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Showing posts from September, 2011

No concepts, no visualization

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. . The past few weeks Mr Z and I have been discussing visualization in chess. We arrived at the following conclusions: No concepts, no visualization. If you have not available the concept of a crocplevier you cannot recognize it, even if it bites you from behind. If you doesn't have a concept of a car, you cannot imagine it. You can't visualize it before the minds eye. If you DO have a concept though, you can't stop the mind from being able to visualize it. That clarifies why blindfold players declare to see concepts and idea's. Not pieces and board. That's why you can play blindfold chess against a much lower rated opponent so easy. Due to his mistakes it is easy to have a conceptual idea of the course of the game. That gives your mind grip. No difference between high level and low level concepts. By the mind, concepts are treated equally. No matter if it is a subtle concept how to keep h7, g7 and f7 under control by g4 when a transition to the endgame is near or

mentalization

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Some time ago mr. Z came up with this position: . . Black has just played Qxe7 so it is white to move. We both struggled to calculate this position towards quiescence. Somewhere along the road I always lost focus and got into repeat mode. At a certain moment, mr.Z sent me the following narrative : Rxe7 (to take back the queen) and pins a pawn to the black king. Rd3 pins the white knight to the king on g3 Rc7 prepares to double the rooks on the 7th Nb3, to double attack the knight pinned to the white king Kg4 steps out Rf8 to defend the f pawn that is pinned to the king Ree7 to double rooks on the 7th. Black resigns because the knight can add another attacker to the pawn. The knight will win a tempo on the d3 rook if it doesnt move away. The rook can't defend against the knight because a pawn supports it. All of a sudden, without looking at the board again, I could see the whole line in front of me within about 30 seconds

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