Clearing your head
This is the method:
- Select problem positions with patterns you need to absorb.
- Don't waste much time with trying to solve a problem yourself. It is about the new patterns you haven't absorbed yet. Solving it yourself is about patterns you already have absorbed.
- Full understanding is the core of the method. Ignore the details that aren't transferable to other positions.
- Describe the scenarios in plain language. Clear the square, double attack, annihilate the defender et cetera. This is about conceptualizing the scenarios with the aid of system 2. System 1 looks over the shoulder of system 2. More precise: both system 1 and system 2 are focussing on where your attention is.
- Fiddle around with Stockfish to unearth more details of the position.
- Use spaced repetition to memorize the positions. Speed is taboo.
- Once memorized, solve the positions with your eyes closed.
The last step is my latest discovery. It will clear your head and cement the patterns. You don't need to see the exact position in your head, you only need to be aware of the concepts that govern the scenarios.
UPDATE
Of course this describes only the method of absorption. The next step concerns the question: what to absorb?
Tactics
Tactics is an area where continuous training is needed
- General tactics (gaining wood)
- Mate
- Promotion
It is an area that pops up whenever you try to reach a goal of some kind
Positional play
It took me about five months to get to the core of the matter. It culminates in two types of micro plans:
- Microplans 1: mastering weak pawns
- Microplans 2: mastering piece productivity
Ad 1 .Microplans 1: mastering weak pawns
Recognizing the different types of weak pawns
- Doubled Pawns
- Isolated Pawns
- Isolated Doubled Pawns
- Backward Pawns
- Fixed Pawns
- Pawn Islands
I wasn't aware that fixed pawns at the base of a chain are weak (well, Nimzowitsch talked about it of course, but it was no part of my game). Furthermore, more pawn islands means more vulnerable pawns.
Inflicting or provoking weak pawns
- By exchanges
- By pawn breaks
- Fixing weak pawns
Hit the weak pawns
- The main goal is conquering the pawn
- The secondary goal is to bind the enemy defenders
- The third goal is to start an attack elsewhere
Repair your own pawn structure
- By a pawn break
- By an exchange
- Prevent damage
Ad 2. Microplans 2: mastering piece productivity
- By pawn break
- By an exchange
- By manoeuvering
- By creating strong squares/invasion/outpost
- By opening lines/diagonals
These two microplans seem to give sufficient guidance during the middlegame.
There are multiple parts to absorption of usable patterns. Obviously, recognition must be triggered first. That implies that a certain degree of abstraction has occurred between Systems 1 and 2. In addition to recognition of the “problem,” there must be a recognition of what should be played in response. The generic name for that combination of factors is the pryome: standard scenario, standard response.
ReplyDelete“Patzer sees a check; patzer gives a check” would not be a pryome, IMHO.
One of the difficulties with selecting problems is implicit in the very act of selecting problems. A problem is restricted to a localized moment in a game (unless it is composed). “Solving that problem” (regardless of how the solution is determined) ends whenever a satisfactory result can be identified. That leaves off the rest of the game, which will in all likelihood be a series of (different) problems that must be recognized and solved.
“The appearance of a single swallow does NOT indicate the beginning of summer.”
Or something like that.
If the "solution" is not checkmate or an overwhelming gain of material, perhaps it would be a good idea to play out the game against a computer (or, better yet, against a human with approximately the same rating or a little higher). You might as well gain maximum benefit across all areas of your game, rather than confine it to one example of one pattern.
ReplyDeleteThe microplans as described in the update treat a lot of whole games.
DeleteUPDATE in blue
ReplyDelete