tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post4243359755464026498..comments2023-04-19T13:55:56.190-07:00Comments on Chess Improvement: Calculating Forcing Moves: Defensive Idea 5 - Counterattack to WIN!Ultimaterankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09273252004212138418noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-22896877835913353302015-04-14T16:21:11.085-07:002015-04-14T16:21:11.085-07:00Ok, I added a chart!! Let me know what you think....Ok, I added a chart!! Let me know what you think. It is my first try at it but it covers the key ideas and process.Ultimaterankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09273252004212138418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-64471436402123729592015-04-07T17:16:18.582-07:002015-04-07T17:16:18.582-07:00I'm not a big fan of the embedded viewers, sin...I'm not a big fan of the embedded viewers, since all of the analysis is in the tiny windows. I'm going to try adding more graphics of key transition points, as well as final positions, which hopefully will make this easier to read (and understand). Thanks again for the suggestions!Ultimaterankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09273252004212138418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-62046575483499268472015-04-07T16:13:36.621-07:002015-04-07T16:13:36.621-07:00Last minute: You can look at the blog here as see ...Last minute: You can look at the blog here as see how the game with comments is done. I hope you like it: http://pathtochessmastery.blogspot.com/<br /><br />As far as I know - you can use the positions as much as the whole games (with commentaries, variations, symbols, etc.). Let me know what do you think about this!Tomaszhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09690570865003924020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-63766205733126026022015-04-07T16:07:40.009-07:002015-04-07T16:07:40.009-07:00Look here: http://mekk.waw.pl/mk/eng/chess/art/web...<br />Look here: http://mekk.waw.pl/mk/eng/chess/art/webmaster_tools<br /><br />Please focus especially on "Online preview" chapter. I hope it helps you a bit ;) :)<br /><br />(Quote): Pgn4Web<br /><br />Pgn4Web is yet another promising viewer. Apart from the viewer itself, author provides plugins for WordPress, Joomla and MediaWiki and hints for using the viewer on many other blogs and forums.<br /><br />Pgn4Web website provides also online generator of diagrams to make preparing and publishing them easier. It is also possible to publish games using scripts hosted on their website, without installing anything.<br /><br />The viewer is open source (GPL) so usable in most contexts.<br /><br />This on-line viewer may be one of the best solution :)<br /><br />BTW. You can google "pgn chess game viewer" and check out most of these viewers. There are about 8-10 are just a few of these are really well designed and work great. I hope you suceed! :)Tomaszhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09690570865003924020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-18722086400149841682015-04-07T07:55:03.441-07:002015-04-07T07:55:03.441-07:00Let me know if you have any specific ideas for wri...Let me know if you have any specific ideas for writing out the variations. I didn't really like the chess.com embed tool, but perhaps I could include more graphics at key positions? Have you have seen any other blogs that you think do a good job of writing out long variations? Of course the ideal is to do all of this in your head!! :)Ultimaterankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09273252004212138418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-57827664244127817322015-04-06T20:27:11.247-07:002015-04-06T20:27:11.247-07:00Thanks for explaining these things. I will have to...Thanks for explaining these things. I will have to repeat the previous posts and read it again to comprehend it up to next level :).<br /><br />In the future - you may think about using the system of variations at the interactive diagram. It is really hard NOT to lose in these bunch of variations since they are very similar and quite complex ones (to see it clearly without a board).<br /><br />And of course you are right - there is no need to divide moves into "check-non-check", but according to the importance of threats (priorities as a main goal is the key!).<br /><br />I am still not fully satisfied with the quality of this post, but for now - let's leave it as it is. Maybe when I see it in a new perspective and after some time (and new posts) passes by... I could suggest some better kind of improvement :).Tomaszhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09690570865003924020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-18551371904997078952015-04-06T16:18:28.776-07:002015-04-06T16:18:28.776-07:00It is no trouble at all! I am very glad to talk a...It is no trouble at all! I am very glad to talk about these things!!<br /><br />Yes, I completely agree on the need to identify all threats and prioritize them, but I prefer to prioritize them by evaluation instead of by check/no-check. For example there might be a double attack that starts with a check but only wins a pawn, while there might be a "silent" first move that is not a check, but threatens to mate in one move. Thus if you base your calculations off of the first move instead of the evaluation of the line, you might mis-prioritize the threats and defend against the wrong thing!!