A friend of mine has been nagging for months about me not training slow tactics. He seems to think CTS is comparable to blitz, and while I don't really agree on that, I do see a shortcoming in my tactical training. Which is lack of calculation exercises. - Hacking away problems on CTS is all good for developing combinative vision, but it doesn't really affect calculation that much. Which I've begun to see as the weakest link in my tactical ability.
So, I've been looking for a suitable problem set for daily solving of slow problems, calculating as I would in real game instead of the more intuitive 'spotting tactics' which CTS is all about. Unfortunately, all sets I've come by so far have been somehow inadequate, lacking solutions, wrong kind of positions etc. - I took a peek at some tactics books for intermediate players, but then I thought I'd just go ahead and order CT-ART3.0 and get loads of suitable problems with an interface. So, today I ordered it, and when it arrives I'll start doing daily slow tactics as calculation exercise. I'll be still training combinative vision on CTS as well, but probably somewhat less intensively.
good session on CTS today though:
1537, 77.4%, 51090, 4f/57 = 93.0%
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i promise to post a full comment here to your post combinative vision versus calculation
... its very late here for me, but what you write here is excellent. i REALLY value all you say. warm, dk
a. i must go to work in 8:51 hours!
b. im SO, so glad to see you going for high % success while rated so high. inspiring!
It took me a 3 years to improve my calculation to the max. I don't think there is much to gain there anymore for me. So if your calculation isn't optimal you are right to give it attention.
what kind of calculation exercises did you do, and how much? I suspect you've done a lot of experimenting with different methods during those 3 years?
I did a lot of difficult problems. The kind of what you will find at CT-art at the higher levels. Now I have the idea that there isn't much improvement possible anymore along the line of calculation for me. But along the patternrecognition line the possible gain is more or less limitless. I find simple problems more useful since for me it is a proven fact that complex positions are build with a lot of relative simple elements which I want to recognize immediately.
thanks. for me it's the exact opposite: I spot the elements relatively well, but get in trouble finding the correct move order.
dear wormstar, how are you fine young man? i am very, very happy to hear that you ordered ctArt 3.0. i totally agree with your post: last month, i did both CTS and ctArt daily. my calculation grew meaningfully with the latter. you sit and face some really thorny problems. while it gives you a timer, this does not affect your score and is more for convenience. THEN id go to CTS the same session, and it was much easier. but CTS flexed my speed and recognition muscles.
i stopped ctArt for a week, last week, and my CTS rating sank. one week!
so i made myself sit in this chair and continue at ctArt. level three is so hard. nine levels. some of it just is not intuitive but learned, or found by deep analysis.
i love both, and shudder to think what would happen to my chess growth without both. they work together far better than one alone to excess: first slow without regard to clock but deep; then fast with the clock figuring importantly but often much easier.
it amazes me that you have gone so far so fast, and i dont mean just 50,000 problems, but your true chess learning broadly. you must be a very brilliant person.
are you in finland, was it? do you like it? my oldest friend is estonian, and he goes by the email name of thinFins. very, very creative guy. across many areas. he has met many women in his life, the devil!
sorry to be so slow to get back to you, as promised, but when i write, i write sincerely. david
I moved last week, and got my internet connection just today. been on RHP the whole day, of course. :) started 8 new games against 1650-1700 players to get a bit more trouble with the games. I was hoping for someone 1800-1900 to take up on my challenges, but no such luck. still, I think I'll try play against stronger opponents from now on.
hah, don't know about that brilliance. although school has always been pretty easy for me, I think chess is more about hard work and persistence. I don't believe in talent, unless you take talent to be the ability to work hard. stubborn hard. and I'm really, really stubborn. :)
yea, I'm in finland, helsinki. just across the baltic sea from estonia. finland is one of the easiest countries to live in, along with sweden & norway. pretty much like canada, only smaller and of course better. :)
worm, wrote tempo today same note: thought you should know.
I hit my head on a metal door at work last week, then yesterday a sling of folded boxes fell on my head. very, very odd. pain in neck/headaches.
I must get an x-ray tomorrow… a bit concerned. Not sure if it’s a concusion or just a strain. Very hard to do tactics. Tried tonight, and falling like a rock, but been away from CTS too long--was waiting to feel better, but had to try it tonight. My head doest feel right. Just so you know… today when I spoke, words got mixed up… yikes.
i have not lost all my chess, but this is hard.
warm regards. dk
wow, I don't like the sound of that! it's at least a concussion judging from the speech problems. swelling in the brain disturbing it's normal function. hope you went to see the doc and are all right.
congratulations on your move--and the internet connection, too :) cannot 'hurt'. helsinki must be a magical place, so old i am guessing, and so far north! seattle was settled only 120 years ago, so we do not have the maturity of your place either in built or social form.
you describe yourself as very persistent. how come this does not come as total shock to me?!
thanks for your concern wormstar: i did have two seperate closed head injuries in the last week at work (long story), and got a CAT-scan at a hospital and they informed me that my brain is ok--but i also still have some neck and upper shoulder pain. i expect to recover. but since i did not go unconscious yet had two successive injuries, they combined into a nasty potion. for a few days i was really light headed, and still not 100% on my feet... my company is very safety conscious and has been supportive.
i simply dont know what athletes do who have big financial incentives and incomes and large goals, who get knocked out! what a risk. a minor concussion has really rattled me.
i expect to be ok, but need some time.
and lastly, women from eastern europe are NOT like american women at all. no they are not! my dream has come true: i met a very lovely woman from moldavia. she is a music teacher. things take time, and not a 'flash in the pan', but a good solid opening so far on both sides. no exchange of material but a mobile pawn center balanced by wing possibilities on the other side!
CTS right now is not a good idea, so when i come back, my RD will be way up there, so ill probably be 1529 fast or 1471 equally!
warm regards from the 'pacific northwest'. dk
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