It’s a known fact that has been stressed for a long time. Chess is 99% Tactics! And that is the theme of today’s Review: Tactics Time! 1001 Chess Tactics. Tactics Time! 1001 Chess Tactics from the Games of Everyday Chess Player is different from other regular tactic chess books, in that the positions are all taken from everyday amateur games.
You just need to find a tactical solution, without any hints whatsoever.
Some positions are dead easy, while some are really difficult.
What appealed to me about this book is that each and every position is typical of problems that the majority of the chess players are likely to face (in the weekend local tournaments or clubs).
Who is this book Tactics Time! 1001 Chess Tactics aimed at?
Tactics Time! 1001 Chess Tactics from the Games of Everyday Chess Players
One caveat though – this book is not for the rank beginners, since the problems are not arranged by any theme and the answers can be difficult and lengthy for them.
So if you are probably somewhere in the range of ELO 1000 – 1600, solving this book’s puzzles every day should help in your gameplay as they will simulate a real chess game.
This training method is best suited for the serious beginner and helps as a daily warm-up course. If you are using the Kindle version use it while commuting or waiting.
I know this sounds a bit difficult to understand as the usual perception is that the harder the problem the better the result. Trust me, it’s crucially important to master BASIC tactics.
It doesn’t matter if you can solve most of the 4-5 mover tactics if you are regularly missing on the smaller 1 and 2 movers. I hope this explains why people stagnate for years despite doing hard work studying tactics daily. You must burn in the basic patterns into your subconscious mind, so it doesn’t even require any thought.
In the well-optimized Kindle version, you get one problem per page with the answer seen on the next page. This helps to keep the answer hidden from prying eyes. If the answer is not possible just flip the page!
Pros of this book:
Contains a huge number of chess positions (1001 to be precise)
Diagrams are clear and easy to view
Problems are not too hard just apt for post-beginners.
Problems are taken from real games and are not composed.
Each position has additional meta info like players names, ratings, date of the game, etc
Puzzles in this book are from many sources like blitz, correspondence, rated USCF games, weekend tournaments, scholastic tournaments, etc
Solutions are easily understood.
Affordable price.
If you are a Kindle owner, you’ll love it as it is specifically for Kindle with problem and solutions on an alternate page
A random mix of tactical themes (pins, forks, skewers, double attacks, etc)
Cons of this book:
Has no grading of tactical themes.
Not apt for higher levels as the positions may be easy for them.
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Bobby Fischer meets Mikhail Tal – the magician from Riga . Fischer – Tal 1960 Olympiad Team tournament. Leipzig, East Germany was chosen as the venue of the 14th Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE.
It comprised of an open team tournament, as well as many other events designed to promote the sport. It took place between October 26 and November 9, 1960.
After winning a tournament in Reykjavik (3 1/2 out of 4), in October, the teenager Bobby Fischer arrived at the Olympiad in Leipzig, to head the American Olympic team for the first time in his life. And what a team tournament it was for him!
The American team was without Samuel Reshevsky who did not want to play below Fischer, yet the Americans succeeded in winning ‘silver’ for the first time in the postwar period!
The contribution of young Fischer who was also the team captain was significant: 10 wins, 2 losses and 6 tough draws! (+ 1 0-2=6), and more importantly the best result on board 1 in the final that clinched the second spot for the team.
Of his two defeats, one (in the semi-final) caused a shock; the Ecuadorian Master Munoz defeated Bobby who played against his ‘Dragon’ as black!
As for Gligoric, the Yugoslav grandmaster was a veritable opponent for the young Fischer. The 5th round of the team tournament saw Fischer having White against Tal. Fischer had read a lot about Tal’s swashbuckling style of sacrificial play and was also obviously eager to get even with him for past humiliations as well as to show him a taste of his own medicine!
It was a tactical slug-fest by a existing world champion against a future world champion.
Tal had beaten Fischer in their last four encounters, but Fischer came out aiming for Tal’s jugular.
The Olympiad wasn’t that important, they could easily have avoided a fight had it been so, but went for one deliberately to prove who was the better man standing.
