Saturday, August 27, 2005

Getting a little better at tactics...puzzles

I have noticed that I have finally started to get a little better at tactics, especially noticing pins in Tasc Chess Tutor (TCT). After ~700 or so problems, some done four times in a row, I have finally started to get more efficient at looking for tactical moves that I know TCT tends to use frequently. Namely, double attacks and especially pins. Much like Knight Sight, it isn't that the moves pop out without effort (I have to cognitively "turn on" my Knight sight to see the squares pop out). Similarly, I have to put on my "pin vision" and actively search for pins before they pop out. How long before it is effortless? Or is it never effortless? Do high ranked players scan the board for specific tactical shots, or do myriad tactical possibilities just pop out for you?

Note, this hasn't translated to OTB play yet, but that is partly because I have never put much effort into "looking for" specific tactical maneuvers.

5 Comments:

Blogger takchess said...

I think that doing the tactics set are somewhat artificial for example in Ct-art Level 20 the first 20 problems are all Knight Fork. So I am asking myself where is the Knight Fork vs where is the
Tactic. Hopefully, I will see these tactics in a game.

Did you ever get a chance to review that Pesky attackers game in Euwe's book?

also, I appreciate the encouragement on your comments on my blog.

8/29/2005 07:01:00 AM  
Blogger CelticDeath said...

Don't worry, this is a definite sign that you are making great progress. You need to have these basic patterns ingrained in your head to make your calculation more efficient. The OTB improvement will come, but first keep your focus on tactics. Sort of like the training of longbowmen in the middle ages. They had to practice for a very long time before they were actually even given a longbow!

8/31/2005 10:36:00 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Saw your comment on DGs post, was wondering what happened to my blog, I thought I ticked you off :). And not that it really matters, but I really am still doing tactics (as I said in my blog).
I notice the same thing takchess said as far as the early CT-art problems, it seems most are knight forks and thats automatically what I focus on, so it makes it kind of artificial for "pattern recognition." I wonder how much memorization plays into it as well (the whole memorization vs pattern recognition debate). Regardless, I hope it eventually helps my OTB games.

9/01/2005 04:13:00 PM  
Blogger Blue Devil Knight said...

I was confused I think. I thought, on your August 21 post, you were saying you were stopping the circles and going on to other things. I misunderstood?

9/01/2005 04:22:00 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I don't want to hijack your post, but I thought I said I was slowing down (I may have mispoke, but later I did mention I got 98% on level 10, woohoo), I still set time limits per problem but I'm not doing x amount per day.

9/01/2005 04:52:00 PM  

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