One day down, 180 to go!
I feel as if I've started to fall into a deep well :)
I started on schedule this morning with concentric squares. It was a great learning experience: I saw basic relationships and patterns that had eluded me before. Some of the forks were quite beautiful. After an hour I only got through the rook and bishop, but decided to stop because my brain had already been numb about 20 minutes. I had assumed this would be a trivial exercise, but I actually missed quite a few forks and even had some false positives (what I initially thought were forks but then realized weren't). It will be great to be able to do this without thinking!
As another slight revision of the MDLM program, I am going to integrate the knight concentric exercise into my knight sight drills. I figure why torture myself with knight concentric squares if I don't even have good knight vision yet?
I started on schedule this morning with concentric squares. It was a great learning experience: I saw basic relationships and patterns that had eluded me before. Some of the forks were quite beautiful. After an hour I only got through the rook and bishop, but decided to stop because my brain had already been numb about 20 minutes. I had assumed this would be a trivial exercise, but I actually missed quite a few forks and even had some false positives (what I initially thought were forks but then realized weren't). It will be great to be able to do this without thinking!
As another slight revision of the MDLM program, I am going to integrate the knight concentric exercise into my knight sight drills. I figure why torture myself with knight concentric squares if I don't even have good knight vision yet?
posted by Blue Devil Knight at 4/09/2005 11:56:00 AM
9 Comments:
Best of luck with the program :) A lot of people pass on the chess vision drills, saying it's too basic for them. While I had the same initial reaction, I did them anyway. And I reviewed them regularly during the entire program (twice a week plus before every day I played in a tournament). For me it felt like limbering up. As a guitar player, I would play basic modal scales before a gig to limber my fingers up. It had nothing to do with whether or not playing scales was easy or not. I felt like the same thing applied to chess vision drills. On mornings before going off to play two gruelling tournament games, I'd do the vision drills, and then when I started my tactics exercises, my mind was already warmed up.
Have you decided on which tactics software you'll use yet?
Thanks for the note. Good to know you think the vision drills are valuable.
As for software, I just ordered Convekta's Chess Tactics for Beginners as well as the Intermediate disc. I'll see which is more at my level. I'll be sure to post here once I get a sense for how good they are as aids. I think they are both supposed to be easier than CT-Art, but I am not sure.
Welcome! The Chess vision drills are worthwhile. If you have only played for a few weeks,I think the MDLM means of study will be especially valuable. You don't have the years of bad habits that some of us have. The great thing about chess is you can never master it . There us always something new to learn.
Jim Takchess
I did the circles with Bains Chess tactics for students see my march 23rd posting. I recommend it highly. It's a basic book but not trivial. I think you would find it to be a good starting point.
Good Luck
Jim
Welcome to the club!
If you are doing the concentric circles drill, check out the Flash program I have up at www.fussylizard.com/chess/chessvision.htm. I would be curious to hear if you find it useful and what you like / don't like about it.
I would also be curious to hear how you like the various chess software.
Welcome aboard! I have been lax in repeating the drills recently, so thanks for the reminder :). They do go quicker over time.
I have no doubt that following the MDLM approach will boost your rating. Also, I think it's good to have another software choice being put through its paces.
Thanks everyone for the great welcome! This will make it even harder to slack off in my training.
Fussy Lizard, that is a very helpful program (and just what I need, another way to sneak chess in at work). I have one suggestion that might help this beginner mind : differentiate safe versus unsafe squares (e.g., with pieces at d4/d5 I can fork at e4 (and this is shown in the page), but it would be a suicide fork).
Good luck on your quest! I think training will start to show in your games very soon. It'll also be interesting to see how your rating will improve.
BTW, if you haven't already found the Dan Heisman's Novice Nook -columns I suggest you check them out.
- bahus
Looks great: I put a link to it on my sidebar! Thanks a lot.
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