Chess for Tigers

CfT-2022-04-25_233203.jpg


“Human affairs are like a Chess game: only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players”
— Hung Tzu Ch’eng



Chess is a beautiful Memory Game. But the history is full of beautiful discoveries that people has ruined. Alas, chess is beautiful only while you play it without any ambition of World Glory. If you made that mistake, you will probably try to learn more from the books… Dull, boring, heavy books, full of secret moves coded in foreign languages, or even coded with the algebraic chess notation, or the cryptic English descriptive notation. Most people quickly give up this torture – and also drops chess! Are there no interesting books that can show you the spirit of the game while you can enjoy reading? Well, there is ‘My System’ by Aaron Nimzowitsch. And there is one more book that could stimulate your interest in the game. I am going to show this book to you now…

Late Simon Webb has authored a book that might interest you as a beginner. It is titled ‘Chess for Tigers’, it was first published in 1978, and at its cover it is said:

„The tiger is a vicious beast. He doesn’t care about the aesthetic side of chess. He doesn’t even care about making the ‘best’ moves. All he cares about is winning.”



So, if you feel tigrish, you can find the book at this link:

Tiger-2022-04-25_233259.jpg

Chess for Tigers



The book has 15 chapters, which all sound VERY interesting…

  1. So you want to be a Tiger? 7
  2. Play the man – not the board 9
  3. Looking in the mirror 22
  4. How to improve your opening repertoire 35
  5. How to catch Rabbits 42
  6. How to trap Heffalumps 51
  7. Fortune favours the lucky 66
  8. How to win won positions 83
  9. What to do in drawn positions 93
  10. Clock control 100
  11. How to avoid Silly mistakes 120
  12. Team Play 123
  13. Quick Play 134
  14. Correspondence Chess 140
  15. Are you ready…? 151

…which does not mean they are all useful as the one that says ’Play the man – not the board’, or the ones of hunting rabbits and heffalumps. For this occasion I am going to show you the shortest and the least useful:


* * * Chapter 11 * * *

Tiger-2022-04-25_233429.jpg

Are you prone to making silly mistakes? Many chess-players are. I know some who never lose without making a ‘silly mistake’. If only they could cure this weakness they would all be World Champions.

So first we must distinguish between these sorts of ‘silly mistake’ and genuine Blunders. By a Blunder I mean a move which allows your opponent an immediate win of material, or to wreck your position with a reply you hadn’t considered. Other ‘silly mistakes’ include playing a combination which is not quite sound, or allowing your opponent's attack to break through slightly more quickly than it should have done. How often have you heard players saying ‘I was holding him easily, but then I blundered and let him win a pawn’, when what they mean is that they could have held out for a few more moves with a different defence? These latter types of ‘silly mistake’ will disappear from your play as soon as you learn to be objective, and recognize them as part of the normal hazards of chess. There is an element of risk in playing combinations, and bad positions are always liable to become worse. Then you will realize that they are not really 'silly mistakes' at all.

Here I am concerned with cutting down on real Blunders. Look what happened to me in the following position against Jeff Horner, played at Blackpool, 1977.

Tiger-2022-04-26_024655.jpg

31… ♛c6??? 32. ♘e7+

Black resigns

This was a traumatic experience, and also cost me £150, for this game was in the last round of the tournament, which Horner and I were leading with 4/4, and the position should be won for Black with careful play.

The solution

Immediately after this nasty accident, I adopted a method which over the next few years virtually eliminated one move Blunders from my play. Write the move down first. Of course you already knew about this, didn’t you? You've seen other players doing it, but probably you think you can decide on your move and check it mentally before playing it. That’s what I thought! But I still left my queen en prise.

After taking up this method I found that I nearly always played the move which I wrote down, changing about one in fifty on average, and not all these changes were because I was about to make a Blunder. For a very small effort I saved myself quite a lot of points over the next few years, and so it was well worth it. Try it, and you won’t regret it!

Now for the details of exactly how and when to put the writing-downfirst method into operation. Don't write down the first move that comes into your head, and then start thinking about it. Think first, and when you have decided which move to play, write it down on your score-sheet. Then spend a few seconds checking that your opponent has no unexpected reply. Assuming that you don't spot anything you should be able to make your move within 10-30 seconds of writing it down. If you take longer than this, you may start running into time-trouble. Tigers generally cover their move up so that their opponent can't see it, and sometimes go so far as to disguise their hand movements when writing the move down, but this is not essential! The extra few seconds your opponent has to think will not make a great difference, but all the same there is no point in giving him something for nothing.

In the opening, when you know which move you are going to play, it may seem a bit pointless writing it down first, and this is up to you. Two more important exceptions, however, are the following:

(1) When you are in time-trouble, you shouldn't use your own time to record your opponent’s moves, let alone your own. A convenient guideline might be to stop writing your own moves in advance when you have less than ten minutes left, and to stop writing your opponent’s moves in your own time when you have less than five minutes left, although of course if you only have one or two moves to make then this doesn't apply.

(2) When you have a lost position, you will probably be less in the mood for being extra careful, and as pointed out in the chapter on Swindling, it can be a good idea to appear to be losing interest, in the hope that your opponent will get careless and play too quickly. So I prefer not to write my moves down first when I have a really bad position.

Remember that if you can reduce your Blunders by as little as 50 per cent you will save yourself quite a few points over the season, unless you're a bit of a Superman already. You won’t eliminate them completely, but I guarantee that writing the move down first will significantly reduce them.

