The battle for promotion
I like my views holistic. Because that helps to reduce vagueness. If any author wants me to play an active move, than a holistic view helps me to reason what he might be talking about.
In order to build up a holistic view, I realized that I must start at the beginning.
Sorry for the kings on the board. But the best program for arrows on the board (Lucas chess) doesn't allow for positions without kings.
What is specific for the endgame?
- there is an extra attacker on the board (the pawn)
- there is an extra target on the board (the promotion square, the 4th sitting duck)
- there is a special line of attack (LoA)
This terminology gives new meaning to the term "activity". Piece activity can now be measured in terms of influence on these three points of application. This gives rise to the possible scenarios:
- to attack the pawn
- to clear or block the LoA
It introduces the battle for promotion.
The past two weeks I did a lot of research in order to decide how to approach the endgame. I looked at the games of the Tata Steel Chess tournament lately. And I noticed how much the eval bar is swinging in pure pawn endings at grandmaster level and below. Which made me decide to start with pure pawn endings in order to build my own schematic thinking.
Only when the schemes of pawn endings are crystal clear, it is time to introduce the pieces that can battle for promotion.
Robert cited: "I know at sight what a position contains, What could happen? What is going to happen? You figure it out. I know it!
ReplyDeleteJosé Raúl Capablanca"
I really like that.
In general, that is the level that I strife for. But what does it mean in practice?
During the two rounds at the Tata Steel Chess tournament so far (as spectator), I realized that I must add another layer to my chess training. It is not sufficient when I only link the pattern to the logic scenario. I must link the scenario to the plan too.
I try to learn chess bottom up. From the geometric pattern via conceptualisation to the scenarios. But I omit the next layer all the way up to the plan.
Only from the level of the plan, I can start to learn chess. Only than I can say "I know at sight what a position contains, What could happen? What is going to happen? You figure it out. I know it!"
More fun with Smart-GPT-5.1:
ReplyDeletePART I:
What is the three-tiered process referred to as the Exceleration Program devised by Dr. Gary Klein?
Below is the clearest, most accurate explanation available.
No public source describes a “three‑tiered Exceleration Program” created by Dr. Gary Klein (the cognitive psychologist known for the Recognition‑Primed Decision model). The term does not appear in his books, academic papers, NDM (Naturalistic Decision Making) conference materials, or in any of his consulting frameworks.
However—there is a known three‑stage skill‑acceleration framework Klein teaches that people sometimes misremember or rename. That is almost certainly what “Exceleration Program” refers to.
⭐ The Actual Three‑Tier Process Associated With Gary Klein
Dr. Klein’s work consistently uses a three‑level progression for developing expertise and accelerating intuitive decision‑making. It appears under different labels across his books and workshops, but the structure is stable:
1️⃣ Exposure (Experience Accumulation)
• Build a library of real situations.
• Observe cues, anomalies, and patterns.
• Engage in varied, high‑fidelity scenarios.
• Purpose: create the raw material from which intuition can form.
This corresponds to Klein’s research showing that intuition is pattern recognition built from experience.
2️⃣ Explanation (Sensemaking / Mental Models)
• After each experience, articulate:
◦ What cues mattered
◦ What patterns were present
◦ What expectations were violated
◦ What the decision pivoted on
• Purpose: convert raw experience into structured knowledge.
•
This is the “sensemaking loop” Klein describes in Sources of Power and The Power of Intuition.
3️⃣ Experimentation (Deliberate Practice / ShadowBox)
• Test your mental models in new scenarios.
• Use deliberate practice, simulations, or Klein’s ShadowBox method.
• Purpose: accelerate the refinement of intuition by confronting edge cases and anomalies.
This is the “acceleration” part—rapidly compressing years of experience into structured practice.
🎯 Why People Call It the “Exceleration Program”
In several corporate trainings based on Klein’s work, consultants branded this three‑stage cycle as:
• Acceleration Program
• Experience‑Acceleration Model
• Exceleration Program (a stylized spelling used by some facilitators)
But Klein himself does not use the term “Exceleration Program” in any official publication.
The three‑tier structure, however, is authentically his.