The draw was looked as such by spectators who wanted a result, however the draw by perpetual check, was not because both players felt like it on that day, but was born out of practical necessity – the attack had died out and it was prudent to either repeat the moves or lose.
The world champion Tal employed a sharp variation of the French Defense involving the sacrifice of his king side pawns and opposite side castling.
At the critical moment he created a tactical melee on the board, leading to a draw by perpetual check.
This game showed Fischer why Tal was considered a tactical genius although Tal himself said of his tactical sacrifices sarcastically – “There are two types of tactics, the sound ones and the ones I make”!
As is seen the photo was taken when Tal played 7… Ne7 – see by the game lines.
Fisher appears to be analyzing with rapt attention (little nervous?) while Tal seems to be seemingly easy (preparation home ground?). The above photo is an evergreen classic in the annals of chess.
According to Tal himself, when he was interviewing Fischer at the 1962 Varna Olympics, the first question he asked Fischer was: “Whom do you consider to be the strongest player in the world?”
Fischer looked at Tal with surprise to which Tal simply made it easy by adding, “Excluding yourself, of course.” Fischer replied tounge-in-cheek – “Well, you don’t play badly.”
By that time (1962), Bobby had defeated Tal twice. One might assume that perhaps Fischer couldn’t consciously admit that Tal was the best, but when Tal eased the question ruling out Fischer, he readily accepted to Tal’s superiority.
Fischer visits Tal while he was hospitalized during the 1962 Candidates tournament
At that time Tal was still the world’s best chess player, when ever he was in robust health. If you may recall he lost his crown long back to Botvinnik in partly because of ill health.
In Tal’s own words, Tal was Tal but Fischer was not yet Fischer. They were friends. They became friends at the 1958 Inter-zonal.
Fischer was the only player to visit Tal while he was hospitalized during the 1962 Candidates tournament.
That showed the human side of Fischer and what he cared about friends.
Hope you liked this info about two of my favorite players! Your comments, suggestions and feedback are welcome. I will be happy if you were to share this article or copy it anywhere (provided you attribute it to this webpage).
Some good books for you to read about Bobby Fischer at the Bookdepository.com site with free shipping worldwide.
Some good books for you to read about Mikhail Tal at the Bookdepository.com site with free worldwide shipping.
Golden Chess Centre teaches chess for students staying in Nanganallur and suburbs like Madipakkam, Adambakkam, Moovarasampet, Kilkattalai, Kovilambakkam, Puzhuthivakkam, Ullagaram and Pazhavanthangal in South Chennai. Online sessions for players who live out of Chennai are also undertaken via appointments.
Under the Aegis of AICF,TNSCA, KDCA & MCA (AICF Event code: 115226/TN/2015 – TNSCA Approval No. R07/2015-16)
Venue: MODERN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL (Main Building)
Modern School Road, A.G.’s Office Colony,
Nanganallur, Chennai 600 061
Modern Senior Secondary School is a new generation CBSE SCHOOL situated at Nanganallur in Chennai.
Sri Lakshminrisimha temple, Nanganallur
Nanganallur is known for its myriad of temples dedicated to the Hindu Gods and Goddesses and the place appears to have a religious aura during festive occasions. It is also home to Modern Senior Secondary School that has showed a phenomenal support to chess playing students and Chess tournaments.
Apart from a robust scholastic endeavor, Modern School gives great importance to Co-curricular and extra curricular activities and encouraging chess among its students; and this has paid rich dividends.
K.Sasikiran, Grand Master – Alumni of Modern School, Nanganallur
The School is very proud of its alumni, K.Sasikiran, Grand Master and Arjuna Awardee in Chess who is ranked among the top 5 in Indian Chess list of Grandmasters. Following in his footsteps, the School has a host of eminent chess players.
Players like RK Ranjith,Anjana Sowjanya, Arun Hariharan,Saravana Krishnan, Santhosh Bala, Pon Krithikka, Mohanapriya, Radha Krishnan, Narasimhapriyan, V.Shvetha, T. Vishwanath, Akash PC Iyer, K. Anshuman and many others have been inspired by this school’s motivation and its teachers interest in Chess.
They have brought many laurels for the school and made it a force to reckon with among CBSE schools Zonal and National Chess championships.
