Is it worth doing tactics exercises?
Of course it is, I hear you saying. After all, this is what the masters recommend for class players. There are articles, even books praising the allmighty tactics on board. It's spectacular, it's blood-pressure and adrenaline raising, it's all a player needs to do to achieve mastery. Right? Wrong.

I've been plowing my way through the 300 most important chess positions for some time now. I can do most of those (at least 80%) in a few seconds, just looking at the position. I've also done a lot of exercises from CT-ART.Most intermediate level tactics quizzes don't seem to be a problem for me. And yet, my rating doesn't seem to reflect it. Why?

That's because tactics is not the panacea of all the chess hardships a patzer encounters on his or her way to mastery. First of all, there is nobody telling you at the board, that there is a beautiful tactic waiting for you to discover it, and the time you invest into finding it will pay generous dividends. Especially in blitz, when your time is limited, you're bound to let these occasions pass by. And as Caissa has a weird sense of humour, I bet you'll discover the tactic right after you made your move and let that really good move elude you forever.

Well, to be honest, there are the seeds of tactical destruction [pdf] one should look for. Recognizing them isn't so hard, after you get used to them a bit.But how to steer the game into positions where these seeds make themselves visible? Now, this is what separates boys from men, this is where master's show their wizardry.

In this regard, I decided I'll adopt another course for my chess study, and that includes, besides doing tactics problems, the following:

1. Studying the games in "Logical Chess - Move by move", from Chernev. One of the best books ever written on chess, in many expert's opinion. It takes 33 games played by masters, and patiently explains every single move from every game. Why did the master play that move, and not another.
I'm sure this will help my game, provided I'll have the patience required to finish this book.One game a day, it'll take me 33 days. A month's effort.

2. Play through the collection of Paul Morphy's games. Fischer used to do that, when he was in his teens. I'd sure like to have a look into his notes...

3. Save my FICS games and have a look at them. This might not be as helpful, though. I predict that the only lesson I could learn from this is: "don't hang your pieces". Oh well, and perhaps: "don't move to fast". But it might be worth a try.
- posted by Időbeosztás-guru @ 6:20 PM