Short VersionI’ve started a blog -
https://theabysmaldepthsofchess.blogspot.com - dedicated to
Beat the Masters - a series of articles from the late 80s/early 90s CHESS Monthly - that gave the reader a set of positions to analyse and then the chance to compare their choice of move with a dozen or so IMs and GMs. ChessPub’s own Tony Kosten* (then an IM) was a regular on the panel.
I found these articles a preferable alternative to online bliz/rapid whilst waiting for normal chess to come back.
I’ve published five positions so far:
1: A Sicilian middlegame
https://theabysmaldepthsofchess.blogspot.com/2020/05/btm-1-is-sicilian-defence-r...2: Tal
https://theabysmaldepthsofchess.blogspot.com/2020/05/beat-masters-2.html3: To sac or not to sac
https://theabysmaldepthsofchess.blogspot.com/2020/05/beat-masters-3.html4: A minor-piece endgame
https://theabysmaldepthsofchess.blogspot.com/2020/05/beat-masters-4.html5: An opening position
https://theabysmaldepthsofchess.blogspot.com/2020/06/btm-5a-78-bishops.htmlMy aim is to upload two a week at least for the rest of the year at least.
I hope some chesspub members might find these articles of interest.
Longer VersionI’ve not been playing OTB for a few years (for various reasons, all of which can be categorised as 'life stuff') but when lockdown started I had a lot of time to fill so I decided I might as well make a dent in the very large collection of unread chess books I’d built up over the last three decades.
Pretty soon I wanted to play more. Online chess doesn’t really work for me though. I don’t think that the cheating/suspected cheater problem can ever really be solved in longer time controls and casual blitz would be fine if I wasn’t rubbish at it. Just can’t seem to get through a game without blundering away a piece or more.
So I broke out some old chess magazines and started doing some Beat the Masters positions … and really got into it. I’ve done over 80 of them over the past five or six weeks. After a while it occurred to me that other people might enjoy them too.
If you’re not of an age to remember these articles/ were living elsewhere, they work like this:-
- every month CHESS would publish 9 positions
you chose your move
the follow-up article a panel of Masters (IMs and GMs) would give their choice and offer a few comments and lines of analysis
if your choice matches the most popular panel choice you got 10 points
If your choice wasn’t the most popular but still matched some of the panel you got points in proportion to the number of Masters who agreed with you.
If you didn’t match any Masters you still might get 1 or 2 points
If you were way off you got zero.
At the end of the 9 positions you’d have a score out of 90.
The next month you’d do it all again and could kind of track your progress.
The positions were mostly middlegames and mostly not with a single clear best or outright winning move. Sometimes the panel were unanimous in their choice, other times you might get up to 6 or 7 suggestions.
I find it more fun and easier to stay motivated to keep going with these problems rather than studying annotated games. I like the range of feedback you get with so many Masters involved. I also find the fact that you get a 'score'. It’s a bit silly in someways (you score maximum points if you choose the right move whether your analysis is entirely accurate or complete cobblers) but it somehow makes it feel more meaningful than looking at random positions.
I’ve found that comparing scores between sets of positions adds a bit of pressure too. If I happen to do well in the early puzzles and am heading for a record score out of 90 I really start to feel the extra tension when doing positions 7, 8 and 9 not wanting to mess up. On the other hand if I start badly I have to push myself to work as hard in the later positions and not just feel "well this set is beyond hope, I might as well knock them out quickly and get on to the next set".
and that’s pretty close to how I tend to feel during real games.
I usually spend about 30-45 minutes looking at each position without moving the pieces. That’s time enough for 5 or 6 blitz games. Doing Beat the Masters’ puzzles feels like a much better use of time.
I’m sure this sort of thing won’t be attractive to everyone but please do have a look at the blog if you think it might be something you’d like to try.
Since beginning the blog a couple of weeks ago I’ve started to become a bit obsessed with collecting visitors/readers from new countries. I’m up to 22 so far.
So while everyone is very welcome to drop by, I’m particularly hoping that you’ll come have a look if your homeland is none of:-
Argentina, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, Iceland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, USA
* Tony has OK’d this post.