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Evaluating Tactics

December 22nd, 2009

I have started to evaluate tactical positions a bit differently than quiet strategic ones. For this purpose, I am using a tactical checklist, which is based on Heisman’s seeds of tactical destruction. I assessed the position in the using the checklist, and my evaluation is below. You can download a copy of the check list here.

igc23_b White to move

The King and black rook are on the same diagonal. The only piece preventing the Queen fork is the Bishop, so if the Bishop could be attacked, the fork would work. 1.Rf3 is the logical candidate. After 1.Rf3 the black rook could move to safety, where it would not be victim to the fork…but after further analysis the rook has no safe squares to go where he would be free from the fork. The next option for Black is to defend the bishop with the Queen, but again the Queen has no squares which are not attacked by either the White knight or the White d5 pawn. 1.Rf3 1…Qb7 2.Rxf6 Qb5 3.Qc3 Qf1+ 4.Kg3 Qg1+ 5.Kh4 1-0

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Posted in Chess

Tags: checklists ECT

Chess Taxonomy

December 16th, 2009

I am working on creating a Chessbase notebook (more on this in a much future post), and I am working out a way to effectively categorize my chess content. Below is a draft of the taxonomy I plan on using. For example pins would be categorized as Middlegame – Tactics – Pins, whereas King and pawn endgame content would be categorized as Endgame – Theory – K+P.

Opening

Principles
e4- opening name
d4 – opening name
Tactics

Middlegame

Tactics – Pin
Tactics – Backrank weakness
Tactics – Decoy
Tactics – Deflection
Tactics – Double Attack
Tactics – Exposed King
Tactics – Fork
Tactics – In-Between Move
Tactics – Interference
Tactics – Clearence
Tactics – Mating Patterns
Tactics – Overworked Piece
Tactics – LPDO
Tactics – Promotion
Tactics – Skewer
Strategy - BishopPair
Strategy – Good vs. Bad Bishop
Strategy – Bishop vs. Knight
Strategy – Open Lines and Diagonals
Strategy – Central Control
Strategy – Closed Positions
Strategy – Space
Strategy – Activity
Strategy – Isolated Pawns
Strategy – Backward Pawns
Strategy – Doubled Pawns
Strategy – Pawn Chains
Strategy – Passed Pawns
Strategy – Minory Attack
Strategy – Weak Color Complex
Strategy – Weak Squares
Strategy – Outposts
Strategy – Positional Sacrifice
Strategy – Harmony of the Pieces
Strategy – Development

Endgame

Theory (Mueller / Fine type content)

Theory – Lucena Position
Theory – Philidor Position
Theory – Shouldering
Theory – Opposition
Theory – Triangulation
Theory – K+P
Theory – R+P
Theory – RvR
Theory – Double Rook
Theory – Queen
Theory – Minor Piece
Theory – Fortresses
Theory – BvN
Theory – Bishops of Same Color
Theory – Opposite Color Bishops

Practice (Shereshevsky type content)
Practice – King Centralization
Practice - Principle of Two Weaknesses
Practice – Do Not Rush
Practice – Passed Pawns
Practice – Schematic Thinking
Practice – Exchanges
Practice – Fight for the Initative
Practice – Prophalaxis
Practice – Bishop Pair
Practice – Zugzwang
Practice – Fortresses
Practice – Converting and Advantage

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Posted in Chess, Notebook, Taxonomy

Tags: Taxonomy

Training Notebook Week of 12.07.09

December 13th, 2009

Monday 12.07.09

Played G/15 game and drew against opponent rated 1826 in a winning position (I was up a minor piece), but opponent had counterplay and I was down to 4 1/2 minutes on the clock.

Tuesday 12.08.09

Reviewed game. Confirmed that position was won. Opponent made a tactical mistake where he lost the exchange. Focused study will revolve against playing this position against Rybka 3.

Wednesday 12.09.09

Played won position against Rybka and lost twice!!! I should have simplified the position, since I was up 3 pawns.

