Temposchlucker

I have a database with 931 tactical problems in the following categories: Discovered attack Double attack Skewer Pin Overloading Mate in 3 I learned the geometrical patterns by heart of 252 positions (27%) already. It took me 50 days. I focused on PoPs ( points of pressure ) and Funs ( functions ) solely. So far the method seems to work excellent.  Now I have drawn a definite conclusion about the middlegame, I thought that it would be nice to extend my method to middlegame positions too. Hence I began a search for a database with positional problems. I couldn't find an acceptable one. But then I realised the following: I now have a definite method of judgment for every middlegame move. Which is the following: how does this move alter the balance of piece activity? In the previous post, I called it the battle of the LoA's ( lines of attack ). Do I really need a problem set with positional problems? The answer is: probably not. I just have to draw the li...

I have dived deeper in the position of februari 16th. The rationale behind the move 11. e4 seems to be piece activity. Compare the two diagrams before and after the skirmishes. White to move Diagram 1:  rn3rk1/pp2qpp1/2p2n2/3p1b1p/1b1P4/2N1PPP1/PP2N1BP/R1BQ1RK1 w - - 2 11 Moves: 11. e4 dxe4 12. fxe4 Bxe4 13. Nxe4 Nxe4 14. Nf4 Nf6 15. Nxh5 Nxh5 16. Qxh5 Nd7 Diagram 2:  r4rk1/pp1nqpp1/2p5/7Q/1b1P4/6P1/PP4BP/R1B2RK1 w - - 1 17 Look how the activity of the white pieces has improved in comparison to the black pieces. Especially the absence of the black light squared bishop is of importance. White has three (semi) open files for his rooks while black has only two. The position of the pawns determines the lines of attack . Which side can make use of the newly formed lines of attack ?

Although little seems to happen around this blog, I'm studying very hard. I will have two nine day tournaments in July for which I'm preparing. I do daily tactics for half an hour or an hour, conform my newly developed method. The more I think about it, the more I become convinced it is the only way. It addresses the very basics of tactics, which I turn out to master surprisingly bad. I'm almost finished with the book Game Changer, about AlphaZero. It turns out that AlphaZero is an activity addict, although even in this book it becomes never clear what activity actually is. When activity isn't arrived at yet, AZ is a mobility addict. I'm working on more understanding of the middelgame. It seems to boil down to three aspects: Prevent counter play in the center Targets, of which the king is an exponent Activity, although nobody gives a definition of that, and those explanations that are around seem to contradict each other Of these three, activity seems to ...