LinearMarch advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only! (Problems)
Hi all,
Is it just me or does it seem like some of the advanced tactical problems were made to quiz Garry Kasparov?! For example, the 5th puzzle in the 2nd set, Hellers Colias. Man was that hard. Even after seeing the answers, I still cant wrap my brain around it.Again from the second set, the first example, Wolf-Spielmann, after the 3rd move alternative sequence starting with 3. Kf1 and ending with 5.Bc4, what is black's advantage and follow up move/idea?? Can anyone help me with this please. The 4th puzzle in that same section was somewhat easier Schilman-Feldmus, but oh dear I think i got a brain hernia!
I admit, I am just a lowly 2000+ rated Canadian player but there was a huge change in the brain strength required for March's advanced exercises. Does anyone else agree or am I just whining about my bruised ego too much 
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
by Tony Kosten 
, France, Thursday, April 06, 2006, 09:09 (7194 days ago) @ juggernaut
Yep,
After Siegrun complained that he thought the Intermediate was more difficult than the Advanced I decided to 'turn the screw' a bit more on the latter! 
I think the basic idea of the Hellers Colias game - to play Rxe7 and then fork two pieces with Qa3 - is pretty straightforward, it was quite tough to see Black's neat resource with ...h6 and Qxf1+ (although I suppose Hellers did as he is a strong GM), but is the 6 Nxd4 move really that hard to find? The black king is wide open.
In the Wolf-Spielmann game, after the 3rd move alternative sequence starting with 3. Kf1 (which is clearly superior for White than the line he actually played) and ending with 5.Bc4, Black has several moves that leave him clearly on top, for instance (5. Bc4) 5... Ba4 6. Rd8 Qg1+ 7. Ke2 Qe1+ 8. Kxf3 Bc6+! and if 9 Qxc6? Qh1+. 
The Schilman-Feldmus was easy once you see the beautiful idea behind the first move - if Black takes the knight there is mate in six and it is very 'linear'.
If subscribers find the advanced too difficult I can wind them down again, any thoughts?
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
by siegrun 
, Thursday, April 06, 2006, 13:09 (7193 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
Siegrun is a female name!
I'm graded ~ 1600 & find the intermediate difficult (haven't done the March advanced yet). I thought the beginners was slightly easier!
I just did the Daniel King Kramnik game, which had the added feature of not only giving you points, but commenting on your moves as well (thats right & not quite as good) - the personal touch! This reminded me of a math book i read: You had to solve a puzzle & choose one of various given answers. Depending on which answer you gave, you were directed to another page. If you got them all right, you'd get through the book quickly. If you got one wrong, you'd get a few more easier puzzles reinforcing stuff you should have learned earlier...
This would work with a chess game as well, wouldn't it? Once you'd solved a set of easier puzzles, you'd get directed back to the game. GMs have no idea what we are struggling with - to write a book or design an electronic book this way, you'd have to sit down with a beginner.
All the best, Siegrun
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
by Tony Kosten , France, Thursday, April 06, 2006, 13:35 (7193 days ago) @ siegrun
I am not too sure about the little encouragments we have just introduced on the HGIYC stuff myself - any more views? Good/annoying?
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
Judging by the marks my son got in his 60 exercises, apparently it is difficult. But, I would rather like it to be that way.
Y?day I saw him do the HGIYC thing. I don?t know much but I always thought alternatives were discussed. But one thing is certain. Scoring methodology is very consistent. He always scores in the range of County Player. I?m not saying range specification is correct. I don?t know. But it is very consistent. Would rather have it once a week.
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
? I am not too sure about the little encouragments we have just introduced on
? the HGIYC stuff myself - any more views? Good/annoying?
I really liked the latest HGIYC. My score actually was lower than normal, but I felt like I saw more of the 'plan' on that one than any other one. I found myself making a lot of moves that got no points, but the exact same move just a couple moves later was what he was looking for.
As for the puzzles, they seem harder this month than normal, but that could be me too. I have been working a lot more than normal and am a lot more tired when doing them ;)
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
by Tony Kosten , France, Friday, April 07, 2006, 10:25 (7192 days ago) @ Don Lester
? I found myself making a lot of moves that got no points, but the exact same
? move just a couple moves later was what he was looking for.
Me too!! 
