Originally posted by greenpawn34and I thought the weed in Britain was terrible
Stick with me and you will go through the ceiling, through the roof
and right up into the stars and onto Planet Greenpawn wwhere you
can ride pink unicorns, eat chocolate candy floss and have interesting
chats with Tunid, Potter, and Bumper.
Don't every sacrifice anything unless you know that you're going to get compensation for it beforehand. Be it a lead in development, an attack, or a winning position...calculate whether or not there's an advantage before you sac.
Pawns are great defenders because they're cheap. Paradoxically, they're also potential queens.
They are a great way to deny your opponent space and eventually strangle them.
They are plenty of valid reasons to lose pawns or even pieces, but without concrete calculation you should hold on to your material.
Jesus Wept (sorry Skeets).
I leave you all alone for a day. I come back and find Grit has gone
off to the shops to buy a one dollar book on openings.
He needs a book on basic and elementry tactcis and he needs it fast.
At the moment Grit you are walking across the battlefield armed with a pop gun.
All this book is going to do is point you in the direction of where the real
minefields are. You will be making the same blunders but in a new setting.
Look at this game Game 7449570 don't say anything it's still in progress.
His opening was OK.
White's (Grit) position after 8 moves.
Now what opening principle has White violated there?
Strewth. He can play the opening better than I can.
It was His method in this game of getting out of a
Queen pinned Kinght that was questionable.
He simply unpinned the Knight by giving up his Queen.
Game 7449579 is a tactical nightmare (OK opening though).
Grit get your hands on anything that has the words TACTICS and
BEGINNERS in the title.
Don't make anymore moves in any game game till you have got tooled up.
Every time you make a move in the middle game you appear to lose a piece.
The cure is not is any opening book.
Thank heavens you guys are not running things.
People need fresh drinking water in third world countries....
.....Send them opening books.
The Polar Caps are melting.....Send up some opening books.
You know that oil leak of the coast of Louisiana.
Plug it up with opening books. It's about all they are good for.
Originally posted by Maxacre42it depends on whether its imported or lovingly nurtured under ultra violet lights, kept at the correct temperature with fans and given lashings of liquid fertiliser to make them buds real potent 😉 i posted this elsewhere, but it seems equally as valid here,
and I thought the weed in Britain was terrible
'Chess is also an optical game and tactics are perceived in this way too. That is why the subjects of teaching should also be optically mediated! Visual comprehension means the necessity and capability to receive the most simple structures. Don't be too haughty not to start with these simple things at the very beginning. Here you learn real understanding and a true vision and not:" I thought the square could be occupied, but...". Most people 'think' chess and when it gets complicated even the elementary things cannot be correctly perceived anymore . Try to adopt right from the start a correct elementary faculty of sight!!
Have the courage and patience to start with the basics! -Weteschnik
as for pawns there are passers, protected passers, homers and rangers, centre pawns, fakers and sentries, helpers and duo's 🙂
GRIT....Salvation.
The wonderful Mrs Greenpawn has just returned from the Sunday
car boot sale (it's held at a place in Edinburgh called 'Greenside'!! - true).
She has purchased of a book called The Chess Player's Bible.
It's just what you need.
(It's starts off with openings of course, but chapter 6 TACTICS
is where you start reading.)
PM me your address. (I hope you are in the UK this thing is heavy).
Edit1:
http://www.pegasusbookclub.com/2008/03/02/chess-bible.html
I have the dutch translation of that eade book.Lend it to a beginner friend.Got it back within 3 days.He didn't like the illustrations either.Can't say I blame him.
Only chessbook I ever got back.Very telling.
Briefly considered giving him vukovic,as a joke,but that would just be cruel.
Gave him reinfeld instead.He's improving fast.
toet.
Sorry, greenpawn , I got the book out and the illustrations still make me feel dizzy. All those shadows coming out from each 3d piece and then red and blue lines illustrating each idea.
I'm sticking with Susan Polgar and Sierawan and later Weteschnik when I am ready for him.I just can't use the Chess Players Bible because looking at the pages makes my head swim...
Grit
Originally posted by gritNimzowitch's My System addresses this topic and is really funny for a chess book. Some criticize it for various reasons, but I respect that book a lot.
Is there a fairly easy book on pawns (not Soltis yet - I'm only rated
1350). Or is there a good book with several chapters on pawn structure? I'm working on tactics but when I play, my pieces can not attack or go where they need to because of my opponent's pawns.
I've been playing nearly two years now , and things seem to get harder not easier.
Grit
For example - the "passed point" (or "outpost" in Nimzowitchese) is a point on a half-open file ("open file" in Nimzowitchese) which cannot be attacked by enemy Pawns. The Najdorf Sicilian creates a "passed point" for White to utilize if ...c5 is played; the passed point is d5.
