Tactical improvement

Technical questions regarding Openings, Middlegames, Endings etc.
Nick Burrows
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Tactical improvement

Post by Nick Burrows » Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:21 pm

What is the best way to improve tactical ability?

Aside from problem books (I am working through Polgars) does anyone have tips to improve on visualisation & calculation?

Are there any good books on this specific issue other than puzzle books?

Jon D'Souza-Eva

Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Jon D'Souza-Eva » Sun Aug 15, 2010 12:02 am

I'm a big fan of the Chess Tactics Server:
http://chess.emrald.net/

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sun Aug 15, 2010 12:48 am

"Are there any good books on this specific issue."

And you send him to a website that will
destroy his board vision.

If you already have stored a vast array of patterns these
sites are OK for spotting them. But to store them with the
hope of spotting and producing them OTB then you must see
them OTB.

Stay with the book & board Nick it has proven track record
of over 150 years.

Jon D'Souza-Eva

Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Jon D'Souza-Eva » Mon Aug 16, 2010 12:30 am

A friend of mine at Cowley Chess Club had been an average club player (graded between 110 and 130) for twenty years until I told him about the Chess Tactics Server. He worked on that for just ten minutes a day for six months, and the very next season his grade shot up to 170. Now I regret telling him as he beats me nine times out of ten in blitz and I think he will be pushing 200 within a year or two.

However, if you insist on a book, then by far the best non-puzzle chess book I have ever read is "an Easy Introduction to the Game of Chess" by Jones and Franklin, which apparently was the only chess book that Morphy ever owned. It really is quite astonishing, though most of the ideas are completely beyond me.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Mon Aug 16, 2010 12:46 am

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote:A friend of mine at Cowley Chess Club had been an average club player (graded between 110 and 130) for twenty years until I told him about the Chess Tactics Server. He worked on that for just ten minutes a day for six months, and the very next season his grade shot up to 170. Now I regret telling him as he beats me nine times out of ten in blitz and I think he will be pushing 200 within a year or two.

However, if you insist on a book, then by far the best non-puzzle chess book I have ever read is "an Easy Introduction to the Game of Chess" by Jones and Franklin, which apparently was the only chess book that Morphy ever owned. It really is quite astonishing, though most of the ideas are completely beyond me.
I *think* the first real chess book I ever read was "Play Chess Combinations and Sacrifices" by David Levy. Though I recall there being two authors, so maybe it wasn't that one. I borrowed it from the school library and I don't think I ever took it back... :oops: It was a very good book, and I remember thinking that I was playing better over the board after reading it, but 20 years later I find that I'm not as tactically alert as I used to be (remembering that I was only ever as tactically alert as my grade would suggest). Maybe a bit of dedicated tactics puzzle solving would help sharpen things up again.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Geoff Chandler » Mon Aug 16, 2010 1:48 am

Hi Jon

The Dr. Mcpherson USA tests conducted with a pool of over 200 players
prove beyond doubt that studying/learning tactical motifs via a monitor
does not simpy stick.

Your friend at your chess club most likely improved by playing you.
(or your play has declined because you keep going to that website). :)

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:07 am

Geoff Chandler wrote:The Dr. Mcpherson USA tests conducted with a pool of over 200 players
prove beyond doubt that studying/learning tactical motifs via a monitor
does not simpy stick.
Citation?

I think that players use whatever method of thought they feel most comfortable with. If you work with databases, books or play online chess you become quite happy with analysing in 2d. When you play OTB, you translate the 3d board and pieces back into a diagram, so that you spot the R(f1)xf6 combination as the f1 symbolic Rook taking the f6 symbolic Knight.

