Thursday, September 20, 2007

Plan gamma















Finally a narrative.

It took me 14 days to formulate a narrative of the position of my last post that meets my standards, but finally I succeeded. I now have a consistent story and I trust that I can reproduce it over a few years within 15 minutes or so when I look at the same position again. It really simplifies the position. Pfewww.

Tournament.
Even the study of only one position gives me an abundance of insight. Will it bear fruit? That remains to be seen. I signed up for the regional championship, which consists of 9 games over 5 saturdays over 5 months. Starting next saturday.

Effect of study.
My latest club game showed me again that there is always a moment in my games that the complexity grows over my head. I never noticed that before, but that is the function of study, it raises questions, and questions trigger observations during the game. When the game becomes too complex, I just gamble.
One effect of my study is that when I have to choose between an active continuation or a defensive consolidation, I choose for the active continuation. Which is usal better. But for the rest, it is not good enough when I learn to do something in 15 minutes what I first did in 14 days.
In chess only things count that you have learned to do in less than 30 seconds. Otherwise it is just too slow to add something to the battle.

Plan gamma.
My latest study position was mainly about plan alpha (prelimanary tactics) and plan bhèta (invasion). Right now I'm studying a position where plan alpha and bhèta are pretty straightforward but where plan gamma causes the headaches. Plan gamma is mating the king. I have thought about it, but plan gamma will probably always be about mate. Especially when you intend to sacrifice wood for plan a and b, you have to workout plan gamma well.

Vukovic' focal points revolve around mate, the mating squares, the auxiliry squares, the kingposition before and after castling. I guess the book will be of help while unraveling plan gamma. Hattip to Blue Devil. I will keep you informed.

4 comments:

  1. Awesome! Want to trade your understanding of the position for my tactical blindness? I'll even throw in an opening book.

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  2. Blue,
    I'm not sure your tactical blindness will really add something to mine. Nor will an increase in unread openings books.

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  3. that there is always a moment in my games that the complexity grows over my head.

    This is probably only true when you face players better than yourself. The game always seems simple when we face someone much weaker. This goes along with your observation that stronger players are better at complex positions. This is exactly because they don't seem complex to them!

    As your ability to handle complex positions increases (and hopefully you rating along with it), your level of competition will also increase. You'll find that the kind of positions players 200-300+ points higher rated achieve on the board will be very complex to you.

    Well, that's my guess. :-)

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