How to feed system 1

 System 1 (subconscious thinking) is where your attention is. It cannot function without the light of attention. It works its miracles in the dark, though.

System 2 (conscious thinking) cannot communicate directly with system 1. It seems to have some power over the direction your attention is going, though. After all, you can't be conscious without the light of attention.

In the past few months, I accidently stumbled over a method how to give conscious input to system 1. How to give some direction to the course that system 1 is following. It appears that system 1 is susceptible for images with geometrical patterns.

I will describe step by step how I arranged the process. It is not iron clad, since there is still a lot to discover. It is a begin though. The steps are probably not going to be coherent, but you can see the steps as tags to make it more easy to talk about it. I will make the steps where you actually educate your system 1 red. That's where you build skill. I will make the steps that might be omitted green.

Step 1. 

Gather a set with tactical problems. The jury is still out on that one, but Mr. Glicko suggests I should take a set with problems that I failed or for which I needed an excessive amount of time.

Step 2.

Solve the problem. Let GM Stockfish help you.

Step 3.

Learn the solution by heart

Step 4.

Predigest the food with system 2. Probably whole step 4 is red.

I will elaborate on this. Take the following problem:

Diagram 1. White to move

6k1/R1qn1pp1/1n2p2p/8/pP2P3/P1r1NPP1/3QBK1P/8 b - - 0 0

[solution]

Now I'm going to add some colored squares and arrows. First the green squares. This stands for the targets, B.A.D. (Barely Adequate Defended) pieces, sometimes an attacking square. I use it not rigidly. The main thing is to keep it simple and crisp. The geometrical pattern must represent only the essence of the solution.

Diagram 2. Green squares are targets

Both the knight and the rook are B.A.D. (Barely Adequate Defended).

Diagram 3. The red square is for a piece with a function

The queen is overloaded.

Diagram 4. The yellow square is an attacking square

Diagram 5. The yellow arrows are the lines of attack

Arrows often converge to where two or more pieces work together.

The relation with PoPLoAFun is not rigid.

Points of pressure are represented by colored squares. They are differentiated in three colors.

A red square is usual a clue for trouble. There is a potential tempo problem to exploit.

Arrows tend to make a mess of your drawing.

Step 5

Repeat the drawing of geometrical patterns over and over again. Until you know it by heart. Here knowledge is converted into skill. This step is absolutely essential.

How do I know that skill is formed in step 5

There are a few telltale signs:

• It feels the same as when I made my greatest progress of 250 rating points Dutch national rating.
• When you learn the position by heart with the aid of system 2 (conscious thinking), you memorize the moves. When you memorize the patterns, the moves disappear, and the thinking disappears. You just know where the pieces are and what they do without actually seeing them. You just know. You see them with your minds eye. You know before you can think.
• I notice unexpected changes. Time is shrinking while thinking. I think I have thought for a minute. But the clock says 15 seconds,
• There is definitely transfer. But in different places than I expect.