Friday, February 23, 2007

Too complex.

I tried to see everything that's going on in the complex position of my previous post.
To be honest, I didn't quite succeed, even after researching the position for about 10 hours. I see the most basic structures, but it is too mind-boggling to overview all interference between the structures. I don't think that it is impossible, even to my mind, but I estimate that it will cost me another week, and I don't think it's worth the effort right now. The position stems from a correspondence game, which permits more complexity than you find in OTB games usually.

So in these situations I intend to use a derivation of the Law of conservation of threats/attacks*)
That is, if you have two more threats/attacks*) than your opponent you will win a piece. Say, you threaten to capture 3 pieces while your opponent threatens to capture 1 piece, he can only parry one of the two extra threats with common moves. Counter attacks only delay the final execution of the threats.

*) strike out whichever is not applicable.

What I found out is that it is possible to see a series of moves as one picture. Thus dramatically cutting down on the calculation efforts. I noticed that before, but now I'm going to experiment with that. I intend to use Papa Polgars middlegame brick as base for those experiments. The quality of the problems is high and often pretty heavy.

10 comments:

  1. pushed my move Qe6 through the computer. Missed completely Bd2. Even in the combo's where black is piece up Rd8 spoils the fun. mmmm

    nice one

    Seemingly i was happy too quickly.

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  2. Montse,
    the only realistic mate threat is Qxe2 (Kg1 Bh3). That means that whites queen must guard e2. Hence Nc3 is unprotected. Black has 3 threats (against Qc2, Nc3 and Ra1) while white has just 1 threat (Nxe8). White can with one move meet only one of black extra threats. The execution of the threats can be delayed, but in the end a piece will fall.

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  3. Tempo, Quick, Tempo!!!

    I just broke the mystical magical 1800 rating. Im now officially 1801!!! yezzz.. Oh please, won't you record this small achievement in the rating progress of the knights?

    Thank you, thank you!!

    And congratulations to me.. hehe..

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  4. I picked up that book in Holland on holiday the other week, second hand for twelve euro's! I've done the first section which were fairly easy, but browsing the book the rest look increasingly hard.

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  5. Tom,

    I'm so envious of you guys across the pond. If you want to visit another country, you just hop in a car and you're there in an hour. . .of course, we Oklahomans do think of Texas as being a foreign country still [grin].

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  6. Jim,
    within 2.5 hours with the car from here I can be in Danmark, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.

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  7. dear tempo, thank you for directing me to your recent posts--in fact, they all hit me cleanly where i am right now in my chess work:

    i am winding down some very deep analysis. you look at the candidate moves, and the moves to those moves, and the best moves for those moves, and it quickly spins off to true infinity. very fast.

    of course, i cannot suggest any alternatives for action or considerations for reflection, past what you have already said quite well, and extensively. thank you.

    but i can say this, when i get to a LOT of analysis, say 22 hours on four moves as i have recently in a correspondence game also, not in any way different, not any more or less than what you describe here, i find that after a LOT of analysis, there is a certain simple something which inhers, which sticks, which holds after all that.:

    i not only want to win, but if i am winning, to win perfectly, and not only to know the best move, but, PERHAPS more importantly learn as to WHY it is the best move.

    after many lines, i have to go back and be very, very simple.

    it goes like: in all these lines, my Blk bishop has the same mobility problem, but this is the only one that allows me to castle (Rook mobility!), and past all the razzle dazzle, this line is the only one that very simply solves all this, past the threats, forcing captures, opening of space but restricted in other ways.

    this basic notional sense is what i am after, and, i think, is what you are describing here.

    dk

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  8. tempo,

    There is only one important threat for white that he currently has to meet. The threat against his Queen. The bishop threat against the minor piece Knight or against the Rook are less important but does count at the end. There is a priority within the threats. White has to meet his Queen threat.

    A, by capturing the attacker
    B, by moving his Queen
    C, by counterrattacking against material at the same level or higher with other words against the Queen. No higher material can be captured.
    D, against the king. If there is a forcing sequence that leads to mate, it will overall all blacks threats as this only threat has to be meet.

    In our case there is no forcing threat for white against the king. So White will probably loose material as it cannot cope without all threats.

    So the amount of threats can be overruled when there is definite threat against the king. Threats can be broken as pins, double attacks can.

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