Day 1

Ok just completed the first exercise.
I followed Don's advice about taking it slowly through the first run. I tried to find common themes in relation to the piece(s) being forked or skewered and the home squares of the pieces involved.

The following is basic knowledge for most, but it seems to help me grasp a concept if I state the obvious. If only for my own peace of mind.

You know something along the lines of a Knight on "dark squares" always attacks "light squares."

Queen versus King and Rook.
The Queen will always attack the Rook from a Bishop's perspective.

Queen versus King and Bishop.
The Queen will always attack the Bishop from a Rook's perspective.

Queen versus King and Knight.
The poor Knight just gets hammered from all angles.

Queen versus King and Queen.
The word of the day is skewer, can you say skewer?
I knew that you could. :)
This was the easiest of the drills.
Only a few possibilities exist.

By the end of the drills I did find myself counting the checks and also running a pattern while searching for the checks.
A1-H1, then A2-H2, etc... This wasn't a conscious effort just something that evolved either out of repetition or a quest to end the madness as quickly as possible.
So to really sum all of this up, just stay off of the squares that your opponents pieces control and your Queen will do just fine.
Bet you're all glad this stunning insight is free...
I also added a pawn to the exercise. I figured why discriminate.

I started thinking about "The Seven Circles" exercise. I just wish that the CT-Art 3.0 software had a 3-D board option. Since the idea is to simulate a game environment the only way to do this is manually set-up a real board to solve the exercise. Or use a different software package that can achieve the same objective while utilizing a decent 3-D board.
I'm one of those people that have a hard time making the transition from a 2-D computer monitor to real chess set.
Yes I know I'm weird.

As Don says "1 down 154 to go."

Wish me luck!

P.S.
Don, thanks for dragging me into this.
I think.