Chess Forum
uskidscompute.com << online chess - < chess - chess > - chess online >>
| From | Message |
| Posted by crafty uskidscompute.com 11/25/2004 07:27:53 Play online chess |  Subject: Rapid Chess Improvement - 7 CirclesMessage: Hello out there. I'm curious to know if anyone has read and taken up Michael De la Maza's recommendation in his book 'Rapid Chess Improvement', the seven circles tactical training programme. The argument goes that the best way to improve your chess rapidly (which is backed up by the authors own success) is to study tactical chess puzzles (as opposed to opening books which us class players are guilty of spending too much time studying). Specifically take 1000 tactical exercises, ranked in order of complexity (say 2/3 move combinations ranging to 7/8 move combinations) and solve them, repeating each circle 7 times. The first 3/4 circles will consolidate calculation and the remaining circles build upon pattern recognition. The amount taken is scheduled to take 64-32-16-8-4-2-1 days (yes, 1,000 puzzles in one day!) I'm halfway through my first circle and feel my tactical vision has greatly improved already. I'm just wondering if there is anyone else out there who is doing a similar thing and what effect it has had on their rating, in particular OTB games. |
| Posted by chrisphillips71 uskidscompute.com 11/25/2004 07:46:14 Play online chess | Tactical Problems Message: What do you use for the source of your 1000 problems (i.e. what book or computer program)? Thanks, Chris |
| Posted by crafty uskidscompute.com 11/25/2004 08:13:37 Play online chess | Tactical Problems Message: I use books though the author does recommend the CT-ART programme. I would use such a computer programme but this isn’t possible for me as most of my studying is on my train commute to and from work (2hrs). I’ve got 2 books I use, one called ‘303 Tricky checkmates’ by Wilson et al, this book comprises of 2/3 move combinations and the Manuel of Chess Combinations Vol. II by Ivaschenko ( this book is aimed to 1600/1700 players who want to increase their rating to 2200) of which I intend to do the first 700 which range from 4 move combinations to 7 move combinations – the remaining puzzles of this book would be too difficult for me at this stage and I try to stick within the time-limit of 10 mins per puzzle in order to get through 1,000 puzzles. Regards, Doug ——— Showdown to Decide Winner of Women’s Chess Grand Prix — The luck of the draw sets up a final round matchup on Wednesday for the title in the fifth Women’s Chess Grand Prix in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Hou Yifan of China is the leader with 7.5 points after 10 rounds, while Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria trails by only half a point. They have not faced each other yet in the chess tournament, which is a round-robin. Hou, the second seed, has played steadily throughout the tournament, winning five games and drawing five. Stefanova, the third seed and a former women’s world chess champion, has been more uneven. She has won six games, but she has lost two in addition to two draws. Humpy Koneru of India, the top seed, had a chance to keep ... |
| Posted by bonsai uskidscompute.com 11/26/2004 02:56:16 Play online chess | Message: Improving one's tactical abilities is definitely one of the best and fastest ways of improving one's playing strength. Particularly with amateurs there's still such a scope for improvement there that e.g. a lack of strategic ability can often be made up for with tactical skills. I'm not entirely sure how helpful it is to repeat the *same* tactical excercises over and over again. I'd suspect that pattern recognition could also be achieved (maybe even be achieved in a better way?!) if one solved more and more new problems which however contain the same kind of combinations again and again. Being already on the topic of tactical training excercises: Does anyone know a *free* source of tactical training excercises for Fritz/Chessbase programs (i.e. databases of positions in which those programs will automatically ask you to make a move)? I won a cd by Renko with such training positions at a simul and I liked the idea, but I wouldn't really want to pay a lot of money for such a cd. ——— The endgame: Has Black done the right thing? — Schlechter-Tartakower, Karlsbad 1907. Black has just played ...g5. Is this good? RB A game from chess's romantic era, with two of my favourite chess players, both of whom – in true tragic-romantic tradition – died in poverty. Schlechter's death in 1918, of pneumonia aggravated by near-starvation at the age of 44, was particularly poignant. One of the strongest chess grandmasters before the first world war, he went into the 10th and final game of his 1910 world chess championship match with Lasker a point to the good, only to throw away a winning position. The match ended 5-5, and Lasker retained the crown. Enough history. What about the position? Tartakower has just ... |
| Posted by mlane uskidscompute.com 11/27/2004 19:10:45 Play online chess | combinations Message: Some sacrificial types of combinations are not strictly 100% sound, but unless the opponent picks exactly the right combination of replies will nonetheless give you a win. I have found this to be so in a couple of my Gameknot games. I would call these "pragmatic" or even speculative combinations. Some of the great early games of the child Bobby Fischer that ended up with a win to Bobby do not stand up to rigorous analysis. Combinations like this could be included in a teaching book simply as a help for practical over-the-board play. ——— Player Who Was Too Clever for the Health of His Game — For years, Alexander Morozevich stood out among the best chess players because of his creative play. But with creativity comes unpredictability, and Morozevich has had his ups and downs. Two years ago, Morozevich, a 33-year-old Russian, rose to a career-best ranking of No. 2 in the world. But he has stumbled since then and was at No. 30 before the IV Torneo Internacional A.D. San Juan chess event, which ended Sunday in Pamplona, Spain. He had a disastrous finish and fell out of the Top 35 in the world. What happened? Part of the problem is that he has not played enough; the Pamplona chess tournament was his first in six months. But Morozevich also has had ... |