There are many upcoming juniors who are slowly inching their way up.
Every year, starting from the year 2008, Modern School has been conducting the Fide rated Chess tournament and this is the first ever International Rating Chess Championship at the School level.
Modern School Venue for the International Chess Tournament at Nanganallur.
This year, from 1st August to 5th August 2015 they are conducting conducted the annual 8th Modern School Nanganallur Chess Tournament 2015 for school children and there was a huge response to the event as it is one of its kind as far as chess tournaments go.
For the 5 days duration there was a carnival like atmosphere and children from various schools converged at the main building to participate in the tournament.
Meet the people behind the 8th Modern School Nanganallur Chess Tournament 2015 :
Many children from India and abroad take part in this event, that is now a permanent fixture for 8 years now. Kudos to the School and especially to Mr. Ravichandran, Mr. Santhanam and the P.T incharge Mr. Ramadoss who have built this program from its inception.
Special mention must be made of the Principal Dr.(Smt.) Mrs. Mohana – M.Com., M.Phil., B.Ed., Ph.D, who takes personal interest in hearing the chess players’ results and motivates them even amongst her very busy schedule, and that too with a perennial smile.
Like wise the Vice-Principal Mrs. L. Padmavathy (M.Com., PGDCM, C.I.C, D.W.T, B.Ed) who is adored by all, and the Office staff who have worked hard in maintaining a professional routine.
Recognition in Chess:
The Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi allotted the Southern Zonal Chess Tournaments to the School, in 2004 and 2006 under its Competitive Sports Program. The final all India Chess Championship was conducted in the School in 2007.
With this background, the School endeavors to conduct Modern Senior Secondary School International Rating Chess Tournament every year. We at Golden Chess Centre, wish them a very huge success in the coming years!
Day to day Chess-results and pairings will be pasted here from chess-results.com
Please note: The results are/will be updated as soon as the pairing is ready.
As a gesture of appreciation, Golden Chess Centre Nanganallur, will analyze any games played by the children (free of any charges) and also give tips on how to improve their game.
Andrew Soltis is one author whom I look forward to a lot. He was one of the instrumental authors in my growth as a chess player.
His greatest skill is his lucid writing style and simple methods to elucidate complex chess concepts even to laymen in chess
In the book When to Exchange in Chess by Soltis – the author says that knowing when and what to exchange in chess, is an art that can be learned with the proper training.
Why is the correct exchanging of pieces important?
Exchanging the chess pieces (chessmen) in a series of well-coordinated moves is an essential skill that every chess player must have
If a chess player wants to improve beyond the beginner levels in Chess, he is well advised to have ‘When to Exchange in Chess‘
in his book collection,
Players of all levels will find plenty of practical tips and advice, as well as illustrative examples taken from actual play.
This book is one that will help you improve your game by a few notches since there is a dearth of literature on this subject in chess.
Another old classic that comes to mind is: Exchanging to Win in the Endgame by Gennady Nesis – which deals with the transition from middlegame to endgame.
What is different in this book?
Andy Soltis is different in his approach – in that he explains
When and if you should exchange your bishop for a knight,
Which pair of bishops to exchange
When it’s important to keep rooks on the board, and
When to refuse any trade.
The biggest problem for upcoming players is taken as the subject of this upcoming book – When to trade pieces?
This is a challenging question, especially when playing against a very competitive or patient opponent, or a general beginner who does NOT understand this theory at all.
It is not an easy task to learn something that is not often discussed in chess books, neither directly nor exhaustively.
The author Andy Soltis will guide your chess learning with this important topic of when to exchange pieces in Chess.
I call this the ‘art of conversion‘.
One of the main opening principles I teach to my students in my chess classes is – don’t exchange pieces unnecessarily.
I have to make sure that they follow this advice, after explaining to them the reason not to exchange.
When to Exchange in Chess by Soltis addresses 3 Problems Beginners Face:
The first problem –
Beginner level chess players face is that they do not understand when the opening phase has ended and when the Middlegame in chess starts.
This causes some problems in following the principles while exchanging pieces.
The second problem
is that the beginners do not understand the idea of compensation.
