Laying a Foundation
To get a general baseline of my current tactical ability I completed a bit more than 50 puzzles on CTS (Chess Tactics Server http://chess.emrald.net) I finished with a rating of about 1119 on a new account also named "boardscholar." Everyday I will try to do at least 50 puzzles on CTS to obtain a reading of my current tactical awareness. I am not intending to use CTS as my problem-set for tactical training, but mainly as a diagnostic tool to measure progress.I have been re-thinking my study plan over ... I was not sure what puzzle library to use for the seven circles and since I feel that if I were to put a lot of time into over-learning them, that what I intend to study can be as important as to how much time I spend studying it. It seems the CT-Art is a viable pool but I would like to do a lot of training from printed sources.
I already own a few good books on tactics and I think my first phase will be to focus first on a smaller pool of essential tactics. For this I have chosen the first 306 mate-in-one puzzles from Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations & Games by Laszlo Polgar.
This book also has the added benefit of teaching you to practice using algebraic notation. The system is simple, but without practice in it, it is hard to reach the point of visualizing a game from reading its notation; something I cannot do at present with ease. This is one benefit that does not seem to be adressed in training from programs with visual-results like CTS or CT-Art (or even some books for that matter.)
For the 306 puzzles, I'll complete 50 each day until finished. Then double the puzzle amount after each set until I am doing the whole set in one day. At that point I may continue to do the whole set each day a few more times, depending on how familiar the set has become.
Also, I'll be revisiting Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. I have read it once before and I feel it's a very practical introduction to chess tactical themes and problem solving (sans any algebraic notation or high-level strategy) which I think are good to review. Each page presents a problem and you are required to choose the correct move, which is shown on the following page.
To balance out all this tactical training, I'll also be going over the tutorials in Chessmaster 9000 starting from the very beginning. I do not intend to put into practice the more advanced concepts when I reach those, but to more or less use it an introduction so that I'm become aware of them. I do not think they are important to think about at my level, but a general awareness seems reasonable.
Couple that with the Michael de la Maza's microdrill exercises and playing then analyzing at least one or two of my own games each day to find out how I lost ... I think that is a very balanced training schedule to lay a firm foundation for further intensive tactical training.
To give a sense of perspective, about a year ago for a period I played online chess just about everyday for a month and learnt about CTS during that time. I believe I started around 1060+ and quickly jumped into the 1100s in a short time. The highest I peaked on CTS was about 1160 but I seemed to sort of hover 20 or so points below that without much change after awhile.
My rating on Yahoo Chess was usually just shy of 1100.
So now that this foundation is planned out, we'll see how it works.
posted by Board Scholar @ 7:08 PM
3 Comments:
Looks like a solid plan to me.
If you would like a textbook to work from to get a hang of the notation, I would recommend Combinational Motifs by Blokh. This is the book that CT-Art was based upon. I use both CT-Art and Combinational Motifs in doing my circles, and so far I find the combination to be great.
/Chris
I didn't know about that book before or that CT-Art was based on it. It does look like a very good book and I'll certainly look into a copy. Thanks
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