<br /><br />Okay, now on the ideas. You are correct on all counts!<br /><br />a) Idea 3 (move): there are no moves you can make with the king that allow him to run away from the checkmates (all of them, not just the mate in 1)<br /><br />b) Idea 1 (capture, pin, deflect) -- that is indeed specific to the threat on the board, not all captures, pins, deflections. Take a check for example. The only captures you can even consider are those that capture the piece giving check. The same logic applies here. In this position white's queen and rook are threatening mate, so defensive "Idea 1" is to capture either the rook or the queen. There might be other captures on the board but we don't care!! Any other captures would have zero impact on the threat and we can ignore them!! So using the idea of capturing/pinning the rook and queen (creating the mate threat) we search the board for specific moves...and find there are none. So we move on to the next defensive "Idea 2" which is to block the pieces creating the threat, and we search for specific moves that block either the rook or the queen from getting to their mating squares. We find one specific move that does that, so we add it to our candidate list and continue looking at the rest of the five ideas to generate as many defensive candidate moves as are reasonable for the position. By "reasonable" I again mean only those defensive replies that address the specific threat. We do NOT need to calculate all captures, checks, and threats. Only those that address the mate threat.<br /><br />I hope that helps, but do not hesitate to ask anything you want!!<br />Ultimaterankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09273252004212138418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-61192378560262647132015-04-06T15:31:50.900-07:002015-04-06T15:31:50.900-07:00Thanks for you answer. Now my turn ;)
1. prioriti...Thanks for you answer. Now my turn ;)<br /><br />1. prioritize all threats is the KEY - without it understand chess will not make any sense.<br />2. organizing your opponent's threats by check/no-check - it is just an IDEA. If you are in check you have VERY limited possibilities - and most often when your opponent make a move without check - you can do whatever you wish (I do not say about the consequences, but the legal moves). You can use this idea in later stages of your articles, but if you do not need to do this - you can just leave it. No problem.<br />3. You have explained the ideas quite well, but probably I did not ask a proper question. I meant - why you wrote the specific answers. Let me clarify what I mean:<br /><br />a) Idea 3 (move): there are no escape squares for the king, and black can't create any.<br />What about playing Kg8? It is ONE square to escape (from Qf7# threat) and after playing this move - White mates in two moves. Did you omit it due to the "additional" mate scenario? Do I think in a correct way that "move - means moving the King"?<br />b) the rest of "Ideas move" I understand (more or less) - however let me explain if I understand it correctly, ok?<br /><br />- Idea 1 (capture, pin, deflect):<br />CAPTURE - there are no captures or no captures that stops mate in one move?<br />PIN - there are NO pinning to the white pieces (this one is quite easy to understand)<br />DEFLECT - there is no way to deflect the pieces (which ones)?<br /><br />I am sorry to trouble you, but I REALLY want to understand how you are evaluating the position and what is your way of thinking and looking for a defence. I thank you in advance for explaing these things to me. They are quite hard to understand, but I will try if you help me :).Tomaszhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09690570865003924020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-83824900007379069942015-04-06T08:58:30.383-07:002015-04-06T08:58:30.383-07:00Ok, I finished adding variations for black's o...Ok, I finished adding variations for black's other move 1 defensive options. Regarding your first and summary questions/points...<br /><br />On your first point, I do think it is very helpful to find and prioritize all threats. That alone will helps beginners make huge strides in chess. But I don't understand the point of organizing your opponent's threats by check/no-check. I'm not sure what that step gains you. What is more important (and is the thrust of my blog series), is that you find the greatest threat, and look at all five defensive ideas. The point is that you prioritize YOUR defensive replies based on the severity of the threat. <br /><br />For counterattacking ideas, a counterattack must be equal to or greater than the biggest threat against you. In this position white's greatest threat was the mate in 1, and the only way a counterattack could begin is with a greater threat (a check).