Try not to be surprised!

Don't forget to think about your opponent's opportunities. There are two of you playing the game after all.

We definitely should assess our move choices - it's how we pick our candidates (usually 3, but I'm willing to settle for 2 from my beginner students). It's also how we choose the best move. But we should also assess our opponent's moves.

Too often we only assess the opponent's move when it's too late.

There are great benefits to be realized for evaluating each move your opponent makes. We need to ask ourselves:

1. Why did they move there? What is their intention?
2. Is it a good move? If so why? If not, why not?
3. What should they have done?

And if you can, you should ask a question before they move:

4\. What will they do next?

A good game within the game you can play is "Guess the Move." While your opponent is thinking, don't let your mind wander, and don't go over your intended combination again (for the third time). Instead try to guess what move your opponent will make.

Too often we hope that our opponent makes a certain move (invariably a losing move for him/her) and don't look at what move they will make if they don't fall into our trap. So, dig deeper.

See if you can guess the move they will actually make.

Look for the obscure, weird, totally unobvious move.

What move would you make if you were on the other side of the board?

This will allow you to stay at least one move ahead of your opponent, and that can't be a bad thing.