stunning

Originally posted by Wulebgr
That's the given solution, but what if black does not grab the knight? For example, 1.Nb6 Bc5.

1.Nb6 Bc5 2.Nxa8 and white is up a rook. 1-0.

2...0-0 Rd8

nice one though little easy.

Originally posted by Wulebgr
Knights don't make an L that tall

unbelievable. I looked at the board, said to myself Nb6, not 7, and typed in Nb7

Originally posted by Jusuh
nice one though little easy.

That's what I thought, too. It's from Informant 95. It's been awhile since I worked the combinations in Informant and I remember them as tougher.

I wrestled around with it for a while, saw all the relevant moves, but couldn't combine them to the right solution. makes me wonder how often I miss similar solutions. probably a lot. although in cc I usually grind it until I find an answer, no matter how long it takes. I just keep telling myself there is a solution until I find one.

but clearly I need to do a lot more tactics...

Originally posted by DeepThought
Nxa8

[b]edit 4: although Be7 from black (rather than Bc5) cuts that out.[/b]

yeah but after Nb6 Be7 Nxa8 0-0 Nb6 and after axb a7 Ra8 Bb8 and it is definitely over..

Originally posted by wormwood
I wrestled around with it for a while, saw all the relevant moves, but couldn't combine them to the right solution. makes me wonder how often I miss similar solutions. probably a lot. although in cc I usually grind it until I find an answer, no matter how long it takes. I just keep telling myself there is a solution until I find one.

but clearly I need to do a lot more tactics...

I should add slow tactics. I know I've been hounding you on this point 🙂

I don't see what the point is of solving chess puzzles in 8 seconds or whatever it is at the chess tactic site.

If you're playing OTB you have enough time plus the puzzles are several moves deep so it's okay if you spend even 10 minutes on it, since it say 10 min for maybe 3+ moves which is reasonable.

Unless if you are playing blitz and you want to get good, why do tactics so fast? I think doing them slowly and truly understanding them helps you way more.

Originally posted by RahimK
I should add slow tactics. I know I've been hounding you on this point 🙂

I don't see what the point is of solving chess puzzles in 8 seconds or whatever it is at the chess tactic site.

If you're playing OTB you have enough time plus the puzzles are several moves deep so it's okay if you spend even 10 minutes on it, since it say 10 min for maybe 3+ mov ...[text shortened]... tactics so fast? I think doing them slowly and truly understanding them helps you way more.

I know, I know, I know 🙂 but still, cts is working for me pretty well, 1687 RHP and rising...

but I'm also planning on focusing on slow tactics after I reach 1700, which is my nearest goal. I'm sure it would do wonders for my blitz, as I think the reason for my lousy performance is weak calculation...

Originally posted by Wulebgr
What does Bb8 accomplish?

Blocks off the rook, and the promoting pawn greatly pressures Black.

Originally posted by powershaker
Blocks off the rook, and the promoting pawn greatly pressures Black.

Talk about slow.

Originally posted by wormwood
I know, I know, I know 🙂 but still, cts is working for me pretty well, 1687 RHP and rising...

but I'm also planning on focusing on slow tactics after I reach 1700, which is my nearest goal. I'm sure it would do wonders for my blitz, as I think the reason for my lousy performance is weak calculation...

It might be working well but you need to compare it to something else. By doing slow tactics you rating might have been over 1700 already. Who knows unless you try it but I do hope you give it a shot and see which one you prefer.

What kinds of ratings do people from here or OTB player you know have on chess tactics server?

I think the ratings are to hard on there. I remember you telling me some peoples ratings on Rhp/OTB and the tactic server and they were way off.

Edit: 1698, only 2 more points to go! www.chessville.com has 1001 puzzles online with no solutions from Reinfield book. I wrote down how to use the puzzles with fritz in my post on Getting to 2000.

Looks like you won the race.

Originally posted by RahimK
I should add slow tactics. I know I've been hounding you on this point 🙂

I don't see what the point is of solving chess puzzles in 8 seconds or whatever it is at the chess tactic site.

If you're playing OTB you have enough time plus the puzzles are several moves deep so it's okay if you spend even 10 minutes on it, since it say 10 min for maybe 3+ mov ...[text shortened]... tactics so fast? I think doing them slowly and truly understanding them helps you way more.

I don't agree. My tactical awareness has grown enormously since I started working on http://chess.emrald.net/. True, my rating on there is much lower than on here, but I don't really care about that. My short time control game has always been very weak, but after practicing on there, I feel much more comfortable with it, albeit still not that great.

If you want to take 10 minutes on emrald you can, your rating will just be a little negatively effected. So what?

D

Originally posted by Ragnorak
I don't agree. My tactical awareness has grown enormously since I started working on http://chess.emrald.net/. True, my rating on there is much lower than on here, but I don't really care about that. My short time control game has always been very weak, but after practicing on there, I feel much more comfortable with it, albeit still not that great.

I ...[text shortened]... tes on emrald you can, your rating will just be a little negatively effected. So what?

D

I'm not saying practising tactics on that site is bad. I'm saying practising them so fast can't be as helpful as practising them slowly.

If you practise tactics fast using that site, and then practise them slowly from say a book or something, I'm saying you will get more benefit from doing them slowly then fast.

Unless if you want to play those crazy quick blitz games then yes you need to be able to solve tactics really quickly.

Just curious, what's your rating on there?

Originally posted by RahimK
I'm saying practising them so fast can't be as helpful as practising them slowly.

why not?

I`m saying practising them fast is much more helpful than practising them slowly...

Originally posted by RahimK
I'm not saying practising tactics on that site is bad. I'm saying practising them so fast can't be as helpful as practising them slowly.

If you practise tactics fast using that site, and then practise them slowly from say a book or something, I'm saying you will get more benefit from doing them slowly then fast.

Unless if you want to play those crazy ...[text shortened]... d to be able to solve tactics really quickly.

Just curious, what's your rating on there?

I try to push myself to spot them as fast as I can. If I can't spot the solution, I'll take as long as I need. Being able to solve them faster must always be better than always needing ten minutes of brute force searching.

My rating is currently 1453, with a high of 1484, and a success rate of 80.6%, which has gone down from a very steady 81.2%, since I started trying to solve more within the 3 seconds. I think that is about right, considering my proven lack of acumen with anything less than a 10 minute game, and also considering I normally go on there when I feel too tired/drunk/hungover to play on RHP.

D