Circle 5.1 Finished!

This may have been the toughest mini-circle of them all. The problems were harder, some way over my head it seemed (especially the counterintuitive K and P endgames!). About a third of the way through, I started to think that I was missing something. I realized I wasn't understanding the solutions very well, that I was likely to forget them by the time I started going through the problems again.

At first I thought this was because I was ignorant of some advanced set of combinatorial motifs, a new set of motifs beyond the basic tactical elements (e.g., fork, pin, etc), but motifs that all the great players know by heart just as an intermediate player knows forks and pins. I asked you all about this, receiving many comments, some helpful and some inexplicably pathological. Ultimately, we converged on the fact that the complicated combinations are built up out of a coordinated attack that combines multiple simpler motifs. This was extremely helpful.

At the same time, I discovered a great article from some psychologists that showed that beginners who self-explain a position are better able to reproduce the solution when they later see a similar problem. This, combined with the frustration of remembering the original position but not the solution, plans, or basic tactics involved, triggered a drastic revision in how I approached learning this set of problems (as described here).

I did about 15 problems in Circle 5.2 tonight. The problems for which I used the new solution technique were either easier to solve, or at the very least I more quickly remembered the correct solution and plans if I got the wrong first move. Because the utility of the new technique is so apparent, I predict my improvement between 5.1 and 5.2 will be significantly larger than that between 4.1 and 4.2.

In my games, I am already seeing some of the benefits of doing these more difficult problems. For one, I am making fewer quiescence errors, as I am getting practice thinking through longer forced lines. This is key. Also, I am starting to think combinatorially, thinking about how I can coordinate my pieces so that when things shift around I will be able to make multiple threats. I am by no means good at this yet, but just starting to think this way, and have begun finding some initially crazy looking moves that, when thought through to quiescience, turn out to be quite powerful.

My goal: finish the Circles within 6 weeks. Then, time for a cuban Cigar sitting on my back patio with my awesome dog (pictured above) taking a break from this insane prison that is the Circles.

	# Circles	Percent Correct
Problem Set 1	14	98-99-100-100-100-100-100 100-100-100-99-100-99-98
Problem Set 2	15	90-93-96-99-99-99-99-99 99-99-99-99-99-99-100
Problem Set 3	8	85-93-97-99-99-99-99-100
Problem Set 4	13	73-87-93-96-98-99-99 99-99-99-99-99-100
Problem Set 5	1	69

NOTE: Circles undertaken with CTB.