Is this appropriate for me to study (or should I do something more basic)?

Good evening,

First, I hope the tone of my last several posts hasn't seemed whiny. Actually, I doubt anyone pays attention to me at all, so here goes:

I am trying to work on tactics, since I believe it is my weakness. I am looking at 1001 Exercises for Beginners, and quite consistently feeling the exercises aren't very beginnerish--unless you happen to think an 1800 is a beginner, which I guess might be exactly what the author does think.

Anyway, below is a position. White has a material advantage and prospects for more, but Black has mate in 1 if he ever gets to play it. It's supposed to be a double attack motif for White. I indeed see the double attack after 1.Re8+ Kh7, which is 2.Qd3+, picking up the rook on c2 and defusing Black's attack. This is the main line of the problem. OK, fine.

What I don't see is why Black doesn't play 1...Bf8. I mean, sure, the engine says it loses faster. But over the board, to see that, you need to find first 2.Rxf8+ (an exchange sacrifice). Then, after 2...Kxf8, you've got 3.Nf5+ (a discovered check). Then, after 3...Kg8, you need 4.Qf8+ (a queen sacrifice). After that, you will have a back rank mate, assuming you noticed the knight on f5 is now covering two escape squares. And all this assumes Black plays 2.Kxf8, which he doesn't have to...

Further investigation reveals this is from a game between Vidmar and Euwe, and Euwe actually did play 1...Bf8 (and Vidmar does find the win). I'm even pleased to say they follow my preferred line, and I found it before I looked it up.

So...in a way I don't mind going through all this. It's fun and interesting in itself. But I'm not sure this is the best tactical drills for me... Certainly, I am a *very* long way from confidently snapping off 1.Re8+ as an obvious tactical win.

Question is in the title: Is this appropriate for me to study or should I find something else?

Can you do something more useful and post the whole game?

This positional FEN analysis doesn't tell us anything about how you approached the game and actually what you played.

The only thing I can guess is it might have been a Sicilian Dragon.

The game is Vidmar-Euwe 1929. The position is the exercise I was given. Here's the game if it helps.

What was the reason for 10. Qb3?

I'm guessing it completes development, connects the rooks, and attacks f7. It doesn't seem bad to me.

It loses the bishop. If you want that, why not Re1 instead?

It's not one bishop by itself. It's the bishop pair.

Stop being a doofus.

You mean it allows the bishop to be exchanged, right? It looks like an even material trade in return for opening lines in the center before Black is fully developed. Though 10.Re1 seems fine too of course.

But what about the position after 33...Qf4. Are you seeing 34.Re8+, and noticing that 34...Bf8 fails after 35.Rxf8+, followed by discovered check, queen sac, and backrank mate? That's the position I posted about--just not feeling it as a beginner exercise.

Edit: Corrected move numbering. Also, it's a discovered check in the thematic line, not a double. Sorry so sloppy.

It was themed as "double attack" and the book line assumed Black would actually play 34...Kh7, (after which there is a double attack available). This was the beginning of my journey because I said to myself "but I'd never play 34...Kh7 there."