if

22…Bxh6 23. Bxc3 then black has the in between move 23…Bg5 hitting the rook on d8 (instead of 23…bxc3 24. gxh6, which just leaves material even). After Bg5 black would have both his bishop and rook under attack, and no way to save both.

If then 24. Bxb2 hitting the white rook as well, then white plays 24…Bxd8, which also hits the queen. So white is always a tempo ahead. If black moves the rook, then white just plays axb3 winning the bishop.

If then 24. Qxd8 Rb2 then white has a pawn and rook for Bishop and two pawns, which maintains the material edge.

send an email to kdp-support@amazon.com and ask them to “push” the latest version of the book to your Kindle.

Thanks!
Tim

I have your book in my Kindle, but I have not the option to update you mentioned.

Best Regards

Alejandro

Good strategy allows you to be in a position where the one or two move tactic shows up. You might miss some some tactical opportunities here and there but if your position is vastly superior you will often get more and more chances to finally make the tactical play and secure the win. However, if you only know tactics but completely allow your opponent to dictate the game, you will never get a chance to use your tactics.

Anyway, love your advice, and I know you don’t really promote those crazy 7-move tactics anyway, just wanted to add that you don’t have to be a GM to benefit from good strategy.

I played the Tromp early in my chess career and recently rediscovered it. I do play the Slav as black but have never played the Scandinavian. I can see the Slav and Tromp using similar pawn structures if you play it that way. I will typically trade off the bishop for a doubled pawn in the Tromp and take advantage of weaker endgame play in the class world, which doesn’t really happen in the Slav. But the Tromp seems to be unfamiliar territory out here so I like it to get my opponent to have to think early.

Good luck with it!

I would like to make some comments. I hope some of them might be interesting .

I have chosen some of your sentences and below I am answering them. After the sign “*” (asteriks if I remember correctly) starts my response.

1) Unless you can solve every problem in the book with 99% accuracy in less than 10 seconds per problem, I don’t think it is too easy for you.
* It is really strange, but I can confirm it. I have solve about 10.000 chess puzzles (most in the range of 1000-1700). I thought that after solving the book once – it is too easy for me. However when I tried to solve at random (without hints or “one after the other”) it was not as easy as I thought.

2) If you can just avoid making simple 1-2 move deep tactical mistakes, and take advantage of your opponent’s 1-2 move mistakes, you can win (and avoid losing) a lot of games.
* It sounds silly (yes – stupid if someone wants another word), but it is true! Most dumb moves deep to 1-3 plies (a ply is a move made by any side; 2 plies is one whole move) are the real killers. Sometimes if it in the time trouble and other time it is when we have plenty of time. When I was 1400-1600 player I did those stupid “droppings” all the time! (especially after move 15 when the opening part was gone).

3) The goal isn’t “can you solve this”. The goal is to burn the patterns into your brain. It is like being able to calculate that 9×4 = 36 by using your fingers, versus just knowing that 9×4=36.
* Absolutelly right! I would be a little more broader – the goal is not just “burn patterns”, but improve your “tactical radar”! Yes – the same that is responsible to find “a free shots” with ANY position – in a few seconds! I treat these puzzles as a GREAT refresher and improver of my “internal tactical radar”. I am player rated about 1900-1950, but I have some “holes” in my system – thanks for those puzzles I can find them! It might sound absurd, but that’s the way I see it!

2)… it would take 4 different books, each about 600 pages long
* I think that paper book should contain about 1000-1200 chess puzzles (with answers and introduction with chapter containing some easy examples with a guide how to recognize tactical weaknesses and solve most problems). The book might be “just” 300-320 pages long. How it is possible? Every page should contain 6 diagrams (positions) and the solutions might be on the next page. It is not difficult to produce – I have got a book ” The complete chess workout” (by Richard Palliser) and you can see how they (Everyman Chess) done it.

And last but not least – saying “those puzzles are too easy” – when you are not able to solve them very fast and with nearly 100% accuracy – is like saying “multiplying and adding is too easy” – when you are not able to do it without effort and much waste of time. Much more important is their REAL practical value – they are not from games a strong IM vs medium GM, but people who played the games and missed them!
PS. I strongly NOT recommend to solve these puzzles for people who are titled players – started from 2200 ELO range (CM, FM, IM or GM). They do benefit nothing from solving these puzzles by themselves.

The idea that chess is lousy with cheaters is also ridiculous.