Originally posted by greenpawn34First of all, he asked a question and I answered it. If you want people to learn from what you're saying you should answer their questions as accurately as possible. Thats what I did. People can get psychologically stuck when there is something they dont understand and it can have a pervasive effect on their entire game (such as causing them to move with very little thought behind their moves). Dictating to people ad nausem "...you need to do this" and "...you need to do that" without actually listening to what their concerns are is not an effective way to teach. Do you know anyone who is an effective teacher that ignores the questions of their student and just takes an attitude of " Shut up, I know everything, do what I say" ? Go back and read the first page of this thread and see how far off the mark some of those answers were. Nobody was actually reading his post and addressing the question he was asking which is why I decided to join the conversation.
Jesus Wept (sorry Skeets).
I leave you all alone for a day. I come back and find Grit has gone
off to the shops to buy a one dollar book on openings.
He needs a book on basic and elementry tactcis and he needs it fast.
At the moment Grit you are walking across the battlefield armed with a pop gun.
All this book is going to do is point you in ...[text shortened]... he coast of Louisiana.
Plug it up with opening books. It's about all they are good for.
Does he need to work on tactics? Yes, absolutely. We all do. If you go back and read what I ACTUALLY SAID I agreed with you and I actually mentioned to him about slowing down and thinking through his moves better. But, he seemed to get that idea. Again if you read what he actually said, these are some early quotes:
"I'm working on tactics but when I play, my pieces can not attack"
and
"My real priority must be tactics. "
He seemed to get it to me. Harping on it isnt gong to help anything. Besides if you go through his games his mistakes arent purely tactical errors per se. They're the type of errors people make from an inefffective thinking process NOT from a lack of pattern recognition or calculating ability. I'm sure if I gave the positions as a puzzle he could solve the vast majority of them. They're mostly very simple oversight type errors especially for someone who has played for two years. Again, you're making knee-jerk reactions instead of actually reading what he said and addressing the real concerns.
What opening principle does he violate? Probably the most important one which is not playing moves you dont understand. Notice he plays the same opening moves against a philidor (vs. sundercat), a French (nigelneszuu) and I'm petty sure I remember a Petrov somewhere. That shows a clear lack of understanding on his part. Combine that with the fact that he started a thread and said "I do not understand this plaese explain it to me" and it should be a flashing neon sign but apparently you still missed it.
The second game you mentioned he makes a huge opening mistake and that is playing the knight to c6 before the pawn comes to c5. Thats a major mistake in d-pawn openings and ultimately where his problems stemmed from.
And why dont you try actually taking a look at the book I recommended before criticizing it. I guarantee Heisman and De la Maza and all of the tactics first people would agree with my recommendation. Its a simple book that focuses on ideas instead of theory. The perfect book for someone who needs tactical help and a better understanding of opening principles.
Again, If you dont address the actual questions people have they'll get frustrated and quit. He's going to run into plateaus and at some point and studying tactics isnt going to be the right answer. We may there right now. He'll continue to study tactics even harder and harder but will continue to lose and have no idea why. Losing and not understanding why is why most people get burned out and quit. But if you teach him how to open his position and play tactically he'll enjoy tactics more and thus improve much faster.
Actually your rant at the end might be more appropriate if you were talking about yourself and changed "opening books" to "study tactics". I'm the biggest advocate of studying tactics there is but there's a difference between teaching and mindless knee jerk reactions. I listened to him, answered his question and gently pushed him in the direction he needed to go. You ignored him and gave him the same answer you give everybody which is one that he clearly already understood. Whose answer do you think he'll get the most benefit from?
Hi Savage.
(I actually PM'd Grit - who will confirm, to take my posts
with a pinch of salt and most of the other guys were correct.
...I added I bet I catch it from someone....)
....and I caught it with both barrels. 😉
One wee thing though.
"The second game you mentioned he makes a huge opening
mistake and that is playing the knight to c6 before the
pawn comes to c5. Thats a major mistake in d-pawn openings
and ultimately where his problems stemmed from. "
Slightly dogmatic. Nc6 (Chigorin & Alpin) is playable
with the c-pawn on c7.
In this game he should have been put under more pressure
in the opening but after 10 moves moves.
Black has more pieces in play and has castled.
and after 14 moves.
Black is actually a piece up. Not too bad for an opening.
My words were....(OK opening though).
13 moves later....
So I'm thinking perhaps middle game tactics needs brushing up.
You on the other hand say:
".....if you go through his games his mistakes arent purely tactical
errors per se."
I may be wrong but I cannot see how going from this.
to this this....
...in 13 moves. can be solved with an opening book.
My (OK opening though) though not clear hints he needs some
tidying up in this area but for now he must get out of blunderland.
And look what my ranting has discovered.
He has a load of unread books laying about somewhere.
Don't think we would have go that out him with the pat on the head
and "...never mind you will do better next time method...."
(....meanwhile you had better buy an opening book) 😉
My method is with hobnail boots - never had one quit yet.
Have turned out some good chess players, they hate me, but they
are good chess players.
And anyway, let me have my wee rants.
I often get PM'd towards posts to make a comment , it's like it is expected of me.
Hi Grit.
Please confirm I did PM you early on when this thread
started that I was going to have some fun and see how
many I would catch out.
Wheeeee.......look how many I caught this time.
Now go and read them books - even the one that makes your
head swim - and take your time.
Look at the position for one minute before pressing send.
That is all I ask.