I haven't slept in 48 hours, so today's entry will be brief. I'm reading Euwe's Master vs Amateur, and here's what he says separates us:
- A master knows thousands of mating patterns
- A master knows how to defeat theoretically busted lines
- A master rapidly develops pieces and controls the center in the opening
- A master launches an attack if and only if a position justifies it
- A master knows how to attack a castled king
- A master knows how to attack an uncastled king
- A master knows how to convert a development lead
- A master knows when to exchange queens
- A master knows when to chase the enemy's bishop
- A master knows to maintain tension
Tactical study: I trained units 10-15 in PCT 2007, 150 CTS puzzles, and fifty 1.c4 opening traps. Sadly, my tactical rating dropped 10 points?!
Positional study: I read Euwe's Master vs Amateur Games 1-9 and watched NM Dana Mackenzie's lectures on trading queens and chasing bishops.
Games: I played some 2+12 blitz on FICS and deeply annotated my games.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! :)
4 comments:
Self-assessing myself on these tenets finds me needing to improve the most on #2 & #5.
Two questions: what do you use to do your 1c4 drills with? (I'm looking for something do to 1e4 drills with) And how often do you find that you or your opponent loses on time in a 2 +12 game? That's an interesting time control I think I might give a go at sometime soon. And isn't caffeine the greatest? ;o)
Chessbase allowed me to identify all the 1.c4 games where White won by move 12. There's a free program called SCID that could probably do the same thing. Then, I used Bookup to actually train the positions. Again there's a good free option called Chess Position Trainer.
I believe the return on investment for this sort of tactical study is very high since the patterns are much more likely to occur in a real game than some random tactic you find in CT-ART or PCT.
At 2+12 I don't hang many pieces and I haven't had a flag fall yet. That's one of the reasons I switched from G/15 and G/20. Games last 14-18 minutes, on average.
Is it too fast? It depends. I say if you can analyze your games after and learn useful things it's not too fast for learning. If you hang pieces left and right or often say "I would never make that error at another time control" then it's not so useful.
Now I'm off on a road trip with my family to savor the long weekend. May you enjoy yours!
you are a truly great spirit, and we are the better for your proximity to the center of this knoweldge community!
i dont know you personally, but suspect id appreciate as a person.
what i most appreciate about your chess study approach is its diversity, underpinned by a human, humane spirit.
warmly, dk
ps dont forget Elista tomorrow. its is a big deal, and justly so! sparks! tension!
David, thanks for the kind words. I just wish some of the knowledge in this knowledge community would rub off on me, but in good time! Yes, Elista is here, and what great matchups to watch. I will take my time playing through them because I know soon enough there will be good annotations to compare our notes against.
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