Mini skills
What are the mate it ones that take me some time? What do they have in common?
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| White to move |
3R4/1p6/1K6/5p1p/2k4P/4Bp2/1PB3p1/4q3 w - - 0 14
I noticed two elements that take me time.
- When there are a lot of empty squares around the king (like in the diagram)
- When certain pieces have a FUNction (are pinned, for instance), so that they don't have their usual reach
Point 1 seems to indicate that all my attempts in the past to see the auras of the pieces have failed.
My main rating progress (from 1530 to 1780) back in 2004 was due to studying mate in 1 from Polgars brick. I noticed the change in vision from pieces to squares, back then.
So I will investigate whether applying the Trick will have an influence on the mini skill of seeing the auras of the pieces.
I suggest looking for the "box" surrounding the king rather than looking at the piece auras individually. SEEing the "walls" and "corridor" inside the "box" obviously require SEEing at least some of the auras of the pieces creating them. It's just a different focus of attention to me.
ReplyDeleteIn the example, the White king creates one "wall" of the box, and the duo WPb2+ WBc2 form the opposite side "wall." The WRd8 forms a third "wall." That leaves a "corridor" inside the box where the Black king can still try to wiggle out (move to b4). That movement is along a horizontal corridor between the "walls," which requires a horizontal line-moving piece (Queen or Rook) to attack and cutoff the king. Solution: use the WRd8 to maintain the end "wall" (protected by the WBe3) and attack down the corridor.
That is a logical pattern - SEEing the "walls" and the "corridor" and realizing that only one move crushes the king inside the "box."
I could be totally off-base but that approach seems to work for ME. The fact that it's a mate-in-1 may bias my approach, but I'm not aware of that bias in regular problem solving when I don't KNOW it's a mate-in-1 problem. There's something about a king surrounded by multiple enemy soldiers, and unprotected or inadequately protected by his own forces, that triggers my pattern recognition of "build the box."
Here’s another example of “SEEing” the walls of the “box” and then “SEEing” the solution because the solution REQUIRES a Queen or Rook to close the “box.” This is a Chess Tempo “Hard” Mate-in-1 problem.
DeleteFEN: RQ6/4k3/2K2p2/P2P4/8/8/2q5/1r6 b - - 0 1
Sorry, I transposed digits in the FEN:
DeleteFEN: RQ6/4k3/2K2p2/P2P4/8/8/5q2/1r6 b - - 0 1
FEN: 8/8/1p3Qp1/p1p1Pn2/P4k2/7R/1q3PP1/6K1 w - - 0 1
DeleteBlack’s last move was 0.… Kf4.
Another “corridor” mate with the “walls” keeping the Black king in the “box.” In this case, the White pawns form the lower “wall.” The WQf6 pins the BNf5 as part of the upper “wall.” Again, a Queen or Rook is required to crush the Black king along the "corridor."
FEN: 8/8/1p3Qp1/p1p1Pn2/P4k2/7R/1q3PP1/6K1 w - - 0 1
Black’s last move was 0.… Kf4.
Sorry about the double entry of the FEN in the previous example.
DeleteThat should be sufficient to illustrate the point. I did over 50 Chess Tempo "Hard" mate-in-1 problems in a very short time just to find those clear examples.
Does that 1 pattern cover the majority of mate-in-1 problems? NO. But it does show how finding a logical pattern gives an immediate answer when the pattern is recognized. I suspect (and I'm not going to try to prove it) that there are some other logical patterns in all of those problems that you cannot solve immediately. Ferreting out those logical patterns is left as an exercise for the student. As you've noted numerous times, YOU still have to do the work yourself!
The fact that it is in the "hard" section indicates I'm not the only one.
DeleteAfter review last night, I realized that I started looking for the “box” surrounding a king somewhere around December 2015. I put the following (and a lot more “word salad”) in a comment on 23 DEC 2015:
ReplyDeletePeter Romanovsky in Soviet Middlegame Technique, pp224-225, Quality Chess.
"The peculiarities of a position that express a certain potential for combination can most conveniently be called combination motifs.”
Motifs are at a more abstract level than the concrete tactical themes/devices. A motif is the “trigger” for System 1 to recognize the potential for a logical sequence of tactics. There is value in “SEEing” motifs before looking for tactical themes/devices.
I gave the motifs that were described by Dr. Lasker in Lasker’s Manual of Chess. One that I (unintentionally) left out of that comment was:
“Motif #7: King in the “box” – The King is confined to (or can be confined to) a box, reducing its mobility to zero (eventually).”
Seeing the auras (maximal rays – extending from the piece to the edge of the board, regardless of obstructions) emanating from each piece helps to SEE the “box” that is (or will be) surrounding the enemy king. The “corridor” metaphor is based on the “box” motif.
“Everything old is new again.”
The point is to find the mini skills where you (I) fail. The stopwatch is your friend. Immediate feels different from fast feels different from deploying System 2.
DeleteSeeing the squares instead of the pieces in a mini skill. Seeing the function of a piece is another mini skill.
I guess that all basic relations can be tested for being "not immediate".
Immediate = a single chunk = skill
ReplyDeletefast = interaction between logic and multiple chunks = skill
takes time = System 2 in action. "calculation" instead of seeing
Logically, the first step must be to develop the mini skills to the max. Hence the mini skills must be inventoried. First these holes in the bucket must be plugged.
ReplyDelete