“Don’t Panic”, a book on tactics but also on chess history

I was beta tester of a book recently released in Chessable, Don’t Panic: A Chess Master’s Guide to Calculation, written by Martin Kreuzer, a FM and very strong Correspondence chess player.

Let’s first talk about the title , “Don’t Panic!” You will soon find out that is the right title when you go through a lot of positions in this course! For example, few minutes ago I got a puzzle where I thought white’s best move is … to resign! Seriously, the position what im my eyes simply lost! I was somehow overwhelmed and even didn’t try to find the solution- a queen’s sac with subsequent mate in two with both knights. Check, check, check mate. Actually simple if you check the forced moves first, right?

These and many other puzzles are just incredible, especially when we consider that many were composed by old masters - no engines, just brains working hard finding these beautiful patterns!

Here we come to a very interesting aspect of this course. You will not only learn a lot of useful and unusual patterns and have plenty of material to practice visualization and calculation, but you will be delighted by the stories about these early masters. This course remembers me on the excellent book “On the Origin of Good Moves” by Willy Hendriks (yes, the same author of the bestseller “Move First, Think Later”), where the author emphasizes the importance of studying the history of chess. The difference that in the present course the author emphasizes more the old masters, like Francesc Vicent, Philipp Stamma, Ercole del Rio, and others. I think the most recent author considered here is Andria Dadiani, born 1850, a guy I never heard before, an uncompromising attacking player. His combinations are really mind blowing!

The book remembers me also David Smerdon’s excellent “The Complete Chess Swindler”, especially when you consider the puzzles where you have to find a way to save a half point. My skills in these kind of puzzles are very underdeveloped. I will try to change this by studying this course.

My task in this course was to test some of the puzzles from the chapters 1 to 8, and 13.
I thought “great, I got the easy and funny job from all beta testers!”

However, I soon began to doubt if the job was that easy! Chess problems are done with the specific purpose to provide unusual, aesthetic solutions. Sometimes you will find puzzles which are used in other courses on tactics. However, often you have to use your brain to find the solution. The thing is that I didn’t know that the puzzles from the first chapter were not necessarily the most simple ones! I worked quite a lot with different tactical course in Chessable and was first very confident to solve the puzzles quickly, but I spent 8 minutes to find the key move in the first puzzle. The second I found in 2 minutes, a beautiful mate. In the puzzle 3 however I spent 40 minutes and didn’t get the solution! I showed the position to my wife, which never played chess but has a very developed sense of logic and know how to move the pieces. (Some years ago we tried a while to solve chess problems from newspapers, and she was good in this!) I showed what was the problem in the position, but she couldn’t help me to find the key move. I will never know if I would be able to find the solution, because at a certain moment I unintentionally touched the screen and the solution appeared. (Or was this perhaps half intentionally?). Anyway, it was a logical, actually simple move. As almost always in puzzles when you see the solution, right?

At this point I had the impression I would not be able to solve these puzzles until the deadline if I would spend so much time in each position. My problem is that I have a lot of difficulties in calculation because my visualization skills are underdeveloped. (For example, in real life I have huge problems in spatial orientation.) I can’t make the pieces stay in place in my mind when I calculate. It is somehow easier if I close my eyes and don’t see the position, but I am neither a good blindfolded player, so…For this reason my main training in Chessable is to absorb as much tactical patterns as I can with the hope that I will be able to recognize them in my games. That’s is why I don’t get better in calculation. A vicious circle, as you can imagine.

I was relieved when in subsequent chapters I found puzzles that I could solve within seconds, and my confidence began to increase again. In some puzzles I knew immediately the solution, but again, in others I didn’t have any idea how to approach the position.

I know now why GMs (like Colovic) say that they like to practice calculation and visualization by solving chess problems. You have few pieces on the board, so you can try to calculate all relevant lines. You have this kind of immersion that you experienced when playing serious, long games. Additionally you have these amazing patterns which you will not forget so fast if you really tried hard to find the solution.

To summarize, I am sure that players from different levels (but not necessarily below 1000 in online chess) will learn a lot from these puzzles. I highly recommend it for all students who would like to improve calculation and visualization, as this is the ideal course for this kind of training. For students below 1200: you don’t have to try hard to solve the difficult puzzles. It is enough to give a try, check the solution, understand it, and try to play the line two or three times in your head and afterwards pausing it. You still have enough material to work with.

Addendum: Yesterday I saw that the author released the course with video. The video material is great, as the author will discuss the position and at the end give the solution without playing the moves on the board - he will highlight the squares where the pieces move, giving us the opportunity to visualize the line. It an useful tool, adding a lot to the already outstanding course.

That was an interesting review, thank you! I liked the paragraph most where you and your wife solved puzzles together to meet the beta deadline. If I want tactics, like many, I open one of the 2 or 3 books I have. But new quality online courses are great and it is good to know where to find one. Kreuzer, a correspondence grandmaster, a mathmatician, seems to be a nice and engaging chess personality. I will watch the teaser portion of his video to find out more. Thank you again for the tip.

Is it a book, or only a Chessable course?

Thanks. The book is very underrated. I am sure that players from all levels will love it, especially if they are also interested in chess history.

As far as I know only Chessable.

Good history should not be locked up in such a manner.

Amish, did you forget to take your medication this morning? Thanks for sharing your confused thoughts. The song is good though.