Sunday, January 08, 2017

Obstacles

I expected the application of the three motif system PoP LoA Fun (PLF) to have some obstacles. And indeed there are. Let us talk about that.

I solve now problems from the standard problem set at CT in stead of problems from the blitz problem set. That presents me problems which have a 300 points higher rating. Since I want to become 300 points stronger, I wanted to know which problems I encounter when applying the PIF system to higher rated problems.

Problems include:
  • Higher amount of PoPs, so it is difficult to choose the critical PoP.
  • Higher amount of LoAs, so it is difficult to choose the critical LoA.
  • More than one attacking square on a LoA, so it is difficult to choose the critical square.
  • Motif assault
  • Motif promotion
  • Counter attack 
  • Quiet moves (non CCT)

Higher rated problems contain more problems with the motifs assault and promotion. There is additional knowledge needed to handle these motifs. Theoretically, the preconditions from the Art of Attack of Vukovic should be a great aid here. But I never have internalized that knowledge. High time to make that knowledge more practical.  The diagram below shows 6 of the 7 problems mentioned above (no promotion motif). Can you find them all?

White to move


k7/1R2R3/pb3p2/qr6/5N1p/2r3P1/PPQ4P/1K6 w - - 0 1
[solution]

PoP
a7, a8, c8, e8

LoA
7th, 8th, b file, c file, e file, g2-a8

AS (Attacking Square)
a7, b8, e8, e4, g2, h7

Fun
a5 protects c3
b5 protects c3 indirect
b6 protects a7
a8 protects b8
c3 protects c8 by shielding

Motif assault
The new motif here is the the assault of the king. The preconditions state that you need a surplus of 3 extra pieces for an assault. One to sacrifice, and two to deliver mate. Usually the mate is delivered by the queen. Here the surplus is two rooks, so I need to add the queen to the attack. But from which attacking square and why? I gambled wrong.

Counter attack
There is definitely a counterattack going on.  This means I must make an attacking move that at the same time defends against the counter attack.

Quiet move
The actual move loads the battery against the king, but further is a non CCT move.

2 comments:

  1. btw (by the way) I use a lot of abbreviations. Does anyone have a problem with that? The abbr. can be found in the sidebar.

    Since a few months I use AutoHotkey, so it would be no problem to write it out. But often I find a sentence clearer with an abbreviation. CCT in stead of checks, captures and threats. The latter distracts from the essence I want to explain.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BTW: CCT and other abbreviations pose no problem for me; I prefer them too.

    I got the right "idea" (attack the King with Queen and two Rooks) but "forgot" the requirement to SIMULTANEOUSLY attack the opponent's King AND protect my own King. I think that observation is the key "cue" (clue) to the solution. (I also "sinned" against my own "good intentions" to ALWAYS LOOK along ALL LoA for the line-moving pieces, thereby proving that "the road to hell is paved WITHOUT good intentions.") I got "stuck" on 1. Qe4 without "seeing" the alternative load of the battery at g2 (and you gave THAT "clue" [g2-a8] under "LoA!"). After quickly figuring out 1. Qe4 Rxb2+ 2. Kxb2 (2. Ka1 Qxa2#) Qa3+ 3. Ka1 Rc1+ 4. Qb1 Bd4+ 5. Rb2 Qxb2#, I then tried (unsuccessfully) to sacrifice a Rook on a7, then bringing the Queen into the attack via e4 with tempo. Alas, that also proved to be fruitless, so I then checked the given solution.

    I am kicking myself for NOT consistently following my own training rules regarding LoA!

    ReplyDelete