Compositions

 I haven't decided yet whether compositions of mate in two can have any use in the process of learning skills. On the one hand, the positions are not realistic, usually. It is often about some mate in the middle of the board. That means that you won't get those positions in an OTB game. Within this lifetime, that is.

On the other hand, what have we got:

• Tactical themes like pin, trap and double attack and the like
• Interconnections between themes
• PoPLoAFun
• Escape squares
• Logical narratives that connect the dots
• Patterns that emerge from all these points

#2 compositions seems to focus especially on interconnections between themes and logical narratives. My current training, that I probably will continue for a very long time, seems to target the other points already. So I think it is a good idea to investigate whether #2 compositions are a useful as complement. I start with a set of 10 or so, to see how it goes.

White to move

7n/3NR3/1P3p2/1p1kbN1B/1p6/1K6/6b1/1Q6 w - - 0 1

Currently, there are two squares where the black king can go: e4 and c6. This means that you have to cover these three squares (e4 d5 c6) at least to get a mate. The only pieces that can do that are the white Queen and bishop. The white knights and rook cannot do that.

The only defender of the long diagonal is the black bishop. Hence the task at hand is how to get rid of the defender of the line of attack.

What we see is that only a little bit of logic prunes a whole host of variations in the bud. The best way to become faster is not to calculate variations but to prune them. Let logic guide you. Since compositions invite to use logic instead of just trial and error, they might be a good idea to add to my training regimen. I'm going to find out whether this idea holds true.

By the way, I DON'T advocate to solve these problems yourself. Since the positions are so rare, that is not going to be helpful. Stockfish is your friend.

Unless you like solving compositions, ofcourse.