<br /><br />That leads me to your last question about what is meant by the "ideas". This is the goal of my entire blog series on this so it is very important to me that you understand!! I'm not communicating this well if you -- my most avid read -- aren't getting it!! So let me try it this way:<br /><br />In calculation you must find candidate moves. But the key question how do you find candidate moves? Most books on calculation don't really address that. <br /><br />The answer is that you must first have an "idea" about the kinds of moves you should be looking to find. Jacob Aagaard wrote this in his "excelling at chess". For example in the opening, you know you have to accomplish certain things and the opening "ideas" like develop, castle, etc, lead you to search for specific moves that accomplish those ideas. You must have some sort of idea of what you are trying to accomplish in order to make any move in chess!!<br /><br />Ok, that's the opening but what about tactical positions? On offense how do you find good attacking candidates? How do you get ideas? I'm planning an entire blog series on this question too, but the short answer is training patterns, learning to see things like pieces in a line or loose pieces, etc. There are visual clues on the board that give you "ideas". Those general ideas help you search for specific candidate moves, that you then calculate.<br /><br />The point of my blog series is on defensive "ideas". What does that mean? A simple example is that when you are in check, there are only three defensive ideas: capture, block, move. Those three ideas guide your search for specific candidate moves that you then calculate. <br /><br />When there is any other type of threat on the board there are FIVE ideas you should always consider. So in this position when I wrote "Idea 1 (capture, pin, deflect): none", that meant that I used defensive Idea 1 to search for specific candidate moves to prevent the mate in one, but there were none. <br /><br />Does that make sense now?Ultimaterankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09273252004212138418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-84685393680128464522015-04-06T06:05:38.092-07:002015-04-06T06:05:38.092-07:00Tomasz -- thanks again for your feedback. Let me ...Tomasz -- thanks again for your feedback. Let me reply to your second point first, and then I'll do the first and third together. <br /><br />You're correct, I should have finished looking at the block 1...Rd7. I stopped calculating because we found a good move for black that wins but as the old saying goes "when you see a good move look for a better one". I'll add a line about 1...Rd7 to see if it is in fact any better. We won't know until we calculate it!!Ultimaterankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09273252004212138418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1827471739019030298.post-52763770249386924092015-04-05T12:57:44.102-07:002015-04-05T12:57:44.102-07:00I have a few suggestions to improve your actual po...I have a few suggestions to improve your actual post. For now there are three of them.<br /><br />FIRST:<br /><br />You can use it in any place you wish - maybe above the "Let's look at the five defensive ideas to see what candidate moves we find, and then pick the best move" - instead your previous sentence (expand and use it or replace/correct this one: "White is threatening mate four ways: 2. Qf7#; 2. Qxg7+ Ke8 (only) and then 3. Re7#, 3 Qf7#, or 3. Qe7# He is also threatening black's pawns on f5 and a7.").<br /><br />There are two types of threats we are interested in. The first type are "check oriented" and the second ones "without check".<br /><br />A) with checks - 4 treats (with decreasing order of threats priority: the most important one at the top)<br />1) 1.Qf7#<br />2) 1.Qxg7+ Ke8 2.Qe7#<br />3) 1.Rf7+ Ke8 2.Qe6# (if 1...Kg8 2.Qxg7#)<br />4) 1.Qxf5+ Kg8 (if 1...Ke8 2.Qf7#) 2.Qf7+ Kh7 3.Qxg7<br /><br />B) without checks (gaining material or bringing the piece to attack)<br />1) 1.Rxg7 (gaining a pawn)<br />2) 1.Bd5 (interposing Q+R line and attacking a two diagonal squares arond the King [f7 and g8]<br /><br />As there are too many threats we cannot defend the position in a passive way. That's why it is important to look for the active moves ("with checks").<br /><br /><br />SECOND:<br /><br />The refutation/expanding of your defence (I mean - showing the way how it works)<br /><br />Idea 2 (block): 1...Qd7 (fails to 2. Rxd7 - as White obtains a decisive material advantage). And if 1...Rd7 then Black activates pieces and gain decisive material advantage due to open Black King; for example 1. ... Rd7 2. Rb8+ Rd8 3. Qxf5+ Ke7 4. Rb5 Qd1+ 5. Bf1 Rd6 6. Rxe5+ Kd8 (etc.,)<br /><br />THIRD:<br /><br />An addition to the third way of counterattack (a short passage as a conclusion).<br /><br /><br />... and if we play 1...Qa1+ White simply plays 2.Bf1 and we have no way to exchange queens or stop mating threat. That's why we cannot play this move to keep the position won.<br /><br />It is all for now. However I do not know what does it mean "Idea 1 (capture, pin, deflect): none." and "Idea 3 (move): there are no escape squares for the king, and black can't create any.". If you could explain your way of thinking (analysing) I would be able to understand what you meant. Thanks in advance for your help :)Tomaszhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09690570865003924020noreply@blogger.com