My question: In a (forced) variation that takes me to the desired position on the board(gain of material etc.) against strong players they “always” seem to find a “quirky” or game changing counter move. this usually happens to me in the middle game(not mating attacks). how do strong players analyze a middle game combination and determine that it is “sound” at about 5 moves “ahead”?
In that case it wouldn’t be a forced variation right? They are seeing a response that you didn’t consider when analyzing your variation if I am understanding your question correctly.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwischenzug
Kotov’s Think Like a Grandmaster is probably the classic text on the subject. Stronger players also have the advantage of having a better feel for which moves are good candidate moves and those which they can disregard, so there are times when they actually analyze less than weaker players.
thanks for the advice you are correct . but i “thought"it was forced!i know in the middle game in 5 moves the position has changed dramatically so any combo would be risky…i think i get so focused on the pieces involded in the combo that i forget to take a"look” over the “whole” chessboard.i definately need more “disipline” at the chessboard.thanks again cannot wait to get acopy of that(think like agrandmaster)
It is very important to see ahead clearly. By my observation, the thing that is consistently true of GMs is that they are very accurate (I didn’t say perfect) in concrete calculation. Yes strong players can see five moves ahead, and more if needed, in forcing variations in many middle game positions.
If it isn’t a matter of forced variations, there may be some positional reason that your idea gets refuted – the strong player just knows that in such a position he’ll have a certain sort of shot, even if he doesn’t see it precisely, or bother to look for it, ahead of time. What appears to you as a surprise may seem to him as an inevitable result of aspects of the position. To some extent this can be learned by asking the player what he was thinking about, but of course it requires a lot of experience too. Once you are told some positional reasoning, you need to form your own views about it.
Kotov’s book is wonderful. You’ll gain a lot from it if you do the work!
I should add that Jonathan Tisdall’s book Improve Your Chess Now has a nice chapter on ideas for improving the ability to see ahead clearly, and contains one of my favorite quotes about Kotov’s book:
“I don’t think like a tree - do you think like a tree?” - Anatoly Lein 
Thanks gentilmen! that is the advice i was looking for. I can “see the position” clearly but my “assesment” of the desired position is “flawed”(obviously).But it is just so difficult to “see” let along analyze some “tactical countermove” that far down the road! (articoke) i think you hit the nail on the head. strong players instintively (reject) the sort of positions that are"down the road" that I swore was a killer combo!!!
Going over tactical problem books will help you get used to spotting flaws in your tactics, and your opponent’s.