* * * End of Chapter * * *



So, if you like what you see, and are ready to Play the man (and not the board)…

Tiger-2022-04-25_233338.jpg

…then you are welcome to our Hive (li)chess tournaments with some serious tradition :)

DayTournamentGMTCETHost(s)
FriHivechess Tournament20:0021:00@stayoutoftherz
SatChess Tournament20:0021:00@schamangerbert
SunChess Brothers League19:0020:00@chessbrotherspro
SunPIZZA CHESS22:0023:00@cryptoniusraptor
MonCheckmate coin Tournament20:1521:15@hive-129589, @giacomone and @petreius




* * *

Related texts / Повезани текстови:

The Last World Chess Championship Match? [eng/срп] Последњи меч за титулу шампиона света?

FIDE WBCC: King and Queen of Blitz [eng/срп] ФИДЕ СШЦШ: Краљ и краљица цугера

FIDE WRCC: A True Chess King! [eng/срп] ФИДЕ СШУШ: Прави краљ шаха!

FIDE WCC: Blundering a Way in Chess History [eng/срп] ФИДЕ меч за титулу: Превидима у историју шаха

FIDE WCC: Is this over already? [eng/срп] ФИДЕ меч за титулу: Је ли ово већ готово?

FIDE WCC: Curse of the Game Six [eng/срп] ФИДЕ меч за титулу: Уклета шеста партија

FIDE WCC Boredom (First five games) [eng/срп] Шампионска ФИДЕ досада (првих пет партија)

Little Russian Girl Playing Chess [eng/срп] Руска девојчица која игра шах

Hive Chess Tournaments Scoring & Reward System [eng/срп] Систем бодовања и награђивања на шаховским Хајв турнирима

Reverse Stafford as an Excuse [eng/срп] Обрнути Стафорд као изговор

Geri’s Game [eng/срп] Геријева партија

Chess Set design: Dubrovnik Set (Part V) [eng/срп] Дизајн шаховских фигура: Дубровник гарнитура (део пети)

Winning at the End of Times? [eng/срп] Победа у последња времена?

Of Toxic Politics and Chess Disaster [eng/срп] О токсичној политици и шаховској пропасти

BITCOIN: FTX Crypto Cup Finals – A Fistful of Satoshies [eng/срп] БИТКОИН: Финале ФТХ Крипто Купа – За шаку сатошија!

BITCOIN: FTX Crypto Cup Semifinals – A Mosquito Attack! [eng/срп] БИТКОИН: Полуфинале ФТХ Крипто Купа – Комарац напад!

BITCOIN: FTX Crypto Cup – Quarterfinals [eng/срп] БИТКОИН: ФТХ Крипто Куп – Четвртфинале

BITCOIN: FTX Crypto Cup – Caruana Wins Prelims [eng/срп] БИТКОИН: ФТХ Крипто Куп - Каруана осваја квалификације

Mortimer’s Trap [eng/срп] Мортимерова клопка

Chess – A Memory Game

BITCOIN: FTX Crypto Cup – The Strongest Chess Tournament in the World! [eng/срп] БИТКОИН: FTX Крипто Куп – Најјачи шаховски турнир на свету!

Dragon Blunder! [eng/срп] Змајски превид!

Sicilian Wall Headbanger! [eng/срп] Главом кроз сицилијански зид!

It’s Over! (FIDE Candidates 2020-21 - Round 13)

Deconstructing Fabiano (FIDE Candidates 2020-21 - Round 12)

Anishiative! (FIDE Candidates 2020-21 - Rounds 11–12)

Bringing Down the Najdorf! (FIDE Candidates 2020-21 - Rounds 8–10)

FIDE Candidates tournament 2020… in 2021!

Gambit of Othello, the Moore of Venice!

Chess Set design: Lardy Set (Part IV) [eng/срп] Дизајн шаховских фигура: Лардијева гарнитура (део четврти)

Chess Set design: Staunton standard variations (Part III) [eng/срп] Дизајн шаховских фигура: Варијације Стаунтон стандарда (део трећи)

Chess Set design: Staunton Standard (Part II) [eng/срп] Дизајн шаховских фигура: Стаунтон стандард (део други)

Chess Set design: Medieval Age (Part I) [eng/срп] Дизајн шаховских фигура: Средњи век (део први)



HIVE blog20200320_205320.jpg

hive.blog.lighteye_cr.jpg


Universal Basic Income


Google detox starts here!

PocketNet


Check out ABRA and easily invest in 28 cryptocurrencies or BIT10, an index of the top cryptos. Use this link to sign up and get $25 in free bitcoin after your first Bank/Amex deposit, or 1.5% cash back when you exchange cryptos

1GZQG69sEKiMXKgGw9TcGcUCBoC4sC1ZYp



0
0
0.000
6 comments
avatar

pixresteemer_incognito_angel_mini.png
Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
Week 103 of my contest just started...you can now check the winners of the previous week!
!PIZZA
8

0
0
0.000
avatar

Congratulations!


You have obtained a vote from CHESS BROTHERS PROJECT

✅ Good job. Your post has been appreciated and has received support from CHESS BROTHERS ♔ 💪


♟ We invite you to use our hashtag #chessbrothers and learn more about us.

♟♟ You can also reach us on our Discord server and promote your posts there.

♟♟♟ Consider joining our curation trail so we work as a team and you get rewards automatically.

♞♟ Check out our @chessbrotherspro account to learn about the curation process carried out daily by our team.


Kindly

The CHESS BROTHERS team

0
0
0.000