Can't believe I did it again

You'd think, what with it being correspondance chess and all, I'd have plenty of time to spot mate-in-one. But yet again, I completely missed it: Game 862298, Fritz tells me correctly that 23. Qb8 would be mate, instead I moved Qc7 and needed another move to get it. In Game 848423 not only did I work out various mates that'd take up to 6 moves but I even sent my opponent a message giving a couple of them (I didn't ask the gent to resign, if an opponent would like to play a foregone conclusion that's his perogative, but generally the quicker one game's over, the quicker you can have a rematch), only for Fritz to yet again point out that I had mate in one. Game 831839 I thought I was in a reasonably good position, was about to remove his knight, only to completely ignore the backrank mate he won the game with. How on earth do I keep missing these things?

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Originally posted by shortgoth1
You'd think, what with it being correspondance chess and all, I'd have plenty of time to spot mate-in-one. But yet again, I completely missed it: Game 862298, Fritz tells me correctly that 23. Qb8 would be mate, instead I moved Qc7 and needed another move to get it. In Game 848423 not only did I work out various mates that'd take up to 6 mo ...[text shortened]... the backrank mate he won the game with. How on earth do I keep missing these things?

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you can get lists of dozens of one move mates ... run through and solve them very quickly.

then run through and solve heaps of 2 move mates.

then 3 movers.

etc

and watch your rationg soar!

the trick is to make sure they are from the sort of positions that happen in real games.

The Polgar "5334" book is probably right up your alley in this regard... just got if for Xmas and it's discussed in a recent thread somewhere 'round these here parts.

Fantastic bathroom reading to boot.