Temposchlucker

Let's see if we can get an unround table in this post. TCT # problems circle 1 circle 2 circle 3 Level 3 540 96% 97% . Level 4 560 94% in progress . Level 5 580 75% . . Ok, looks nice. Only that 5th column is there because I stole it from Don's blog. I'm curious if a 6th can be attached to it when needed. The points are in the empty cells because otherwise they wipe out. It's unbelievable how fast one forgets. Level 3, circle 1 was only 10 days ago, but there wasn't much remembrance of the problems during the 2nd circle. The pace of solving isn't much higher either. Still I have the feeling that it works.

Papa Polgar has proven with his educational experiment on his three daughters that any child can be a prodigy with the right training. The question is, do you have to be a child to accomplish this? Well, it helps, but I find no reason in cognitive science why this should be the case. My quest is to find out if this can be done at an older age. So I find myself doing tactical exercises everyday. It helped me to gain my first 170 extra ratingpoints. Last summer I played two tournaments and looked seriously at the gamepoints I didn't got and why I didn't got them. 70% of the points I didn't get would I probably have won if I had more tactical abilities. 30 % of the points I could have won if I had more endgame technique. Because of this analysis I made a serious start with endgame training, until I looked again at my games. All of a sudden I realized that the endgames wherein I was involved only came on the board because of insufficient tactical skills. So I dropped the endgam...

I worked really hard the last days. I just finished circle 1, level 3,4 and 5 from TCT (1680 problems in total). It took me 8 days to accomplish this. A few years ago I have done the same course about 3 times. So probably I don't need 7 circles now to solve every problem a tempo. Level 3: 540 problems 96% Level 4: 560 problems 94% Level 5: 580 problems 75% Where I suck is at the endgame: rook vs pawn, wrong bishop, and 7th rank rook. I must have really talent for the endgame because I ALWAYS make the wrong move. If I had no talent then I should sometimes make a good move statistically.

Black to move This is problem I am not wired for. I had no clue after 20 minutes. Even after looking up the solution, it costed me a few days before I had the feeling that I really grasped it and would not miss it in a game. Maybe it's easy for you? (without your computer that is!) Source: TCT

From Bahus I got a nice little program. Its a program that converts a PGN-game to a HTML-file (javascript). It's free and you can download it here This is the result: Another wild game at Corus 2005 Tasc Chess Tutor (TCT): Level 1 and 2: skipped, too easy, did it in the past. Level 3: 540 problems down 1st circle Level 4: 560 problems down 1st circle Level 5: just started Used time: 5 days George Renko intensive course tactics 1: delayed.

During the last Corustournament I played with black a very quick game (11 moves!!) against an opponent with a rating of 1791. 1.f4 e5 I always play the From-gambit against the Bird. 2.e4 That's the risk. White can transpose to the King's gambit. But Birdplayers have often a playing style that's not very suited for that. I play the Kingsgambit myself and there was a variation that caused me a lot of trouble the last 3 years. Only recent I found the solution. I decided to test if my opponent knew what to do. 2. ... Bc5 (the classical variation) 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Bc4 d6 5. c3 Here starts the trouble for white. He has to reckon with Bg4 and Nd4. c3 prevents this, but moving pawns is not the main reason to play a gambit. 5. ... Nf6 6. d3 White has now moved four pawns and is not able to castle yet. 6. ... O-O 7.Qe2 d5 Black has developed at lightning speed. It's time to open lines against the enemy king. Even if that costs some wood. 8...

Patterns in the long term memory behave like animals in the jungle. Only the fittest will survive. The human mind is very efficient. It never tries to find the objective best solution but it settles for the first solution that has succes. A solution just good enough to survive costs less energy than the best solution. If one is used to play 3. Df3 in a certain variation, that might be enough to become chesschampion of Honduras. So that pattern is stored in memory as "best fit" for the given situation. But when our Hondurassic champion tries this pattern for example in the Corustournament he might well be knocked from the board. So in international play this pattern of 3. Df3 will not survive. This continuous competition between patterns in the mind plays an important role. Here is where emotion comes in. A pattern "has to know" if it is needed any longer after being used. Emotion "rewards" the pattern with a good feeling if the result is good. The pattern ...