Temposchlucker

  That was another great tournament! I played some wonderful games. In simplified terms: In one game, I was outplayed by a 12-year-old kid with a rating of about 1500. He eventually finished second in my group. In the remaining 8 games, I was winning at some point. Yet the final result of those remaining 8 games is meager: 1 win, 1 loss, and the rest draws. Over the past year, I have focused primarily on my opening repertoire and positional play. I haven't lost any more points due to my openings or positional play. I still see many opportunities for improvement in those areas, but they are clearly not a priority anymore. You can compare me to a soccer team without finishers. I play excellently, but I don't score. These are the two 'finishers' that are missing: tactics (combinations) endgame strategy I played a draw against a woman, who is the partner of an International Master. She showed the game to him. He said I played excellently, but that I had botched the endgame....

 I have inventorized my last 50 games. About 25% had a  rook ending in them. I am very bad at it. So I managed to draw won endings, and to lose drawn endings. I have no feeling whatsoever for rook endings. I solved my opening problems, I solved most middlegame problems, but in the ending I feel lost. I have a lot of endgame knowledge acquired over the years, like theoretical rook endings, but I fail to connect the dots. I never have encountered a Philidor or Luceena in my life. To summarize: I simply cannot concoct a plan for the ending. Screwing up a won ending is of course a luxury problem. Since I'm almost retired, it is high time to fix this problem. My Chessable course of choice is Conceptual Rook Endgames of GM Jacob Aagaard. He makes a bit the impression of a muddled thinker, but the subject of his course seems to be right on the money. Since I'm the one who is confused, I might well project my own shortcomings on him. But if that is the case, I'll iron that out. He...

  The components of a combination are glued together by tempo moves. What are we talking about? White to move r2qrk2/pb2nnpQ/1p2B2p/8/3P3N/P1P5/5PPP/R1B3K1 w - - 0 1 Tal, M. vs. Myagmarsuren, L. Backward thinking: What is it that we want? We want to give mate with Ng6# What prevents that? The knight on e7 How can we lure away Ne7? By giving a check with Qh8 What prevents that? The knight on f7 How can we lure away that knight? With Bxh6 threatening mate (the tempo move) Why can't pawn g7 take Bh6? Pawn g7 is pinned and prevents Qxf7 mate Forward thinking: 1. Bxh6 threatening mate in one (tempo move) 1. ... Nxh6 giving up the defense of h8 2. Qh8+ (tempo move) 2. ... Nhg8 3. Qxg8+ (with tempo) 3. ... Nxg8 giving up the defense of g6 4. Ng6# You see a mix of ordinary tactical themes (pin, luring, overload, mate in 1) which are combined with subtle tempo moves. The only thread that holds the combination together is the logical narrative.

 System 2 is mainly babbling from memory. "Capablanca said this, so I must try to do that" It is logic in the parroting style without true understanding. On the other side, there are the well-known patterns. We must guide our attention towards their point of contact, where the logic and the patterns meet, in order to glue the logic to the patterns, creating new patterns that can be absorbed along the way. What does that look like? White to move rq3rk1/b1p2pp1/p1n4p/5N2/2b1PpP1/5Q1P/PBB2P2/3RK2R w K - 0 1 The first pattern is a double attack with 1. Qc3 to the mating square g7 and the loose piece Bc4. How can black prevent the mate? There are two main ways black can try. 1. ...f6 blocks the long diagonal. But now it enables white to take the bishop 2.Qxc4+ with check. 1. ... Qb4 pins the white queen to the king. Where are the patterns? It are just the well known tactical patterns double attack, mate in one, pin, providing a tempo. Where is the logic? In the narrative.  The nar...

 Plans are based on moves that are irreversible: a pawn move or a piece trade. Whenever a piece is exchanged or a pawn is moved, you have to reconsider your plan. The motivation for a pawn move lies in changing the piece activity. Piece activity comes in two flavors: Increasing the activity of your own pieces Restricting your opponents' pieces In order to get the hang of pawn moves, you must develop an eye for convergence squares. A convergence square is a square which can act as a pivot point for pieces. White to move r3k2r/ppq1n1pp/2nbbp2/2p5/2PpPP1N/3P4/PP1N2BP/R1BQ1RK1 w kq - 0 12 e4 is a convergence square for the white pieces (bishop and knight) e5 is a convergence square for the black pieces (bishop, knight, queen) Both squares are currently blocked. The manoeuver 1.e5 fxe5 2.f5 clears e4 while blocking e5 permanently. The cost is a pawn, but it takes black 4 tempi to redeploy his pieces to active squares. I read somewhere the rule of thumb that a pawn is worth 3 tempi. Stoc...

 A  plan starts with an irreversible move by the enemy. That is a piece trade or a pawn move. Ssegwanyi, A. - Karjakin, S What came before. 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nf3 Bb4 7.c5?!  A premature pawn advance which is the start of an idea. 7... O-O first bringing the king into safety 8.Bd3 After 8.Bd3. Black to move rnbq1rk1/pp3ppp/4pn2/2Pp4/1b1P4/2NB1N2/PP3PPP/R1BQK2R b KQ - 2 8 8...b6!  The first micro plan (sentence) is to saddle white with more pawn islands than black. The exchange is more or less forced. 9.cxb6 axb6  10.O-O  After 10.O-O. Black to move 10... Bxc3! Black tears the b and a pawn apart. Now white has two weak pawns on an open file. This is the next micro plan. 11.bxc3 Ba6! Forcing the exchange of the bishops. Not only gets black rid of his bad bishop, but of the defender of c4 too. This is the third micro plan. 12.Bg5 Nbd7 13.Bxa6 Rxa6 14.Qb3 After 14.Qb3. Black to move 14...Qa8 The fourth micro plan is to pressurize ...

 The word The previous post was about chess words. It consists of mini decision trees of one move deep. Very much like the IF THEN ELSE constructs in programming. It is important to look at the most principled variation first. If you sac a bishop on h7, you must first consider the potentially worst case scenario: that he takes it. If the worst case scenario works, then you can look at the next variation. If it doesn't work, you are wasting your time anyway. The word consists of the conceptual pattern of the move (system 1) and its logical consequences (system 2). The sentence A chess sentence is the logical narrative that describes the plan. In the beginning was the Word. But where is the beginning of a chess sentence? According to GM Smirnov you must reconsider your plan every time a piece is exchanged or a pawn is moved. These moves have in common that they are irreversible. A plan is a sentence. In an unfamiliar situation you can start at any word in the sentence, based on the s...