Early last month I had almost finished a pass through the level 30 problems of CT-ART. But I didn’t have a sense that I was getting that much out of it. Also, my recent games continue to be won and lost on easier tactics, like my recent Team 4545 League game that I lost on a basic removal of the guard.
I decided to quit working on CT-ART level 30 and instead concentrate on studying easier tactics. I’ve been working my way through a new book from Dan Heisman called Back to Basics: Tactics. I’m about 90% through it, and I’ve really enjoyed it so far. (When I finish the book, I’ll post a summary.) I plan to continue studying tactics at around this level between now and the World Open in early July. I may go through the Coakley and Susan Polgar tactics books again.
It’s hard to know for sure, but I feel like this basic tactics practice played a part in how easily I could find moves like 22…Re3 in the position below:
This was from my Team 4545 League game last night. The rook is immune from capture because of the weakness on g2. White soon lost the exchange and later the game.
I also find it more convenient and often more comfortable to sit in a chair and do tactics problems out of a book instead of using a computer.
2 Comments
I think this is a great point. Recently I’ve vastly simplified my thinking during games, making it a priority to look at checks, captures, and threats first. And by threats, I mean simple one-move tactics such as fork, skewer, etc.. I try not to let myself think about more complicated stuff until I’m sure my candidate moves can survive this basic tactical evaluation. It has simplified my thinking in games (no more 10 minutes spent thinking about pawn structure: I allow only quick thinks when it comes to quiet positions), made the games more fun, fewer embarassing losses (though I’ll always have embarassing losses I’m sure).
Because of this, I’m really glad I am using Chess Tactics for Beginners for my tactical vision training.
Also, right before my T45 league game, I review about 30 ‘easy’ problems from CTB, and then go through the Fritz ‘attack training’ and ‘check training’, which really puts me in the mindset of looking out for simple tactics first, sexy combinations second. Today I won a game because my opponent responded to a threat of losing a single pawn, but didn’t see that I was about to go up a piece plus the exchange using a simple discovered attack! Those are the kinds of mistakes I’m trying to avoid. Those are the kinds of mistakes that decide most of my slow games, and all of my blitz games.
My reasoning when I started this was, “Hey beginners start by learning simple mates and one-move tactics in their books and puzzle software, maybe I should reorient my thinking in real games to look for simple stuff first, and once it becomes second-nature to do that, I will be more disposed to build vision for the higher-level stuff.”
-A very long winded BDK.
PS I’ll be very curious to see what you think of Heisman’s book, and especially whether he includes a good number of counting problems (they are the hardest of all tactical problems to find in puzzle collections, so I am always on the lookout for more).
Thanks for your comments, BDK. I’ll have to give the Fritz attack training and check training modes a try.