Jon D'Souza-Eva

Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Jon D'Souza-Eva » Mon Aug 16, 2010 11:18 am

Geoff Chandler wrote:The Dr. Mcpherson USA tests conducted with a pool of over 200 players
prove beyond doubt that studying/learning tactical motifs via a monitor
does not simpy stick.
McPherson's paper was seriously compromised by the inclusion of a dodgy puzzle which had no solution! Since this occurred near the beginning of the test, many people think that the players being tested would have spent a lot of time on this insolvable puzzle. The well known American Fide Master and author who was supposed to have proof-read the puzzles beforehand has since claimed that he was only sent approximately twenty puzzles to check whereas the players tested by McPherson were given a hundred. Also, I read on a newsgroup soon after the paper was published that the monitors that the players used were of poor quality and that the room they were in was very noisy (apparently a group of Hari Krishnas were chanting in a nearby hall throughout the entire week that the tests were carried out!)

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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Michael Bennett » Mon Aug 16, 2010 8:40 pm

I'm not going to get involved in the 3D v 2D debate, but:

- the best 'chess tactics server'-like website I've found is http://www.chesstempo.com - its look and feel is much smoother.

- Nunn's tactics book is pretty good: http://www.gambitbooks.com/books/learntactics.html
Michael Bennett
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Geoff Chandler
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Geoff Chandler » Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:36 pm

Hi Jon.

The famous 'bogus' puzzle (No.11) was deliberate (according to Dr. Mac)
and the proof readers did know not it but Mcpherson was actually
using them as guinea pigs.

The low quality of players (your polite term for weak players) ;) was
again done on purpose as the object of the exercise was to prove
that weaker players will learn nothing from monitors with regard to OTB play.

Stronger players who grew up with the book and board method
already have the patterns and came spot them on a monitor diagram.

Mcpherson proved that weaker players can soon solve low-level on a
monitor but fail completley when seeing the same combination OTB.

The fail rate when he showed the exact same position but with
colours reversed (No's. 17-20) was incredible.

My only contact with him was when I suggested that perhaps
these white to play and win positions are harder for weaker
players when it's Black to play (the combination is upside down).

Well I got my head bite off when he told me the players where
shown the OTB postions the correct way up from the Black side
but failed to solve them, though they did with White to play on a monitor.

Proof that the monitor stored pattern did not register at all - 19
scored 0 OTB and yet 76% on the monitor.

He then threatened me with all kinds of legal stuff if I carried out
my threat to quote him and his diagrams on The Corner.

(I asked if I could and should have just done it anyway. It was not 'a threat'
just a polite request.)

I replied but my email bounced back. :(

I totally agree with McPherson and we would probably hear more about
him but for his attitude to those who wish to support or question him.

For 35 years I have been gathering and printing under 2000 plyerers
in magazines, aricles, websites, entering major & minor games into database etc...

The rise in the blunder ratio in the past 10 years has been alarming.
Players missing simple tricks, leaving piece's hanging, missed mates in one
by both sides....

The rise in this and and the rise in players studying/playing a computer
without getting their bits out is not a coincidence.

You cannot hope to see any combination OTB if you have never
seen the position OTB.

Stay with the book Nick. I know it's a pain having the set up the
position on a board but the pain of playing over a loss in the analysis room
when a smart guy pops up and shows you within seconds a missed
tactcial shot is much worse.

Ian Kingston
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Ian Kingston » Mon Aug 16, 2010 10:56 pm

Is there a citation to McPherson's paper anywhere? Any follow-up work? I've drawn a blank with Google scholar and other efforts to find it.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:47 am

Ian Kingston wrote:Is there a citation to McPherson's paper anywhere? Any follow-up work? I've drawn a blank with Google scholar and other efforts to find it.
I'd be interested in reading this paper as well.

Richard James
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Richard James » Thu Aug 19, 2010 11:45 am

I'm surprised no one's yet mentioned Rapid Chess Improvement by Michael de la Maza. Controversial and not for everyone (probably not for Geoff Chandler as he doesn't recommend using chess software) but certainly interesting.
Last edited by Richard James on Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Adam Raoof
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Adam Raoof » Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:01 pm

Richard James wrote:(probably not for Geoff Chandler as he recommends using chess software)
You mean doesn't recommend (?)
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Richard James
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Re: Tactical improvement

Post by Richard James » Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:03 pm

Thanks - corrected!

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