Necessary precautions should be taken for the few bad apples, but there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bath water. We should think about how to accommodate helpful advances in chess. Sticking to the view that its either handwritten notation or Monroi is antiquated.

I am a lowly rated player and a gadget freak. Probaly I was among the first 50 players to obtain a Monroi. In addition I own a Blackberry with a nice Chess program in it, an Itouch, an Ipad and a laptop with various Chess programs. I efficent in the use of all of them, and I can safely say that, one has to be an extraordinary human being to use any electronic device with an analysis feature in a tournament and not cheat. (yes there are exceptions to every rule).

Wether, the winning rewards are money the majority of people will not resist getting or having an edge.

Lets be honest, and please keep the playing field balanced and even.

P.S. Anyone advocating allowable use of any electronic device apart from a Monroi, is either not honest, do not know much about the use of these gadgets, or ill-informed.

Many of the games in the newsletter have more than one tactic in them (either missed or found by the players), so I normally only focus on one of the positions to keep it simple.

I think Dean might have been in a little time trouble at that point as well.

But that mate is a good pattern to know – it is a variation on a “Hook Mate”.

Cheers,
Tim

I use an iPad and I always show the program I’m using to my opponent before the game starts and ask their permission if it’s okay to use it. I also leave the iPad, with it’s pretty big screen, on the table in the open for both me and my opponent to see.

The grantland article seems to suggest that people were looking pretty closely at their devices or wearing earpieces where they could get information, etc. The bottom line is that it seems that suspicious behavior is the key indicator of a cheat. I think this is what the TD should be on the lookout for.

TDs and the USCF should open up tournaments to the use of these devices, because cheating isn’t as rampant as the grantland article seems to suggest and the cheaters will get caught, because as the proverbs says “the guilty flee when none pursue.” Cheaters actions reveal them as such.

Yeah, the editor normally changes that stuff, as I have no control over what page it will actually go on.

Here is the final version if you are curious: http://www.coloradochess.com/informant/July%202012%20Colorized.pdf

Glad you have seen improvement! That’s super!

The Tactics Time ended up on page 23 this time

Good catch! I just changed it with the .mobi file.

Cheers,
Tim

The link for the Kindle format is false. Is the same as for epub.

Replace epub by mobi

Regards

Thanks, Tim, for a nice variety of tactical problems to work through. I love this stuff and I have seen mega-improvement that I believe is the direct result of working through the problems in Tim’s newsletter.

I like that the actual book’s cover wins the competition. Others was not as good as this one .

Keep going great work (Timmy and Anthea)

“To follow with your translation into chess, I think the first three principles apply quite well to playing a game.

Be Proactive: Take initiative by realizing that your decisions are the primary determining factor on the game. Take responsibility for your choices and the consequences that follow.

Begin with the End in Mind: Discover and clarify your goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for what you want to achieve with the position.

Put First Things First: Prioritize, plan, and execute your moves based on importance rather than urgency. That is, how well they align with the goals you set.”

which I thought was an excellent comment.

I think fear plays a part in the people who are sharpening the saw too much. They always feel they need to know more before they start playing. Since there is always more to learn, they get stuck trying to learn as much as possible before playing. But the only real way to learn is to get out there, play, be willing to lose, apply what you learned, and then make corrections based on the mistakes going forward.

Glad that you like my writings on chess I try to take ideas from outside the chess world, and bring them into the chess world to get some new perspectives on things, and share things I have found useful or interesting.

I’ve actually know a few players with the opposite problem as well – they spend most of their time studying chess (sharpening the saw), but never actually playing chess (using the saw).

That idea is quite interesting because there are many players who do not balance the optimal solution for them. In different stages (rating floors) of your chess (like for example: 800-1100, 1100-1400 or 1400-1700, 1700-2000), you should choose how many hours (a day or a week) you are going to studying chess and how many playing chess.

If you are sharpening the saw too long your ability and skills in using might quite fast deteriorate. And in reverse: If you using the saw too long (without constant sharpening) it will not be so sharp and your results are going not to improve (as much as they could).

It is great Timmy that you are so creative as spreading many amazing ideas into the world of chess. I am very glad and thankful for these entertaining and inspiring ideas! I love to see such great stuff! They help me a lot at comprehesion and creativity process (for my articles and posts to my chess blog)

He has another version of the rocks, where he then adds sand, and then adds water as well. To me these would be the things that you are adding to the bucket (brain) once you get to the 2200+ level. At that level you are adding things like theoretical novelties on move 22.