Thursday 12.10.09

Played standard game on ICC against opponent rated 1710 (I am currently rated 1780 with one more provisional game to go). Lost game due to tactical oversights.

Friday 12.11.09

Reviewed standard game. I played poorly, going from a better position to even and ultimately to a losing position. My first mistake was an exchange that gave my opponent lots of activity and counterplay even though I had a material advantage. It is interesting to note, how high Rybka evaluates activity giving it an evaluation of over 1/2 a pawn. I then fell victim to a removal of the guard / pin / deflection combination which netted my opponent my bishop. I kept on playing, and ultimately fell victim to a checkmate, which I totally missed. Focused study will revolve around doing extra tactics.

Saturday 12.12.09

Focused on doing tactics at chess.com instead of chesstempo. Noticed that the timer is not helping my solving…dropped approximately 100 rating points! I prefer solving the standard chesstempo tactics which allow me to take my time to find the right answer.

Sunday

Doing extra tactics solving at chess.com.

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Posted in Chess, Notebook, Training

Tags: Notebook Training

Chess Notebook Week of 11.30.09

December 7th, 2009

Monday 11.30.09

Played G/20 20 game against opponent rated 1865. Played the Sicilian Grand Prix and lost in a rook endgame where I was a pawn down.

Tuesday 12.01.09

Reviewed game. Made an interesting observation that I would not have picked up on if I had not reviewed game. I lost 2 pawns during the game, because I failed to take back material. I chose to lose material instead of making an exchange that would benefit my opponent. I have to remind myself during a game that material precedes any other strategic criteria.

Solved tactics for 15 minutes.

Wednesday 12.02.09

Did Chess Tempo for 45 minutes. Was aiming for accuracy, so I only got to do 10 puzzles 65% success rate. I am currently rated 1702.

Thursday 12.03.09

Solved tactics for 15 minutes.

Played G/20 20 game on ICC against opponent rated 1783, I won the game and I am now rated 1780 (still provisional).

Friday 12.04.09

Reviewed Thursday’s game. Opponent made several tactical oversights, I made several poor moves in the late middlegame, but my opponent did not take advantage of them. This leads to the importance of reviewing your games, even your wins. After the game, I felt pretty good about my play and I would have never guessed that I made two weak moves that would have converted a won game into a draw if my opponent had acted on them.

Saturday 12.05.09

Solved 1 hour of tactics

Sunday 12.06.09

Open day. Did 30 minutes of tactics on Chess Tempo. Reached my highest rating yet of 1714. Played a few blitz games on FICS.

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Posted in Chess, Notebook, Training

Tags: Training

Chess Notebook Week of 11.23.09

November 29th, 2009

Started new program mid week, so entries will be from Wednesday through Sunday.

Wednesday 11.26.09

Played G/15 5 game against an opponent rated 1687 on ICC (I am provisionally rated 1781 after this game). I plan on playing all of my standard games on ICC so that I can maintain continuity in tracking my ELO rating. ICC rating is approximately 250 points higher than USCF. At 1781 my rating is a bit inflated due to it’s provisional status…it should be more like 1600-1650 IMO.

Solved tactics on Chess Tempo (30m)

Thursday 11.27.09 [Thanksgiving]

Reviewed Wednesday’s game – I won the game, but I came out poorly out of the opening. I have always had issues with the French Defense Exchange variation, so my focus study will be reviewing the French Exchange variation. (1 hour)

Solved puzzles at Chess Tempo (15m)

Friday 11.28.09

Chess Tempo 30 minutes
Focus Study: French Defense Exchange variation (1.30h)

Saturday 11.29.09

Solved (easy non-rated) puzzles on chesstempo (30m)
Played G/15 5 game on ICC against opponent rated 1865 I am still provisionally rated with an ELO of 1768. NOTE: Next game will be a G/30 time control.