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
by siegrun , Friday, April 07, 2006, 17:32 (7192 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
Tony, I don't think you understood, judging from this :"the Intermediate was more difficult than the Advanced" that wasn't what i intended to say! I think ALL the puzzles are too difficult, which is ok for the advanced section. But especially the beginners section should be much, much easier! I've been doing advanced tactics for 2 years & never learned anything from it, except to show how stupid i am! But recently my hubby & i have started doing 6 puzzles a day from a book, where we solve 90% & its great! Not only is it fun to do, but we also remember the themes when we play & can use them in our games.
I also enjoy the emrald tactics server, because the beginners section is easy to solve.
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
by Tony Kosten , France, Friday, April 07, 2006, 23:30 (7192 days ago) @ siegrun
Clearly I didn't understand at all, and now everyone suffers because of it!
Do you think they should all be easier then?
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
? Clearly I didn't understand at all, and now everyone suffers because of it!
?
? Do you think they should all be easier then?
I have found this months advanced a bit harder, but I think that is good.
I find that I get similar scores on intermediate and advanced. Maybe the advanced should be harder and the beginners easier ? Or maybe there should be a few slightly easier ones in each set to give you confidence and a few hard ones to stretch you.
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
Well the probs are harder, but they also show the more beautiful combos, that hard to spot inbetween move. I guess they should be this hard since I used to score quite highly on the 'easier' advanced tactics and I am not that strong.I must admit that a lot of the earlier probs were remembered in mags with the "mate in four" theme. I used to read "Chess" and "Chesslife" quite a lot. These questions from March are not in my memory banks so I really have to think(unfortunately not that well accoridng to my score!). These are advanced chess problems!
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
by Tony Kosten , France, Tuesday, April 11, 2006, 10:33 (7188 days ago) @ juggernaut
I agree that the Advanced should be more difficult, and should make you think a bit - should I increase the time allowed for them next month?
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
by siegrun , Tuesday, April 11, 2006, 13:47 (7188 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
Do you remember, during the year some talked about giving up? I don't know if they actually did, but it was most likely because the tactics wre too hard. So, yes, the beginners should be much easier (like the novice?), the indermediate should be easier (as in level 4 of TASC tutor) & the advanced as always.
I don't think time makes any difference at all. On some internet sites GMs give a time handicap & i'm not impressed. I haven't actually played them, but i'm sure they could think in my time. The only way i could win is if i played as fast & then spent some time dreaming up a combo... But as i was taking my time the GM would not sleep either.
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
by Tony Kosten , France, Wednesday, April 12, 2006, 15:22 (7187 days ago) @ juggernaut
This thread is really stretching across my screen! 
We are doing the April tactics at the moment, and we had an idea for the Beginner's stuff: at the moment we are often splitting one combination into several puzzles, so if the combo lasts 5 moves there might be 3 puzzles at different key points. But what if we reverse the order of these puzzles so that we start with the end and work back to the beginning - would this be more pedagogical?
March advanced tactical probs for Grandmasters only!
? This thread is really stretching across my screen!
? We are doing the April tactics at the moment, and we had an idea for the
? Beginner's stuff: at the moment we are often splitting one combination
? into several puzzles, so if the combo lasts 5 moves there might be 3
? puzzles at different key points. But what if we reverse the order of these
? puzzles so that we start with the end and work back to the beginning -
? would this be more pedagogical?
An intersting idea. As a student who studies the advanced section, (sigh, I really should take advantage of the intermediate and beginners section too, you can always learn something new at any level!)I think it might have some relevance. The idea being if you saw the forced mate in four from 'mate minus 4 moves'; Would you have seen it from say 'mate minus six moves'? In the advanced section, these latest puzzles are testing those limits. The branches of replies are much more since replies are more abundant/plausible. No immediately forcing check , check, mate varieties of combinations but some inbetween move that is the key. Has any teacher/master taught any student in this reverse order? Well I guess it's not so reversed since the solutions/moves are based on the positive factors of the position in question at that moment for the student and the student should be going in that direction since the positives influences tell him so. Does this make sense? I think it does. I think it might be harmful for reverse order. The first moves in the right order highlight the special features of the position to make the 'mate in four' possible a few moves later. The inital postion says , 'You have a good position, use it to get an even better one.' There, after my internal ramblings, I think combination reversal is a bad idea.
