Tempo battle
The mate patterns can be conquered by doing mate in 2 exercises. The PoPLoAFun/killbox framework covers all there is to know about mates. 10 actions and 10 salient cues is all there is to know. But tactics that just gain wood is a totally different animal.
I work with 2 move problems (3 ply deep) that do not end in mate. ChessTempo considers them to be winning after you have provided the first 2 moves. But in practice matters might not be that simple. Sometimes you are just 2 pawns behind after the 2 moves. Superior piece activity is supposed to provide you a win after 10 or 15 moves. But since I'm no engine, I can't look that far ahead so easy. So albeit ChessTempo forsees a bright future for me, I delete these problems from my database for now. 2 movers are complex enough when I only have to look in the near future. Mates in 2 (M2) are way more simple, since the future is mate on the second move.
The PoPLoAFun/killbox framework certainly plays a role in 2 move tactical problems that don't end with mate (T2). But there is a lot more to it.
The core is, as expected, the duplo move, the trap and the promotion. Since these three themes are the only way to gain wood in a forcing way. You have to see the salient cues that play a role here.
But usually, seeing the theme is not enough. There is always an additional problem that you have to solve. These scenarios are common:
- Execute a duplo attack and see if you can save your pieces afterwards
- Prepare the duplo attack by a tempo move
- Save your attacker with tempo before you execute the duplo move
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| White to move |
test comment
ReplyDeletetest
DeleteThe logic starts at the beginning. LPDO. The bishop on a6 is hanging, and you want to take it. What prevents you from doing so?
ReplyDeleteYour own rook on c2 is hanging. Can you save him without letting Ba6 off the hook? 1.Rxc8 Bxc8 is obviously not the way.
1. Be4+ protects your rook on c2 with tempo.
1. ... f5 shields the black king with tempo
Afer 1. Be4+ f5, the nett result is that the threat to lose your Rc2 is changed in a threat to lose you Be4.
Rxa6 is another miraculous tempo move. It doesn't only harvest the bishop, at the same time the rook on c8 loses its protection. So it gains a tempo by threatening Rc8 indirectly.
So first you gain by changing the value of your piece that is threatened from a rook (Rc2) to a bishop (Be4), then you gain a tempo by annihilating the defender of your opponents rook (Rc8 ).
These miraculous changes in tempo happen all the time during a game. They are easy to calculate, and we tend to dismiss the option to learn to see them because of that. But in slightly more complicated situations, calculation all of a sudden becomes hard.
So I assume it starts with a very precise description of logic around the tempo battle, and then trying to abstrahere some general logic out of it. And let system 1 do its job to create some analogies from it.
ReplyDeleteLike you noted, my eye was first drawn to the unprotected Bishop on a6 (LPDO). Klein's recognition primed decision making (or Tisdall's variation processing) simulating the consequences (what we in the chess world call "look ahead" calculation). I immediately "saw" that the White Rook on c2 was "hanging" but also that if Black captured it immediately there was a Bishop fork on e4 that would regain it. That recognition occurred almost simultaneously with the Rxa6 first move. And then I "saw" the refutation: 1. Rxa6 Rd1 CHECK (because the White Rook on a1 had a function - to protect the White King from check (the Black Knight prevents the White King from escaping from check to h2). Interposition of the White Bishop with 2. Bf1 is forced, followed by 2....Rxc2, gaining the exchange. Accordingly, there must be a way to change the situation so that the capture of the Black Bishop can occur without adverse consequences. AHA! START with 1. Be4 CHECK f5 2. Rxa6 because the White Rook on c2 is now (temporarily, admittedly) protected by WBe4 and the White King can now escape the Rd1+ with Kg2 (the g2 square is vacated by Be4). The capture of the BBa6 requires a Zwischenzug move (Be4 CHECK) to gain time (and set up protection of the Rc2) to capture safely on a6.
ReplyDeleteFor me, "seeing" all of that only required two iterations of the recognition prime decision process.
Essentially, start with the first thing you "see", simulate the consequences as far as needed to determine if it works. If it does, execute it. If there is an additional constraint that is found during the simulation, back up to the original position and try an alternative, taking into consideration what was learned on the previous iteration(s). As soon as a viable plan of action is determined, execute it. Note that the aphorism "When you SEE a good move, look for a better one" is NOT applied. The "King of the hill" is the FIRST one that definitely WORKS!
All's well that ends well!