Sunday 11.30.09
Reviewed game. Loss stemmed from not calculating all possible candidates and faulty thought process, where I forgot threats I had assessed several moves before. Opponent came out of the opening slightly better. Opening played was the Caro-Kann Exchange variation. Going to focus on Stoyko Exercises to improve calculation skills as well as an intense tactics training session.

Did one Stoyko exercise from a correspondence game I am currently playing. Analyzed the position for approximately 10 minutes. I also did a ‘Guess the Move’ game on chessgames.com. I chose a Capablanca game where Capa played White against the Caro-Kann defense. The chessgames.com exercise took about 30m.

Tomorrow Monday I’ll restart the training schedule.

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Posted in Chess, Notebook, Training

Tags: Notebook Training

Simple Chess Training

November 27th, 2009

Making it Difficult

After several years of working on my chess improvement and from talking to both amateurs and masters it appears that adult amateurs tend to complicate their chess improvement by reading books and tackling concepts that are far too advanced for their level.

So, here is my attempt to simplify my chess training and bring it back to basics. This program is targeted for players under 1700 USCF.

Study, Play, Review

The study portion of the plan will consist of doing tactical puzzles at the Chess Tempo site every day for a minimum of 30 minutes. You will also spend a minimum of 1 hour studying any areas dictated by reviews of our standard games which we will label focused study.

Play will consist of a minimum of 2 standard games per week of either OTB play or on ICC / chess.com. The two take aways from this is that your rating will serve as a progress report, and that the games should be 15 minutes or longer (the longer the better). The content of these games will serve as the material for the focused study portion of the plan.

Every standard game has to be reviewed afterwards. Go over the game without the use of an engine, and annotate what you were thinking. After having reviewed it on your own, have the engine analyze the game and then compare your notes with the engines analysis. Take this opportunity to review the opening phase, and what you could have done to improve that phase of the game by consulting opening books if necessary. Take note of mistakes made and in which phase of the game they were made. You will then focus your next study day on reviewing any content that will help prevent the mistakes made.

Here’s an example of what a week would look like when following the plan:

Monday

Play G/15 or >
Study tactics 30m

Tuesday

Review Monday’s game (annotate and identify weaknesses in play)
Study tactics 30m

Wednesday

Focus Study 1h (Study is based on weaknesses from reviewed game, for example K&P endgame review if game lost in the endgame, or extra tactics study if game was lost due to a tactical oversight)

Thursday
Play G/15 or >
Study tactics 30m

Friday

Review Monday’s game (annotate and identify weaknesses in play)
Study tactics 30m

Saturday

Focus Study 1h (Study is based on weaknesses from reviewed game, for example K&P endgame review if game lost in the endgame, or extra tactics study if game was lost due to a tactical oversight)

Sunday

Rest day or you can use this day to catch up on your studying, do extra tactics or play blitz games, etc.

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Posted in Chess, Improvement, Studying, Training

Tags: chess improvement Training

Chess Resolutions

November 25th, 2009

Farbror the Guru has challenged the chess improvement community to come up with a list of chess goals for the coming year, so here are mine:

Long Term Goals

Increase USCF rating to 1400 (currently at 1283)
Increase Chess Tempo standard tactics rating to 1850 (currently at 1700)
Increase ICC standard rating (currently have a provisional rating of 1750) will set appropriate ELO goals within the next 3 months once I get out of provisional status. update 01.03.10 Out of provisional rating after having played 26 standard games. Benchmark rating is 1781 goal is to reach an ICC rating of 1825 by the end of the year.
Play in 4 tournaments within the next 12 months
Play a minimum of 2 standard games G/15 or > per week
Have a minimum of 6 training sessions in the next 12 months with FM Charles Galofre

Short Term Goals (goals for the next 90 days)

Dedicate 1 hour per day to chess training
Review all of my standard games
Play in an OTB tournament before the end of February ‘10
Have a chess lesson before the end of February ‘10
Simplify my chess training, focus more on the practical side of chess
Increase Chess Tempo rating to 1750 by the end of February ‘10

