I've been reading various posts regarding tactical play. No reason actually except boredom. But a few things caught my eye in that some apparently didn't improve a lick even after solving tremendous amounts of problems.
I think what happens is some players solve all these problems then play a game and rush the tactics. They push the pieces too aggressively or try to attack prematurely trusting that the tactics will favor them because they "solved" thousands of problems already. But of course this is not what happens. The tactics does not appear or worse, in their rush they themselves fall victim into a tactical shot. So they get disillusioned by the whole "chess is 99% tactics" business and turn to studying positional play and or becomes an accountant.
I think what happens is some players solve all these problems then play a game and rush the tactics. They push the pieces too aggressively or try to attack prematurely trusting that the tactics will favor them because they "solved" thousands of problems already. But of course this is not what happens. The tactics does not appear or worse, in their rush they themselves fall victim into a tactical shot. So they get disillusioned by the whole "chess is 99% tactics" business and turn to studying positional play and or becomes an accountant.
But its all wrong. Blaming too much studying tactics for the loss is like blaming the car for the accident. Can you tell the police "Its not me, its the car. Its too fast"? Of course not right?
Tactics like everything else is just another weapon. All things being equal, the fight will not be decided by the weapon but by the wielder. You can have the sharpest, lightest sword in the world i.e.solved 500,000 problems, but if you don't know how to wield it, the weapon is useless.
It reminds me of the story of the guitarist. They were jamming, right? and he said "Man, this guitar sucks!". A guest heard it and borrowed the guitar and suddenly all these beautiful sounds started coming out. So he returned the guitar and said "There's nothing wrong with the guitar. But I guess you just can't play".
There's nothing wrong with solving tactical problems.
I guess you just cant play"
I guess you just cant play"
Anyway, followers of these blog will no doubt recollect that I place emphasis on these two things
1. Calculation
2. Tactical Ability
and my "training", if you can call it that, is geared towards strengthening this two factors. To be at home in the chaotic stage as tempo puts it.
My tactical pattern recognition is just fine I think. A few minutes of CTS every day helps keep it sharp. However, my calculation powers is horrible right now. I can't even follow 5 move combinations in my head. It is my contention that calculation must be easy, calculation must be automatic, otherwise I wont be able to do it during games. I mean, you think I really wanna work that hard during chess games? Where do I put the lol!? hehe.
So to remedy this, I'm reading the Deadly Tactician book and trying to follow the variations in my head. So far its just a headache inducing experience, but sometimes I am able to follow seven move combinations so maybe there is hope after all.
It was said that Alekhine developed his calculation/visualization ability this way. Legend has it that when he broke his foot, he played solitaire chess in his head while he was in the hospital. The result is Fine commented that "Alekhine can see far more deeply than all his contemporaries".
I too want to see that deeply, that easily. The kind of chess I strive has this as its core. Chess which does not rely on opening theory or no endgame theory, or any kind of theory. Just chess based on intuition, and seeing ten moves ahead looking for combinations. Simple and easy "caveman" chess (See Patrick's videos)
Now, I am very curious as to where this takes me. For example, compared to more serious knights like J'Ajoube and Tempo.
If I fail then at the very least we will have a working knowledge of how NOT to study chess.
You find tactics every where. In the quiet stages, the turbulent (Karpovian) stage and the chaotic stage of the game. The frequency of tactics are highest in the chaotic stage. But they form only a little part of the chaotic stage.
So I guess that tactical training does exactly what it says: it learns you to spot tactics easy. But it doesn't learn you the non tactical part of chaotic play. A method to train that has to be found yet. That is what I intend to search for.
Besides that I will continue to study the turbulent phase of the game by studying mastergames. With all those video's of mastergames around that shouldn't be too difficult or time consuming.