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blitz tactical training

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I noticed something last night while thrashing around at blitz on FICS in my usual incompetent manner. Two of the games I could have won immediately if i hadn't missed my opponents hanging rook. In both cases my bishop was on one corner of the board, his rook on the other. He missed it too. He left the rook for three moves and i still didn't notice it. Then he moved it and then i noticed it and kicked myself. Then he moved it back to the same square. This time i didn't miss it and he resigned. this got me to thinking. Why not a program that hangs pieces and you have to take them in a few seconds, sort of like CTS (chess tactics server), except these are normally obvious moves. Under time pressure, like in blitz, you miss stuff like this and a good training program might help. Fritz has a program to find checks on the board I guess for beginners, but not pieces that are en prise. Anybody know of anything like this?

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That would be great. I don't know how many times I've seen nice tactical opportunities right AFTER I moved in Blitz.

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Originally posted by buddy2
I noticed something last night while thrashing around at blitz on FICS in my usual incompetent manner. Two of the games I could have won immediately if i hadn't missed my opponents hanging rook. In both cases my bishop was on one corner of the board, his rook on the other. He missed it too. He left the rook for three moves and i still didn't notice it. T ...[text shortened]... I guess for beginners, but not pieces that are en prise. Anybody know of anything like this?
I believe this is pretty much what you are looking for...http://chess.emrald.net/

Your rating increases more the sooner you get the problem (within 3 seconds). If you get the puzzle right, but are slow, you can be deducted points (depending on how slow you were). Great training.

D

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Yes, Ragnorac. I'm aware of the emrald site on CTS. The problem is these tactical shots are sometimes a little deep: deflecting pieces, skewers, forks, etc. What i'm talking about is blatant hanging pieces that we often miss in blitz. Sometimes, as i mentioned, because we tend to focus on trouble spots on the board and don't look at the whole board, so a piece could be hanging and we don't even realize it. Over the board it's no problem because you take thetime to look around (usually), but in blitz, with a few seconds to move, you can miss obvious things.

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Originally posted by buddy2
I noticed something last night while thrashing around at blitz on FICS in my usual incompetent manner. Two of the games I could have won immediately if i hadn't missed my opponents hanging rook. In both cases my bishop was on one corner of the board, his rook on the other. He missed it too. He left the rook for three moves and i still didn't notice it. T ...[text shortened]... I guess for beginners, but not pieces that are en prise. Anybody know of anything like this?
Fritz 9 has a drill where you find every piece that is vulnerable to capture (no matter how well-defended).

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By the sounds of it you need repetitive exercises.....so the moves come intuitivly....


At blitz I have the same problem, I often miss hanging peices because I'm not looking for them! - generally, I don't expect my openants to make such bad moves...

but that site would help your blitz....

Spoting critical moves in seconds is a the way to win.....

as well as knowing the basic geometry of the pieces and board....

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A lot of the "solutions" on that website just don't work. At least 30% of the solutions to the problems is to throw away your queen or something like that.

Maybe I'm just a noob 🙂

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Originally posted by Draxus
A lot of the "solutions" on that website just don't work. At least 30% of the solutions to the problems is to throw away your queen or something like that.

Maybe I'm just a noob 🙂
NO, thode puzzle don't just "throw away" a Queen for nothing....

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044267

Look at the last move of this game.....

Do you think Fischer just "threw away" his Queen??

the game would have continued....

Kxh7 hxg6+ Kxh6 Be4#

Those puzzles "throw away" the Queen FOR AN ADVANTAGE

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Originally posted by buddy2
I noticed something last night while thrashing around at blitz on FICS in my usual incompetent manner. Two of the games I could have won immediately if i hadn't missed my opponents hanging rook. In both cases my bishop was on one corner of the board, his rook on the other. He missed it too. He left the rook for three moves and i still didn't notice it. T ...[text shortened]... I guess for beginners, but not pieces that are en prise. Anybody know of anything like this?
Chessmaster has that feature, hanging pieces and a whole bunch of other similar drills. I believe CM8000 - CM10000 has this but maybe the ones before 8000 also do. There might be about 1000 puzzles at least.

How fast was the timer for the blitz games? I don't play blitz much but when I do, I find a 10min to 15 min timer is decent and don't miss many tactics, hanging piece etc... but anything below 10 min and you miss a lot of stuff unless you are used to blitz and a strong player.

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Originally posted by buddy2
What i'm talking about is blatant hanging pieces that we often miss in blitz.
These types of problems are thrown in quite regulary on Emerald. I find the shift between mates, sacrifices, etc to purely punishing poor moves and capturing hanging pieces keeps me on my toes.

D

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Originally posted by Shinidoki
NO, thode puzzle don't just "throw away" a Queen for nothing....

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044267

Look at the last move of this game.....

Do you think Fischer just "threw away" his Queen??

the game would have continued....

Kxh7 hxg6+ Kxh6 Be4#

Those puzzles "throw away" the Queen FOR AN ADVANTAGE
Looking over the Fischer game it is obvious at that point that the queen was just leading the black king down a path of checkmate.

Maybe the puzzles just aren't as obvious.

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Originally posted by Draxus
Maybe the puzzles just aren't as obvious.
CTS puzzles really are quite obvious if you just have the time to look into them. but the idea is to train yourself really fast and really accurate on that. I don't think I've run into a single problem there (I've done 34 000) that didn't turn out to be obviously correct once I worked out why my solution was inferior or incorrect.

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Perhaps you guys could help me with a few then that really stump me 🙂

http://chess.emrald.net/psolution.php?Pos=9391

Why doesn't the king just take the rook? If it creates a tactical weakness, then why not just move back?

http://chess.emrald.net/psolution.php?Pos=9488

If Ra1xRc1, then not only is the rook gone but the desfile (I think that is what it is called) is now open. How is that such a great solution?

http://chess.emrald.net/psolution.php?Pos=8677

What is stopping the king from taking the queen? Even if it were tactically a weaker position (which I'm not seeing) what is stopping the king from just moving back into his old place once he has taken the queen? Perhaps it is because the horse would have presented problems later on in the mix?

Thanks guys

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Originally posted by Draxus
Perhaps you guys could help me with a few then that really stump me 🙂

http://chess.emrald.net/psolution.php?Pos=9391

Why doesn't the king just take the rook? If it creates a tactical weakness, then why not just move back?

http://chess.emrald.net/psolution.php?Pos=9488

If Ra1xRc1, then not only is the rook gone but the desfile (I think that is wh ...[text shortened]... haps it is because the horse would have presented problems later on in the mix?

Thanks guys
1) b6 Rxf3 Kxf3 Bc6+ winning rook

2)Qxb6 Rxc1+ Rxc1 Qxd2# (isnt that obvious...)

3)Qxb5 Qxh2+ Kxh2 cxb5 (black won a knight. he can not checkmate white, he just simply won a knight.)