Monday, March 26, 2007

Plan for improvement, part 1 : Tactics

Chess improvement, where do I start ? One thing's certain : tactics are the foundation of chess. Since I'm far from a tactical genius (I don't drop pieces all the time, but my game analysis often reveals missed (simple) tactical opportunities) it seems like a good idea to start with tactics, tactics, tactics and some more tactics.

I'm using the Brunia / Van Wijgerden books for tactical training(http://www.stappenmethode.nl/). For those who don't know the books, the TASC Chess Tutor (TCT) borrows its problems from these books. The past year I solved all the problems from level 2, 3 and 4 three times. Most of the problems are sorted by theme (double attack, pin, skewer, x-ray, discovered attack, mate in 2, ...) so I assume that I'm pretty familiar with the basic tactical themes by now.

I recently bought the extra exercise books for levels 2, 3 and 4 (extra books only available in dutch). Each of these books contains 300 mixed (not sorted by theme) problems. I'm now using these 900 mixed problems for further tactical training. I'm doing this in a circle-inspired way : I'm looping through each level until I achieve a +95% score. I started with the level 2 problems one month ago, the third circle started yesterday.

Level 2, circle 1 : 90,91%
Level 2, circle 2 : 94,28%

9 comments:

Blue Devil Knight said...

Welcome to tactical insanity!

Christian said...

Welcome to the pack. The stappen method is excellent, we use it for junior training in our club. Even one of my teammates, a senior, is using it now.

BlunderProne said...

Welcome and Huzzah!

Doing tactical training on a regular basis is very much like how a musician practices scales on a regular basis to keep up with dexterity. Think of this as a means to improve your mental dexterity.

-BP

takchess said...

Welcome. It sounds like you are have had a good start. Tempo I believe did alot with TASC.

Pale Morning Dun - Errant Knight de la Maza said...

Welcome to the jungle. I hope your study proves fruitful. My one piece of advice: Find time to play chess along with your study. Doing tactics training exclusively will not be as effective. You need some time to let your knowledge distill into your game.

Sir Piño said...

Thx guys!

@ mouse : we also use the stappen method for junior/senior training in our club. In fact, all clubs I know (all belgian clubs) use this method.

@ blunder : english isn't my native language, so I had to look up 'dexterity', but you're right !

@ pale morning : It's true, playing games is very important. I'm planning to play at least one slow game a week (club tournament or fics).

Blue Devil Knight said...

If your rating is 1143 or less at ICC, you can play on our team in the 45/45 tournament...

Sancho Pawnza said...

Howdy!

Sir Piño said...

@ BDK : thx for the offer, but I'm not an ICC member... (I'm using FICS)