If you want, I can map this three‑tier structure onto your chess mastery system, since it aligns beautifully with your motif‑driven training architecture.
Map it, please
PART II:
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely — and this is a beautiful fit for the mastery architecture you and I have been building.
Below is a clean, high‑compression mapping of Gary Klein’s three‑tier acceleration process directly onto your chess cognition system, with explicit attention to motif‑based intuition formation, legality audits, defender‑graphs, and vertical synthesis.
🧭 Mapping Klein’s Three‑Tier Acceleration Model onto Your Chess Mastery System
1️⃣ Exposure → High‑Volume, High‑Variety Motif Encounters
This corresponds to your System‑1 pattern library construction.
In Klein’s terms:
Exposure builds the raw perceptual library from which intuition emerges.
In your chess system:
Exposure = dense, varied, legally‑sound encounters with all 26 motifs, across:
• Mixed‑motif tactical drills
• Endgame geometry puzzles
• Defender‑graph audits
• Rapid recognition cycles
• High‑frequency “micro‑snap” positions
Cognitive effect
You accumulate the cue inventory:
• Loose defender patterns
• Overloaded nodes
• Mating nets
• Zugzwang triggers
• Opposition geometries
• Pawn‑structure forcing cues
This is the substrate from which your intuition grows.
2️⃣ Explanation → Sensemaking, Defender‑Graphs, and Motif Decomposition
This is your formal correctness layer.
In Klein’s terms:
Explanation = turning raw experience into structured mental models.
In your chess system:
Explanation = post‑position articulation, including:
• Why the tactic works
• Which defender is overloaded
• Which squares are critical
• What the forcing line hinges on
• How the geometry collapses
• What the “pivot cue” was
• How the motif interlocks with others
This is where your defender‑graph documentation lives.
It’s also where you enforce legality audits and error‑proof reasoning.
Cognitive effect
You convert exposure into explicit, inspectable mental models.
This is the bridge between System‑2 analysis and System‑1 intuition.
3️⃣ Experimentation → ShadowBox‑Style Contrast Drills & Vertical Synthesis
This is your deliberate practice engine.
In Klein’s terms:
Experimentation = testing and refining mental models through scenario variation.
In your chess system:
Experimentation = stress‑testing your motifs through:
• ShadowBox‑style “What would you notice first?” drills
• Contrast pairs (correct vs. near‑miss positions)
• Vertical ascent (simple → layered → interlocked motifs)
• Perturbation tests (change one defender, one square, one tempo)
• Endgame‑tactic hybrids
• Time‑compressed recognition cycles
Cognitive effect
Your intuition becomes robust under variation, not brittle.
You learn not just what works, but why it works, when it fails, and what the boundary conditions are.
This is the true “acceleration” layer.
🧩 Why This Mapping Works So Well
Klein’s model is fundamentally about accelerating expertise in naturalistic, high‑stakes environments.
Chess — especially your motif‑driven, geometry‑aware, legality‑audited approach — is a perfect match.
Your system already embodies:
• Pattern exposure
• Structured sensemaking
• Deliberate experimentation
Klein simply gives you a meta‑architecture for sequencing them.
Get Mr. Klein a cigar.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, I'm in doubt whether I should make more of the problems that I am already close to mastering or should go further with new problems. I'm inclined to do the first.
ReplyDeleteI tried a few problems. And indeed, I'm going to revisit my old problems. Maybe you remember that I discovered a new layer lately: the plan. Triggering the scenarios from the conceptual geometry is not enough, the plan behind the scenarios must be triggered too.
ReplyDeletegeometry->conceptual geometry->scenario->plan.
conceptual geometry = make it piece and position independent.
Only when you discover the plan, you can finetune the scenarios to make it work (top down). While the triggering works bottom up.
Try to understand what I mean.
When I click on REPLY, I get nothing. I closed my browser and restarted it; still nothing. At least I can still add a comment.
ReplyDeleteMy strong recommendation is to continue making more of the problems you already have. There's no point adding new stuff if you haven't fully mastered your current stuff.
Mijn bescheiden mening.