces - seems feasible.

The first two options are the most intuitive thoughts that could come to a chess player. Blocking the defending piece - especially, forcing White to block its own piece - is not a very intuitive thought and is unlikely to occur to even decently proficient players.

With the above guidelines, let us try to figure out what moves work best for Black.

Which Black Pieces could be moved to achieve any of the above results ?

Clearly, moving the Black Rook and the Black Queen may not serve any of the purposes mentioned above. The other pieces that we have considered - the Black Rook at E8 or the Black Bishop on C6 are of no use either.

The Black Bishop on the square D4 seems to be falling in line with quite a few objectives mentioned above.

Moving the Black Bishop from D4 to F2 creates the following possibilites.

(i) The Black Bishop at F2 blocks the White Queen - countering the first line of defence.

(ii)The Black Bishop at F2 blocks the White Bishop and force the defending White Rook to move - countering the second line of defence.

Hence, this move seems to be a prime candidate that could blast away all possible lines of defence available to White.

Let us verify if it could really do so.

Suppose Black moves its Bishop from D4 to G2. What are the possible lines of defence for White ?

Defence 1 :

The first defence for White is to capture the Black Bishop by the White Rook at F1.

This would move the White Rook at F1 to F2, blocking the White Bishop, making Black's Attack 1 successful. Black Rook captures the White Rook at E1 and wins.

Defence 2 :

The second option for White is the capture of the Black Bishop by the White Bishop on G3.

This moves the White Bishop to G2, blocking the White Queen from defending the White Pawn at G2. This enables Black's Attack 2 to be successful. Black Queen captures the White Pawn at G2 and checkmates.

Defence 3 :

The third defence by White is to capture the Black Bishop by the White Queen.

This brings the White Queen at F2, and so now it the White Queen at F2 that defends the White Rook at E1. Now, if the Black Rook captures the White Rook at E1, then the White Queen will be forced to capture it, which moves the Queen Out of the way. The White Queen now sits at E1, and is no more capable of defending the White Pawn at G2. The Black Queen can capture the pawn at G2 and checkmates.

We observe in the above discussion :

(a) To start with,

(i) Black has 2 lines of attack initially. (ii) White has an defence for both of these.

(b) It is possible to counter each of these defence of White by either capturing, moving away or blocking the defending piece.

We see that moving the Black Bishop from D4 to F2 is capable of countering White's line of defence for both Attack 1 and Attack 2, thereby giving Black a sure-shot win in each case.

Deconstruction

In this discussion, it would be fairly simple for everyone following the deconstruction details, to guess the right move, or at least understand the complete rationale of the right move. We almost "derived" the right move from first principles. Irrespective of how proficient one is with chess, this solution can be understood by almost everybody.

Furthermore, it gives an access to analyze chess problems. The next time you see a chess puzzle and analyze it this way, you would be solving extremely complex chess problems easily and effortlessly within no time. This is also exactly how we learn to analyze ANY problem.

The ability to Deconstruct gives us the ability to learn and solve ANYTHING. It is a super-expressway to mastering any new concept or learning a new skill. The ability to Deconstruct could help you gain expertise in almost any field within no time.

In the forthcoming articles, we would look at lots of examples from various domains and observe how Deconstruction lies at the heart of Deep Thinking applied to any domain.

Other Articles :

The Professional Thinker

The Science of Deep Thinking

Diving Into Deep Thinking

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