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Posted in Announcements, Chess, Goals, Notebook, Resolutions, Training

Tags: chess improvement Training

Overcoming Chess Training Plateaus

November 17th, 2009

Plateaus and You

Chess Men The brain needs time to assimilate and integrate new information as knowledge and to resolve conflicts with previously learned concepts and plateaus equate to slower progress while we assimilate new ideas. Not until we internalize these new ideas as knowledge are we able to move on to the next phase in our learning. Plateaus are a normal phase of the learning process. The goal is to minimize the amount of time spent in a plateau, and to identify if our plateau is part of the normal learning curve or if it is a result of a deficiency in our learning process.

Sometimes we plateau for reasons that fall outside the normal learning curve. You might plateau if you are missing fundamental knowledge which would have served as a building block to move on to the next level. Or perhaps the information you are learning is too advanced for your level, and you cannot internalize the concept.

Another common cause for prolonged plateaus is overtraining. If you find that you do not look forward to practicing, or are finding less and less time to devote to chess, these are common symptoms of overtraining and a break from chess might be in order.

Less, Different, Harder

As we mentioned before plateaus are normal, and the slow and steady progress made during this phase is critical to a healthy learning process. The length of time spent in a plateau differs between people and even between learning curve phases. As a result, it is very difficult to diagnose if a plateau has overstayed its welcome. The only way around this, is to be proactive in your training program and to build it in such a way where you are constantly challenging yourself and feeding yourself the right amount of content at the right time in your development and you have the appropriate feedback mechanisms in place to detect weaknesses.

Study your own games so you don’t make the same mistakes over and over again.
Have a coachevaluate your weaknesses, and focus your work on your weakest areas .
Are you overtraining? If so, it might be a good idea to take a 1-2 week break from chess. You will find that you will return refreshed and invigorated.
Change your training program periodically. This allows you to be a better rounded chess player, and by keeping your training sessions new and exciting it doubles as a cure to overtraining.
Don’t be discouraged by plateaus, remember you are still improving at a slow pace and that this is part of the normal learning process.
Increase the intensity of your training. A good method of increasing your training intensity is to cycle intense training session that last 1-2 weeks to help jar yourself free of a plateau. You need to be careful that you do not over train yourself during these intense study cycles. An example of cycling intense training cycles might go something like this: 2 weeks of intense training followed by 4 weeks of normal training activity.
Enjoy the practice, these things take time.

By working hard and enjoying the practice improvement will come sooner or later (I hope so).

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Posted in Chess, Improvement, Studying, Training, learning

Tags: chess improvement Improvement knowledge learning Training

Chess Visualization Exercise #8

August 24th, 2009

It is very important that you have mastered exercises 1-7 before starting on this exercise. For exercises 1-7 visit the chess exercises page.

Without looking at the board, tell all the squares controlled by:

- a knight on c6
- a knight on f3
- a knight on b2
- a knight on c5
- a knight on h7

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Posted in Board Visualization, Chess, Exercises

Tags: Exercises Visualization

Karpov & Mazukevich’s Chess Thought Process

August 22nd, 2009

(adapted by Herman Grooten)

The following thought process which is recommended by Karpov and Mazukevich is used to detect the important features of an arbitrary position in order to devise a plan that conforms to the positional assessment derived by using this thought process.

This thinking process is based on 7 criteria in which the White position is compared with the Black position.

1. What is the material balance?

2. Are there any (direct) threats?

3. How is the safety of both Kings?

4. Pawn structure questions:

a. Where are the open lines and diagonals?

b. Are there many strong squares?

c. Who is controlling the center

d. Who has more space and where on the board do they have it?

5. Which pieces are active and which are not?

Training applications:

Go through the questions out loud while doing middlegame positions based on Stoyko Exercises. The idea is to practice “talking out loud” with the list in front of you so that when you are in real game mode the questions will be asked subconsiously.