| Posted by mlane uskidscompute.com 11/27/2004 22:40:29 Play online chess | combinations Message: Some sacrificial types of combinations are not strictly 100% sound, but unless the opponent picks exactly the right combination of replies will nonetheless give you a win. I have found this to be so in a couple of my Gameknot games. I would call these "pragmatic" or even speculative combinations. Some of the great early games of the child Bobby Fischer that ended up with a win to Bobby do not stand up to rigorous analysis. Combinations like this could be included in a teaching book simply as a help for practical over-the-board play. ——— Chess: A 31-month cliffhanger — Aleksandr Surenovich Dronov of Russia edged Jurgen Bucker of Germany on tiebreak to win the 22nd World Correspondence Chess Championship. If any tournament that lasts 31 months can be called thrilling, this one qualifies. In the endgame of the crucial battle between the rivals, Dronov had an extra Knight but was hampered by the notorious "wrong Rook's pawn." After 91 moves and long after all the other games had finished, he managed to win. Each scored 11 1/2 - 4 1/2. Two-time world chess champion Joop van Oosterom of the Netherlands, the highest-rated correspondence player in history, finished third with 11-5. Tim Murray, the leading American in the 17-player ... |
| Posted by brunson uskidscompute.com 12/04/2004 11:45:02 Play online chess | As a source for puzzles Message: and in support of the pattern recognition thesis I'm currently working on Fred Reinholds "1001 Brilliant Ways to Checkmate". ——— Michael Adams dominates on way to victory at the British Chess Championship — When Michael Adams won his first five games at the just finished British Chess Championship in Canterbury, there was talk that the 38-year-old Cornishman might emulate Bobby Fischer's legendary 11/11 in the US title contest of 1963. Adams's streak was halted by a couple of draws but he made sure of first prize with 9/10 and a round to spare. More significantly, he advanced to world No18 in his campaign to regain his place among elite chess grandmasters. The recession is causing elite events to shrink, but Adams can now hope for an invitation to Holland's Wijk aan Zee. the best chess tournament in Western Europe. The other debating point at Canterbury was the growing ... |
| Posted by nw__ uskidscompute.com 12/05/2004 02:53:26 Play online chess | Chess Training Message: Crafty - I'm glad to hear you've benifited from the training regime; I completed it and found enough improvement to come second in an Open (U2200) tournament in london. Of course we should not think that this practice alone will give your proper chess understanding - Its like being able to slot the numbers in E=mc2, if you dont know what it means then its worthless. Once I mastered a certain level of tactics, I gained the most from deeply analysing GM games or the likes. Heres a fantastic source for tactical exercises all in CB files, over 10,000 positions in total! www.uni-klu.ac.at/~gossimit/c/tactic.htm You'll need CB or CB light which is free from www.chessbase.com Good luck all. |
| Posted by daniele uskidscompute.com 12/05/2004 16:27:50 Play online chess | combinations Message: You can use the material on this site. dejascacchi.altervista.org/ |
| Posted by brunson uskidscompute.com 12/06/2004 08:19:56 Play online chess | www.uni-klu.ac.at/~gossimit/c/tactic.htm Message: Thanks for pointing me to a great site, I've already downloaded several of the databases. However, I'm concerned that a lot of the material is from copyrighted works. Not to derail the thread, but I know that in the case of the Reinfeld book, the actual boards comprise about 95% of the content with the solutions being another 4% and the authors commentary being little more than icing in the chapter intros. Would the members of this forum consider this distribution in electronic format a violation of copyright? |
| Posted by nw__ uskidscompute.com 12/06/2004 10:54:11 Play online chess | Message: Thats tricky, The website is well known - Technically, the chess positions have been manually put into a chess program - It would be absurd to think that each and every chess position that a book holds is copyrighted. In any case, have fun. |
| Posted by messiry uskidscompute.com 12/07/2004 02:14:03 Play online chess | if they are from real games Message: Then no copyright problem, since we only deal with a position, not with an analysis. |
| Posted by mogath uskidscompute.com 12/13/2004 09:48:20 Play online chess | Rapid Chess Improvement Message: I also saw the "7 Circles" study, but for me, the way I study tactics, there is no way I would be able to complete that. The way I do tactics study is to set the position up on a chess board. Then I set the clock for 5-10 minutes. Then I sit there and stare at the board working out the problem until it is either solved or time runs out. I do NOT move the pieces until I think I have the solution. This, for me, simulates tournament conditions. I also play all my long games against a computer and online on the board. It helps with my board vision and keeps me away from the screen. This seems to work very well. Regards, Jeff |
| Posted by flippy uskidscompute.com 12/21/2004 00:46:40 Play online chess | experience Message: check out also following sites: mandelamaza.blogspot.com/ discipledelamaza.blogspot.com/ sanchopawnza.blogspot.com/ orangeknight.blogspot.com/ all these guys are already doing the seven circles training from de la Maza quite a while... you can read their daily experience with the tactics training ... very interseting ! |
| Posted by generalkaia uskidscompute.com 1/16/2005 15:29:09 Play online chess | De la Maza Program Message: In addition to the 4 sites listed by flippy, there are 3 new blogs also dedicated to De la Maza training: www.generalkaia.blogspot.com pawnsensei.blogspot.com megaskins.blogspot.com I am the blogger at www.generalkaia.blogspot.com. |
| Posted by generalkaia uskidscompute.com 1/26/2005 18:45:47 Play online chess | Change of Plans Message: Just FYI, many of the De la Mazan Bloggers are changing or tweaking Michael De la Maza's plan of training. Some have found that the software CT-Art doesn't always play the best moves, and that the times at the end of the 7-Circles Training is too difficult in too quick of a time constraint. Additionally, many of us are adding endgame, middlegame strategy, and opening study to the MDLM study plan. For more, just visit the websites listed in the above two messages. Thanks, generalkaia |