We are very busy today. All sorts of things going on, including posting a lot of books.
So, this weeks training is the promised easier sheet (easier – not easy). The exercises can be found here and the solutions in pgn here.
Quality Chess Blog
by GM Jacob Aagaard & GM John Shaw
I have technical problems. The exercise sheet is ready, as is the solutions. I will upload them tomorrow.
Is there a suggested time limit?
Difficult enough for me.
Number 1, 5 and 6 did i solve in the right way. For me number 5 was the easiest to find.
Other three i missed, one time the best move to begin with, but not the right following up…..
My rating at the moment is 2163.
@dfan
Maybe 60-75 minutes.
@PeterM
The GMs got 2/6 in the actual games, so I guess you did not do badly at all :-). Still easier than last time I hope.
@Jacob Aagaard
Much easier indeed!
Of great help are also your three questions, as also your advices in your attacking maual. In one exercise it helped me making the right choice between two good moves (to my relief i saw that both moves were good)
Please can some one tell me Who is to move in these positions?
I clicked on here but the problems did not appear
A team of a 1750, 1500, and two 800s (USCF) got #s 1 and 4 correct.
@SovietSchool
The text should say so?
@russell williams
Here are the positions:
and here are the solutions:
http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/Solutions30sep2013.txt
1,5 & 6 Ok. 2,3 and 4 like the masters 😀
Elo Fide 1818
@tonifa
🙂
Got 1 2 3. But not 4 5 6
I can see reasons I got 4 5 6 wrong so useful exercise.
The original PDF did not say who was to move on my IPad so thanks to Jesse for reposting
By the way My Elo is 2105
1 – 4 were fine and position 6 I settled for the 2nd best move.
In position 4 in a real game situation with the pressure of the clock I probably would have made the natural move that was actually played in the game but in the classroom environment wasn’t too difficult to find the better move. Position 5 concentrated my efforts on the right idea but just couldn’t make my calculations work
Elo 2067
Well done. I think I will make this a monthly; first monday of the month!?
great news!!
Do anyone second this?
Yes, seconded! Thanks for posting these.
Jacob
If you have the time to do it every month then it’s great news!
Would be great to have this monthly, and it is interesting to hear other people’s experiences with the exercises.
One 1 got wrong as I did not look one move further after seeing the basic idea.
Another I sacrificed too early instead of inviting everyone to the party
And I missed one as I thought I saw a motif from a favourite game of Fischer Spassky Game 13 so overlooked a defence
Thirded or fourtheded!
I’m going to do a few more from QCPB before having a crack at these.
Fitheded ;-), nice idea. Although I haven’t yet found the time to do them…. Sunday with a cup or two of coffee :-).
My only request is that people give the score and rating for others to compare with :-).
5/6
Fide 2260
2/6 (no. 1 and 3), ELO around 1900
Thx
@Jacob Aagaard
1 – same first move but hadn’t seen the follow-up, was just going for strategical edge.
2 – yes, but with a mistake in calculation at move 5
3 – yes
4 – yes
5 – yes
6 – almost, but ultimately decided on wrong move with the original right move planned for move 3.
Fide 1870
Take a tick for the first one as well. I have GMs missing the idea of …Ne8.
SPOILER ALERT!!
I was close to 100%. In puzzle 2 my solution continued after 30…f6 with what I thought was a beatiful point: 31.gxf6+? Nxf6 32.Rg8+ Kf7 33.Ng5+ Qxg5 34.Rg7+!!
Unfortunately I missed 32…Kh6! and things are not easy 🙁
Still going strong I see!
I only got #1. I timed myself for 75 min. My rating is around 1900 USCF.
2/6 and my elo is around 1950, but I was too fast and I must work on creating the habit of focusing and concentrating harder.
@Gerando
Cool
2/6 (1 and 3), USCF 2000. Like Gerando, I need to slow down a bit, calculate more, and rely less on intuition.
Intuition does not work for tactics 🙂
Only got 1 and 3 (Spent 20 minutes on all of them).
Unrated.
1: I played the wrong knight to the right place :-), after Ne8 following up with 2.Rd4 with the idea 3. Rg4. I missed the nice combination of your solution.
2: I played the first three moves of your solution, but followed up with 4.Qc5 instead of 4.Qd4+
3: I had this one correct
4: I had this one correct as well
5: I missed the fantastic point in my calculations and therefore settled for 1…Qg4
6: I played the second best move
So only 2,5 points… My rating is 2217 (FIDE) and I took 55 minutes for the excercise.
2400, 40 minutes. All six, in the sense of choosing the right first move. Notwithstanding the GMs’ miserable performance in the games, this must be a very easy set, as normally my expected score would be something more like zero.
1 – a curious puzzle to my mind; Ngh5 is just the obvious move and would still be even if White didn’t have his trick (which I don’t think you really need to see to go 1 Ngh5). I don’t much care for this type of puzzle where the idea is that you don’t need any idea, but perhaps it’s just me.
2 Rd7 is of course a great move, but Ra8 with the idea of Qd8 is also crushing. Speaking of what humans see, this particular human saw gxf6+ Nxf6; Rg8+ and stopped there thinking he had the solution, but after …Kh6; Qxf6 Qxf6; Nxf6 Rf7 the ending is not really so clear at all. Given that White is better in the initial position, it would be mildly interesting to know if Caruana rejected Bxa6 because he saw that – it’s hard to believe he didn’t see it at all.
3 Very easy as a puzzle, and still an astonishing miss for a good player in a game.
4 Good puzzle
5 Much easier as a puzzle than in a game but still a nice point.
6 Didn’t see anything other than that Bxf6 didn’t work and that Ra3 stops …Nd7, which I take to be Black’s only idea (well, and …Nxd5, I suppose). Again Ra3 is just what you’d play in a blitz game, but at least here there’s a false trail.
Enjoying these – thanks.
Again I had trouble with the pdf.(I tried to solve those puzzles bevor Jesse reposted them.) I saw the positions but not whose move it is.
Elo 2140:
1.) Missed it completely, although it seems obvious in retrospect.
2.) Saw it, but missed Rd7.
3.) Straightforward calculation.
4.) 5.) Looked only for white ideas.
6.) Looked at the sac on f6 and when it wasn’t working, I decided that it was probably black to move … 😉
5/6 in 20 minutes
1) yes, but missed Ne8
2) yes
3) yes
4) yes (Saw the position before and must have remembered something)
5) yes
6) saw Ra3, but forgot about the check so Bxf6 first.
2050 elo
I got 1, 2 and 4. On the 3 I only looked at black winning back the rook, completely missed the perpetual and so chose Kxe4. On 5 I didn’t see how to continue after 19. Nxh4…. And the last one I opted for Raf1, but didn’t find anything after Ne8.
My Fide is 1896 and I used 60 mins.