Author: allan johnson
Date: 00:25:49 01/11/02
Go up one level in this thread
On January 10, 2002 at 21:34:45, Russell Reagan wrote: >It depends what you are wanting to learn, but the general idea is to break down >whatever you want to learn into it's simplest form and do mass repititions until >you can do those problems in their simplest form instantly, then move on to a >slightly more complex form of what you want to learn, and do mass repititions on >that until you can do that almost instantly, etc. Here's an example of what I'm >talking about. > >When an absolute beginner first plays chess, he or she will hang pieces usually. >I recall when I first learned how the pieces moved, I played a couple of games >against my dad. He would take my pieces left and right because I was leaving >them unguarded; I was hanging my pieces. I decided that I would look at each >move and see if my pieces was unguarded and if my dad could take it immediately. >I started doing this and after I had practiced this for some time, I no longer >hanged my pieces when playing chess. > >The same basic idea was used when I learned how to do simple combinations using >"counting" (I take, he takes, I take, etc.). I'm still not a very strong player, >but if my opponent hangs a piece, I see it instantly. An absolute beginner might >miss that. You continue the process to learn tactical motifs like forks, >skewers, pins, etc. Just do tons of problems over each tactic. One master level >player once told me that to get good at tactics, I needed to do tactical >problems for about an hour a day, and after a few months I'd be good at tactics >and we could start working on strategic play (when I inquired about chess >lessons). When it comes to tactics, it's just a matter of familiarizing yourself >with the patterns that present themselves during the course of a game, and you >can learn those patterns by doing tactical problems and practicing while you >play. > >When I say practicing while you play I mean that if you hang pieces, before you >move, take a look around the board and make sure you aren't leaving any piece >hanging. It may seem like a boring thing to do that just wastes time, but >eventually you will be able to see that there are no hanging pieces on the board >with a glance at the board. At that point, before each time you move, you make >sure that you don't have any pieces that are insufficiently guarded, (i.e. do >the "I take, he takes, I take, etc.") and make sure your pieces are safe. >That'll be time consuming at first, then it will get easier, and after a while >it'll take no time at all. Once you get good at that, do the same for tactics >and look for forks, then seeing forks will become easy, do it for pins and >seeing pins will become easy, etc. > >Those are examples of learning basic tactics. You could also use this method for >learning something like attacking the king. Buy a book of miniature games >(miniature games are games with 25 moves or less) and play over all of the games >where one player makes a sacrifice and rips open the other player's castled >position. You'll start noticing patterns of bishops taking h-pawn's and other >things, and you'll get a better feel for how to attack the castled king. Try >things in your own games, get a feel for what works and what doesn't, and just >like before, it will be hard at first, but as you continue to do repititions by >playing over games and playing your own games it will become easier and easier. > >Before too long you'll be a good tactical player, spotting combinations all over >the place and making sacrifices and attacking the king. The main thing to keep >in mind is that it will all take time. > >In my chess program I plan on adding a feature for creating tactical problems. >I'll have it start with hanging pieces, where it will create a simple position >in which a piece is hanging, and you take it. Pretty simple to start with, but >it would be good for a beginner. Then it would move on to 2 ply problems, 3 ply, >and so on. I think this would be a good source for beginning players to improve >their tactics though repititions. > >To summarize, learn by repitition and look for patterns in doing repitition in >tactics or playing over games. You'll notice things like, "white was able to >make this sacrifice because all of black's pieces were blocked off on the other >side of the board and couldn't hurry over to help defend in time." You'll see >how a castled position is designed to keep the opponent out, but it's also hard >for the king to escape if the castled position breaks down. It's hard to get in, >but once you're in, you're "in" :) Things like that. > >The biggest pattern I have noticed in tactics is that when one player gets >another player with a tactic, there was usually an insufficiently guarded piece >in some form, whether it was a hanging piece, a piece attacked twice but only >guarded once, or two pieces that are guarded by the same piece. The other >tactical pattern I've noticed is that tactics also occur when pieces get >uncoordinated, and they block each other and do more to get in the way than >help. That usually leads to some kind of insufficiently guarded pieces where you >have the queen guarded a pawn and a couple of other pieces, and you attack the >queen and she can't guard all 3 anymore. Stuff like that. > >Do lots of repititions and look for patterns like these. When you reach the >point where you aren't improving any, take a step back and do some basic >beginner pattern recognition. Kind of a "back to basics" type of situation. You >won't win many games if you aren't good at tactics. If you can't guard against >tactics, you're destined to lose, and if you can't create tactics against your >opponent it's hard to force a win. > >If you're still reading, thanks for listening to my ramblings on tactical play >:) Hope this helps. > >Russell Hey Russell thanks for this.I'n an ordinary player myself but am coaching a 12 year old who will certainly find this info useful. Al
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