The end of the beginning

Things I learned in this first week:
- Nunn's Learn Chess Tactics is nothing like CTS, at all!
So I'll have to approach both in a different way.

- Don't judge a book by its first chapter's exercises, those in the second chapter can appear much easier.
In Nunn's Learn Chess Tactics the second chapter is on the discovered attack, somehow the exercises appear less hard than those in the first chapter on the pin.

- For Nunn as for CTS, each in it's own way: slow down, think!
Actually I managed to do this on CTS last night, a lot better than in the previous week, I had 88% correct. Furthermore I've noticed that while I lose some rating while thinking on the easier problems, I have more success in solving the harder problems. Thus while my rating doesn't change much, my success rate goes up! That is win-win in my book.

- It doesn't matter if I agree with dk's strict interpretation of how to use CTS.
If I want my success rate to climb, I'll have to aim more for his approach, since mine gave me a decline in success rate, 154 seconds on a problem is okay, as long as you solve them!

- From a Novice Nook by Heisman: The second book in the It's Your Move-series by Ward (It's Your Move. Improvers) actually is the easiest.
It is only a little out of reach: I solved Test 1 Question 2 correctly.

- It may be a rule of blogger etiquette to notify someone when you link to him or her, either in a post or on a sidebar?

- The Mammoth Book of Chess and The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games are actually two different books.
No problem, I'll just have to get them both.

Chess Tactics Server

This morning I had a small session on the Chess Tactics Server, it really amazes me that, if that information is in fact accurate, there are so many Dutch tacticians there. Apparently there is a huge Dutch chess scene, in combination with good Internet access.

With the first third or so problems I really was in some kind of flow, no matter what the rating I just knew what to do. I did lose some points there, but I just didn't fail. Then in the second third it was 50/50 and the last third went rather well again. In the end I had a score of 35/49 correct, which translate too 71,4%.

Although I don't particularly like seeing my rating drop, I really feel that getting my succes percentage from at least 2/3 to 3/4 is the right path to follow. After all, practicing tactics is a mean and not an end. One missed tactic can and will loose a game, a few tenths or hundreds of seconds won't necessarily do so.

This is my current status at the Chess Tactics Server:

Handle mentat
Country Netherlands
Rating 1204
Current RD 48.8
Highest Rating 1247
Date of HR 2008 Jul, 03 - 10:38
Tries 705
Success 65.5 %

I hope to be doing session of, for starters, about 50 problems daily. Let's see what happens. I won't write about it daily, I don't want to bother my, so far non-existent(?), audience and I'm more interested in long-term results.


Look at the steep climb that starts around the 150 last problems, that was that flow I was talking about.

Books to start with, books to begin with

People who want to improve their chess like buying books and at that I'm certainly no exception, I have to hold myself back from buying books anyway.

When I got tired of just reading chess blogs, that went largely beyond my comprehension anyway, when I was done doing some exercises on the Chess Tactics Server on an irregular base, and when I had had it with getting my ass handed to me with the very few games that I played I started thinking about getting a bit more serious about chess and improving myself. The natural response is obvious: start buying chess books!

So that's what I set out to do, but where to start. A friend of mine, we'll call him Jabba, lend me a copy of a Dutch translation of:
A.J. Gillam, Simple Chess Tactics, 1978.

Whilst working my way trough this book I wanted more, more exercises and a more thorough understanding of the basics based on a modern method. To start with the latter, thankfully I live in the Netherlands where there are several choices for books that are based on the infamous Steps Method. This is also the method where Tasc Chess Tutor is based on.

I got myself a complete series of five books so I had all Steps. ("Step" is the English translation of the Dutch word Stap.
Brunia & Wijgerden, Lekker Schaken. Stap 1
Brunia & Wijgerden, Lekker Schaken. Stap 2
Brunia & Wijgerden, Lekker Schaken. Stap 3
Brunia & Wijgerden, Lekker Schaken. Stap 4
Brunia & Wijgerden, Lekker Schaken. Stap 5
(= Let's Play Chess. Step 1 etc.)

Now I had the basics covered and got Dutch translations/editions of the first three of a four book series that would provide me with quite some exercises. I can't find proof of existence of that fourth one anywhere, although it is mentioned in at least one of those books. It's possible it wasn't published, or that at least there wasn't a Dutch edition of it.
A.J. Gillam, Starting Chess, 1977/1978, 128 pages (nice to have the first part of the series as well, however it's useless compared to the Steps!)
A.J. Gillam, Simple Chess Tactics, 1978, 136 pages
A.J. Gillam, Simple Checkmates, 1978, 128 pages

Then I got myself a birthday present and a motivational tool: Once I can understand this one, I'll know a thing or two about chess.
R.J. Fischer, My 60 Memorable Games, Faber and Faber, 1972 (or a later reprint), 384 pages

Currently I've ordered a few books, but I'll write about those once I've got them.

And so it begins...

After lurking in the shadows for months, after having acuired several books and after having made some comments and even, I might say, small contributions to the chess blogosphere, having decided that, at least for this summer, I'm going to try to study chess on a more regular schedule, I thought it was a nice idea to track my progress, ideas and challenges.

I want to write about the plan that will make me a force to be reckoned with, the books and other materials that I have and use and those I would like to have or use at a certain moment in time. And, if there are any, the games I've played.

The fact that I'm now unable to get my rating at the Chess Tactics Server below 1100 and that at one moment in time Blue Devil Knight had a rating there that wasn't much higher gives me the feeling that all is not lost. My name on CTS, is mentat, it's the same at Chess Tempo, but I haven't been as active on the latter compared to CTS.

That's all for today folks.

P.S. I'm not sure yet if I'll stay here or start at wordpress with their nice tabs.