By compensation, I mean, what is the non-material advantage that we get when we trade pieces?
If I ask beginners whether a trade is good or bad, they will immediately look at the piece’s values and decide if it is worthy or not.
But if I ask the advanced players – they will look at the compensation in form of non-material advantages – such as pawn structure, Piece activity, and piece placement with regard to attack or defense.
The third problem
that beginner will be having problems in understanding – is the importance of the concept of tempo.
Ahh… This is one concept that takes some effort in teaching and making sure that it stays in mind. There is so much focus on tactics and checkmates that the poor little tempo guy just seems to be relegated to the backbenches!
But this is where the trainer has a lot of work to do. I think Soltis’s book will be a ready-reckoner and a guide for coaches who want to take up this Herculean task – explaining the Tempo!
Kramnik and Karpov were masters on this topic, as they were masters of exchange and building initiatives slowly.
No wonder their games are featured here extensively.
Are you a chess player who has mastered the basics but seems lost in limbo land when it comes to winning Chess games? Here is an instructive post beginners course material that will help you attain a decent level of understanding and a rock-solid foundation before entering the club-level and advanced level field. The first question that needs to be understood by a post-beginner is – why is Center control important in chess?
Def: A post-beginner is one who has learned the basic concepts of chess.
In my career as a coach spanning 10 years, I have seen that there is a dearth of structured syllabi, for beginners in Chess. Either they are too complicated/too basic for the post beginner, or they are not coherent – meaning that they do not answer the questions from a novice’s point of view. However, the evergreen rules are still relevant for a generic approach in learning.
My advice for a post-beginner is just one simple sentence –
Play simple chess – control the center!
The simplest advice to beginners is – Center control important in chess, develop your pieces actively, create problems for your opponent, and you will soon be winning many games.
Make your opponent think and let him stress out. After all, Chess is a mind game.
Why is this control of the center so important? Controlling the center limits your opponent’s mobility and hinders the relationship between his pieces. Advantages like these lead to attacking chances.
Now last week I received an email asking me to comment about the relevance of Center control and why many of the games are based on this one singular aspect of chess theory.
Mastering Control of the Center –
The biggest headache for all post-beginners in chess is they do not know why is Center control important in chess.
The reason why they miss out on this point is that they tend to either get carried away by some impromptu tactic or forget its importance or lose sight of the opponent’s ambitions in the center.
I always advise my students to keep it simple. Control the Center – this simple advice will fetch you points or save the lost points to a minimum draw.
Broad benefits (if you want to know why is Center control important in chess):
Greater mobility of pieces. Often, if the central pawns are advanced to the central squares, then the mobility of the pieces is greatly increased. Thus, pawn moves such as e2-e4 free the bishop on f1 and d2-d4 do the same for the bishop on c1. Later on, these moves also free the queen on d1 and the rooks.
Greater influence over the whole board. For e.g., a centralized Knight on e5 generally controls more important squares inside the enemy camp than a knight passively placed, say, on a4.
Limit and push back the strong pieces of your opponent or restrict the mobility of enemy pieces.
Break his defense of the central squares to give you a free pawn as a bonus.
You can use this central control to establish to make your own pieces placed on better squares called outposts.
Model games listed below showcase the concept of why center control important in chess.
1. Alekhine vs Casielles
2. Shabalov vs Smyslov
3. Tal vs Benko
4. Landa vs Purtov
5. Schlechter vs Wolf
.
Additional Model games for you to know why is Center control important in chess
Karpov vs Kasparov World Championship Match (1985), Game 16 – Kasparov places a black knight on d3 which was famously described as the ‘octopus‘, controlling several key squares in White’s position and throwing White off-balance. White’s knights on the other hand are passively placed and do not control the Center.
Paul Morphy vs James McConnell, 1849 – Morphy follows simple chess opening principles; develops pieces towards the center, control the Center, advances pawns to e4 and d4, empowers his bishops, and tortures his opponent!
Fischer vs Myagmarsuren, 1967 – Bobby Fischer pushes a pawn to e5 to drive the Black knight from f6 and then launches a King-side attack. This shows that when you control the Center, you control important squares. Now you have the ability to push your opponent’s pieces when the time arises.
