Puzzle for July 11, 2018

The solution appears at the bottom!

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

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If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

The solution to today’s puzzle is:

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1… Rxc6 2. bxc6 Rb1 0-1

Puzzle for July 10, 2018

The solution appears at the bottom!

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.  Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

The solution to today’s puzzle is:

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1. Nh6+ gxh6 (1… Kh8 2. Nxf7+ Kg8 3. Nxd8 Raxd8 4. Bxf6 gxf6 5. Qxf6 Be7) 2.Bxf6 Bg7 (2… Qxf6 3. Qxf6) 3. Bxd8 1-0

Tactics Update

Here’s an update on the tactics program with 90 days to go.

Date Day Correct/Missed
7/1/2018 Day 1 16/5
7/2/2018 Day 2 16/6
7/3/2018 Day 3 22/4
7/4/2018 Day 4 20/3
7/5/2018 Day 5 11/3
7/6/2018 Day 6 18/3
7/7/2018 Day 7 11/5
7/8/2018 Day 8 12/7
7/9/2018 Day 9 14/5
7/10/2018 Day 10 18/4

Something interesting happened today.  I wound up starting 3/3 but finishing 18/4.  Which is good since perhaps I’m internally disassociating from worry about the score itself and just focusing on the puzzles.

A lot of time I wind up with a gambler mentality and if I miss one or two I suddenly feel myself starting to want to play fast and loose and almost move like I’m playing a blitz game instead of looking at a position which I know has a concrete solution.

This is why I have days like the 11/5 and 12/7 days.  I started off bad and then felt like I was forcing it.

So perhaps this is a breakthrough of sorts.  That would be good!

In the meantime, while I intend to carry on with this task since it’s 15 minutes of random positions, I also intend to start making physical flashcards so I can use the woodpecker method on about 500 or so problems.

All in all I feel like my tactics continue to slowly improve, so that’s a start.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.  Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

Look Deeper!

Sometimes when you first look at a position you have a candidate move that you would like to play, but it doesn’t appear that it works, so you simply dismiss it.

Here’s a great example of such a position from a game of mine five years ago.

It’s black to move, and I really wanted to play 12…a4 here.  But it looks like it just hangs to the knight, right?

I looked at 12…a4 13.Nxa4

Here of course I can sack the exchange, but I didn’t see a follow up.  Yes, I can win the c pawn with something like 13…Bxc4 14.Bxc4 Nxc4

Without a doubt I’m a bit better here, but the attack is gone.  It didn’t seem like enough so I just tossed 12…a4 aside.

What I should have done was look deeper.  After all, there are other ways of undermining White’s pawn structure which don’t require me to sack the exchange at all.

Had I looked deeper, perhaps I’d have found the following:

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.  Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

Sutovsky Interviews Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Svidler, and More!

If you are like me and enjoy quality interviews with chess personalities then here are some links to some amazing interview that ACP President GM Emil Sutovsky recently conducted.

Boris Gelfand

Anna Muzychuk

Georg Meier

Vassily Ivanchuk

Peter Svidler

Thank you thank you thank you to GM Sutovsky for not only conducting such wonderful interview, but also for making them so accessible to everyone!

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.  Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

How Many Hours Per Day Should One Study?

Of course this is a question that many of us ask ourselves, but the true answer always boils down to one thing…

WHAT you do, and HOW EFFICIENTLY you do it is much more important that HOW LONG you do it for.

While it’s for sure a true statement to say that the more study time one puts in the better the odds for good results, it’s also true that how that time is used it much more important than how much time is used.

Here is an excellent article by GM Sergey Shipov on this subject. https://thechessworld.com/articles/training-techniques/how-many-hours-per-day-to-work-on-chess-according-to-gm-shipov/

I myself have been spending anywhere from 30-90 minutes per day on chess for a long time, but only recently have I started really trying to focus those efforts and make them count for something.

I’m hoping to see a payoff from that in the not too distant future.

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.  Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

Puzzle for July 9, 2018

The solution appears at the bottom!

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.  Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

The solution to today’s puzzle is:

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1.Qxh5+ Rxh5 2.Bg6#

Daily Puzzles Update

So far I haven’t gained a single email subscriber since I added the daily puzzle feature.

I’m hoping that changes.  My daily traffic has stayed the same as well.

It was a lot of work adding those puzzles to the blog, so I’m hoping that one of these two things changes and I either start seeing an increase in email subscribers or an increase in daily traffic to the site.

Either would be a great indicator that this is worth the few hours it took!

Time will tell!

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.  Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

Puzzle for July 8, 2018

The solution appears at the bottom!

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.  Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

The solution to today’s puzzle is:

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1.Rd1 f5 2.Ba2 – there are also alternate solutions after moves like 1…Kf7 which are essentially the same.

Puzzle for July 7, 2018

The solution appears at the bottom!

Til Next Time,

Chris Wainscott

If you like this blog, please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.  Any money I raise will go towards lessons and stronger tournaments.

If you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter.  Even $1 a month can help me achieve my dream.

The solution to today’s puzzle is:

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1.b5+ Kxc5 2.b6+