| Newsletter Issue # 15 | Tactics Time | ||||||||
| Danger Powers | |||||||||
ne of the most important things about the study of tactics is to do it on a consistent basis. It is just like exercising your body - it is best to do it on a consistent basis, and every day if possible.
In the position on the right it is white to move.
Answer below.
One website that might help you to form the habit of working on your tactics every day is http://habitforge.com.
This is a free website that I first learned about from the book The 4-Hour Body
 by Timothy Ferris. Ferris also wrote the book The 4-Hour Workweek and is always looking for ways to do things in a more efficient manner and has some really good time management techniques. I highly recommend both books if you like that sort of thing. His blog is also quite entertaining. The way habit forge works is - you set up a new habit that you want to have. For example you could create a habit that says "I will study tactics problems for at least 10 minutes each day".
Each day you will get an e-mail asking you if you achieved your goal or not. You click on either "Yes" or "No". It will then track how often you were successful or not. You can add notes to each day, create and modify goals, share your goals, etc.
This extra little bit of accountability can really help you to create new habits. Once you start doing something on a frequent basis it will become easier and easier.
If you are having trouble finding the time to study tactics each day (or anything else) this website might help.
Here is the game: [Event "2011 Colorado Springs Open"]
[Site "Colorado Springs"] [Date "2011.03.06"] [Round "5"] [White "Rossi, Ronald"] [Black "Powers, James"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B01"] [WhiteElo "1822"] [BlackElo "1626"] [PlyCount "59"] 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 c6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Nbd7 8.
a3 Qc7 9. h3 c5 10. Nb5 Qb6 11. Be3 Nd5 12. dxc5 Bxc5 13. Bxc5 Nxc5 14. c4 Bd7 15. b4 Ne4 16. cxd5 Bxb5 17. Bxb5+ Qxb5 18. dxe6 O-O 19. exf7+ Rxf7 20. Qb3 Raf8 21. Rae1 Qc6 22. Ne5 Nd2 23. Qa2 Qc7 24. Nxf7 Nxf1 25. Ng5+ Kh8 26. Kxf1 Qh2 27. Nf7+ Kg8 28. Nh6+ Kh8 29. Qg8+ Rxg8 30. Nf7# 1-0 You can play through this game here: http://tacticstime.com/?page_id=1990.
Answer:
This is a classical smothered mate - a tactic you must know by heart. 29. Qg8+ Rxg8 30. Nf7# is a beauty.
Happy Tactics!
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© Copyright 2011-2012 Timothy Brennan, All Rights Reserved. | |||||||||
...little things make big things happen. In fact...there are no big things, only a logical accumulation of little things done at a very high standard of performance." -John Wooden
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