Chess analogy

When you see a synthesis problem for the first time, you are not expected to immediately know the answer. I cannot stress this enough. It is so common for students to get overly anxious when they see synthesis problems that they cannot solve. Get used to it. This is the way it is supposed to be. Going back to our chess analogy, you don t need to make a move as soon as it is your turn. You are allowed to think about it first. In fact, you are supposed to think about it first. So, how do you begin thinking about a multistep synthesis problem where you do not immediately see the solution The most powerful technique is called retro synthetic analysis. This means that you analyze the problem backward. Let s see how this works with an example ... 

---