The 7 Habits was the one of the first self improvement books that I read. I have listened to all of his followups on audio book, which are all excellent, and full of great ideas. Covey was the “real deal”, and his teachings influenced a lot of people.

Thanks again for the great comments!

It is VERY hard to believe, but you are right Timmy. I sum up once more (I believe it is very important to understand it and accept it).

1. “Big Rocks” are tactics. You must first put these “Big Rocks” (learning tactics) in your “Bucket” (Brain), before adding in all the small rocks.
2. The Big Rocks would be things like avoiding and eliminating blunders, 1-3 move tactical combinations that win material, checkmating patterns, etc.
3. The smaller rocks would be things like understanding pawn structures, positional play, strategic considerations, opening improvements, endgame techniques, etc.

Last week I have made an experiment – I played many (80) blitz games (3mins plus 3seconds per move) against my colleague to see what will be the most important reasons (elements) of losing games. Guess what was that. Yes, you are right: most of my losses (or wins) were caused by simple tactics and blunders – not knowing many patterns, overlooking simple (1-2 shots) tactics and mate in 1. When I do not hang (drop) up pieces I was playing really nice games.

Now I am trying to understand how it is possible to play blitz games at such a high level as GMs are playing (I mean players 2600 or stronger). It is quite easy – they know many positions by heart – it does not matter if they are mating patterns or tactics or strategy and endings. Some studies reveal that most strong players (2400 and stronger) possesed about 50 to 80 thousand (!) patterns (positions). They just know them by heart and after a glimpse of looking – they can play them without thinking (I mean consious effort!).

As the above great experiment with Stephen showed – if you do not put the most important rocks – they are tactics indeed – your other rocks (elements like understanding pawn structures, positional play, strategic considerations, opening improvements, endgame techniques, etc,) will not be working properly and with full speed and efficiency.

Most people do not see the simple correlation between being very strong at tactics and using it as a base (fundamental basics) for building with other elements. When you are playing opponents who are not so good at tactics – you should win most of the time – just having overall plan and if you do not lose material and take EVERY opportunity to win your opponent’s pieces. Although if you are playing against stronger opponents (I mean some players like 2200+) you should be outplayed by their stronger tactics togethet with positional squeeze.

To summarize: GREAT ideas provided by Stephen and spread by Timmy! Thanks you very much for such a beautifully and very inspirational tools!

Very sad news. Rest in Peace Stephen: you are inside the mind and heart of many people! You can be sure your ideas are living and helping others to live better life!

I don’t really know abut my rating points as it’s never bothered me to find out. I just enjoy the game for what it is. Even when I lose, which is a lot , unless I’ve done something stupid I admire the tactics the opposition used to beat me.

In life you learn from your mistakes and I think with chess it’s the same.

I have a friend and we are rivalry since 1997. I bet a few years ago that he will not beat me (in a tournament game with obligatory score – I mean “classical game”) up to 2020. I have played him many time – but in tournaments with classical games just 6-7 times. I have drawn a few bad looking games and escaped with one miracle (some might say “swindle”). Every time we play against each other – I am pushing my level to the highest of my abilities.
Just one final note: I have to stress (underline), that we respect each other – no matter what is the score and how great/bad we were playing. It is a king of mutual respect and knowing that we compete to our benefits – not destroying.

I’ve told this story several times now, and may have even mentioned it to you once. I told my coworker that I wasn’t a real chess player, that I had learned the moves when I was about 8 years old and had played only a hand full of games up to that time. I was 24 then.

When we first played I won two out of the first three games. After that I went a solid week without winning a single game! We usually played a couple games a day, and friend started announcing the various openings we were playing. I had no idea they had names! Once I learned that, and because I had beat him a couple games, I figured I needed to do some study to get better. That’s when I started buying and studying chess books. To keep this story short, within a year I was beating him all the time. He directed and competed in our annual workplace chess tournament, and over the years I was paired against him 9 times and didn’t lose a single game. I’m kind of proud of that small accomplishment.

It was my competition with him that pushed me to be a better player. It was also valuable having him as a friend, because he introduced me to correspondence and over-the-board tournament chess. This all started back during the Fischer boom in 1972. I’ve been playing every since, and now daily on the Internet.

Anyway, the point is that having a rivalry with another chess player can definitely push you to a higher level, whether it be grandmasters against each other or two wood pushers like myself and my friend. Rivalries are good.