Today I ran into one of those problems that really ticked me off, it is a Level 50 exercise.
As I'm playing through the variation, actually struggling would better describe my play. I notice that I'm not finding a move/theme/glimmer of an idea that makes any sense. Every move I enter comes up being wrong. Finally after enough of these moves I'm able to work my way through to the "solution". It turns out to be a drawing line, according to ICCF Grandmaster Maxim Blokh's analysis of best play for both sides. While I think Mr. Blokh has presented some really great examples of saving swindles throughout the entire CD. I just couldn't buy this one in particular. I kept thinking through the entire exercise all White has to do is give back the material, none of this is forced. Plus who in the heck is going to look for a drawing line with all material still on the board? Add to this no immediate mate threats, or any forced loss of material that would lead to a decisive imbalance for one side or the other.
So I threw in my red flag, made my call for the upstairs official to review the play. So after further review Mr. Fritz called malarkey on ICCF GM Blokh's analysis and sided with me. While I lost some points I was able to keep my time out and regain a small bit of my dignity. Not that there is much left after the trouncing I have been taking during these exercises.
This brings me to my next idea about the software being used for this course of study.
It seems to me that a beginning player would benefit more from a CD that was focused on mating patterns and direct attacks against the enemy king. Than they would from a smorgasbord that does a great job of smothering the student with a whole lot of different themes but really doesn't allow focus on one particular idea until he has it down cold. This CT-Art CD kind of reminds me of the old "Jack of all trades, master of none" saying. Please don't get me wrong, it's a great CD. Yes I know it will allow you to select exercises by theme as opposed to degree of difficulty. But there are times when I feel like I would benefit more from a specialized CD. Maybe saving the CT-Art CD for the second run of the 7 circles once I have a solid foundation in mating patterns.
Someone pass me some cheese for my whine.
ELO 2290
Scoring Percentage
Level 10 - 99% (Completed)
Level 20 - 96% (Completed)
Level 30 - 85% (Completed)
Level 40 - 76% (Completed)
Level 50 - 68% (So far)
940 exercises completed 269 remaining in circle 2.
67 days down 42 to go.
4 comments:
Hi Sancho,
I've been following the progress of both you and "The Man", and I've started my own program. However, instead of CT-Art, I'm using Chess Tactics for Beginner's. So far, I'm pretty pleased with it. Yes, it is nowhere near as tough CT-ART from what I read, but it does pretty much focus on the mating patterns, and winning material. I like the way it's broken up into 5 "stages", with each stage having a mix of mate, win the queen, win the knight, etc. And each stage seems to get a little harder than the previous. I think once I have these burned into my pattern recoginition facilities, then maybe I'll be ready for CT-ART. However, I haven't been able to figure out if CT-ART or Chess Tactics for Intermediate players would really be the next one.
Hi Anonymous!
Sounds like you have a good plan so far.
I don't see any reason to limit oneself on the material used in the 7 Circles. Or in the objectives one is trying to obtain. I think you can apply this exercise or something similar to any phase of a chess game, be it openings, endings, etc. I think the key to successful improvement lies in analyzing ones weaknesses. I think most players start out with deficiencies that tend to become ignored as the player starts to find success with any of the many plans at his or her disposal. The problems start when the player begins moving up the food chain and begins to face stronger opponents. The deficiencies that are invisible to us seem to light up with arrows pointing to a neon sign that reads “Attack Here” for the higher rated player. Or at least this has been my experience. I find myself winning just enough games against higher rated players to reinforce my suspect thought processes, but there always is a limit before I start to stagnate. This is why I have decided to try and rebuild my foundation. To start fresh by trying to create exercises that will eliminate my weak points. It took my playing through the CT-Art CD to realize that I could refine my work ethic and course material into each of the specific themes that I have encountered to date.
What problem are you talking about? What is its number?
Number Nine hundred and eleven.
After Knight takes pawn, King takes Knight. Bishop check, use the Rook to block the check and White is fine.
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