Supercharge day 1 - My goals
Today I start to write my daily experiences about the 21 days to Supercharge your chess course
The structure of the study of Day 1 was the following:
- Theoretical section:
finding and writing down my goals I want to reach by studying 21 days to Supercharge your chess course
- Practical section:
1. Studying a master game about attack the uncastled king
2. Solving 6 tactical exercises
3. Solving 1 endgame puzzle
The first chapter of the course book talked about the importance of setting goals.
I experienced also in my life how important to have an exact goal with a deadline. It helped my to focus my energy and improved my productivity.
1st exercise: Set up my goals
1. I want to study chess in an organized way. I hope 21 days of organized study of the course will build my habit to create and follow my study plans after the course finished.
2. I want to win a Titled tuesday tournament in 2016
3. I want to win a Death match in 2016
4. I want to be one of the top 10 rated blitz (3-5 minutes game) player on chess.com
2nd exercise: Study an example about how to attack an uncastled king
There is a position analysis outline in 21 days to Supercharge your chess course book which I needed to use to evaulate the position:
1. Material on the board
This step is very straightforward. We compare the number of pieces and pawn to the opponent’s. For ease of evaluation it is common to use a point (pawn) value system and add the number of points to get the total score for each side.
2. Presence of Threats
If you have an extra rook, but you lose a queen the very next move, it is quite incorrect to assume that you have any sort of advantage. Therefore, it is very important to check for threats and possible combinations that your opponent may have before continuing with a full analysis.
3. Position of the Kings
Position of the kings and their safety is an important aspect of position analysis, since if you’re getting checkmated 3 moves from now; it’s meaningless to talk about any positional advantages or better pawn structures you may have. You should do a relative comparison of positions of the kings and take into account the presence of any sorts of threats for their safety. You need to make a conclusion about whose king is safer and how much.
4. Presence of open files and diagonals
You should evaluate the number of open files and diagonals as well as what side takes greater advantage of them (rooks on open files, bishops on long diagonals, etc.)
5. Pawn structure, weak and strong squares
You should evaluate the pawn structure, pawn weaknesses, presence of passed pawns, etc. Also it makes sense to evaluate the presence of weak and strong squares on the board. Strong squares are the squares that can be occupied by your pieces that cannot be removed (i.e. chased away) by your opponent’s pawns and vice versa.
6. Center and space
You need to evaluate the type of center we are dealing with in the current position. The center is considered not just the central squares (e4, d4, e5, d5) but also the pawns and pieces that control these squares. You need to pay specific attention to the type of center. The two most common structures are: dynamic and static. The dynamic center is the center that can change its form, for example by movement of pawns or pieces. The static center is the center that cannot change its form so easily. Also we need to distinguish between closed center and open center positions, based on the pawn structure.
Space – defined as availability and control of squares by one of the players. The more squares your pawns and pieces control the more special advantage you possess. Space is important, because the side with the greater amount of space has the luxury to more effectively organizing the pieces and maneuvering them for an attack/defense.
It is important to decide the type of the center you have and the amount of space you control since the overall game strategy is often dictated by the positional factors like this.
7. Development and Pieces Activity
You need to consider the activity of the pieces and their development, meaning how well are the pieces positioned, how many open diagonals, ranks, files they control. The easiest way to compare the pieces’ activity is by doing a relative comparison. For example, you take one of your pieces, and compare it to the opponent’s counterpart. Then you take another piece and so on. At the end you need to make a conclusion about whose pieces are more active.
Finally, after doing the position evaluation you need to come up with a conclusion what’s sides position is better and to come up with a plan for the game based on your evaluation. For example, if your position is better you must attack in order not to lose your advantage.
If your opponent’s position is superior, you need to find a defensive plan, at the same time, looking for counter play and counter attack.
The position was the following:
I will continue to write this article tomorrow. Until that I would like to give you a homework.
Please evaulate the position by using the criterias written before!
Write it in the comments section!
Until tomorrow you can find the details of the 21 days to Supercharge your chess course if you click here and you can become a student too.
You can read the 2nd part of this article at http://www.chess.com/blog/attilaturzo/supercharge-day-1---my-goals---part-2
