Improve your Chess via Active Learning
ACTIVE LEARNING is any
strategy that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things
they are doing (*)
The overall strength as well as strength and weaknesses pertained to various
aspects of chess can be determined by evaluating your decision making in
critical situation. In my training, I artificially design these situations (by
carefully selecting and sometimes modifying positions that had occurred before)
and then test my students as well as teach them through these tests. Another
bonus of this method is efficiency - when my students work through each example,
their skills are assessed for more then one area of chess. Consider the
following position from my book
Chess Exam Matches You vs. Bobby
Fischer.
Imagine this
- you are facing a very challenging opponent whose rating is several hundreds
points higher than yours. You manage to stay competitive and arrive to the
following position, in which your opponent just recaptured the N and is
attacking your Q. The position is anything but quiet, and you have many options
to consider. Which one would you pick? How do you feel about the position?
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4 - 1 |
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How do you evaluate the position? |
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A |
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White is Winning |
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B |
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Nearly Equal |
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C |
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Black is Better |
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D |
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Black is Winning |
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4 - 2 |
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How should White respond? Why? |
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A |
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19. Qd2-e2 |
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B |
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19. Qd2-f2 |
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C |
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19. Qd2xd5 |
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D |
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19. Be3-g5 |
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#4. After
19...Rd8x(N)d5 |
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STOP -
The answer is below.
Assessing you skills while 'battling' Bobby Fischer
It is very
important that you seek the best move and assess the position correctly while
disregarding the difference in ratings between you and your opponent. As long as
you play well, you can succeed even against a much higher rated opponent.
|
#4. After 19...Rd8x(N)d5 |
In
this case, the dynamics of the position are outweighing the static
aspects (i.e. White's slightly better pawn structure). The first move to
consider here is the immediate
19.Qxd5.
You must take a very careful approach and calculate this move
thoroughly. If it works, you win a R at the minimum, hence you can spend
as much time as you need checking this move. Unfortunately, it works
only if Black cooperates:
19...Pxd5??
20.Rxc8+ Bf8 21.Bh6
and White wins. Instead, Black can interject with
19...Qxe3+
and then capture the Q, winning the game. Hence, White must think
defense and not counterattack. In view of the weak e3-B, the Q can only
go to e2 or f2.
19.Qe2
looks counter-intuitive as it allows the pin that can't be resolved.
After
19...Re8
Black should eventually achieve a victory. Finally, the modest
19.Qf2
addresses all the threats and enables White to play a balanced position
with no weakness. Black has weak Ps on the Q-side, but compensate this
by more active pieces. The position is approximately
equal.
|
Will you be
able to get a positive result in this game after playing 19.Qf2 against someone
much higher rated, Bobby Fischer for example. Probably, but certainly you will
have a good chance, because you assessed the position properly and played the
best move. You will have no chance if you picked another move, or believed that
after 19.Qf2 your position is bad.
Back to helping you assess your skills - out of 13 categories which are assessed
in the book, your score for this position applied to 5 – Middlegame, Tactics,
Defense, Equal positions, Sacrifice. This position may seem not too difficult,
but as you can see from the score distribution (link below) only 59% of those
tested picked the correct combination (B-B).
See how I
presented this position in
my book -
click here
Position #4.
If you own the
book, please let me know your thoughts.
==============================================================================================
Summary:
Try to
evaluate
judiciously how you perform in critical positions. Further classification of
these positions can help you identify areas that need immediate improvement.
Stay focused, evaluate your options carefully and be positive. Good luck!
==============================================================================================
What do you think about this article? How did you do? For comments,
corrections send email or use
this
form
More on chess training (serious and enlightening)
in my books:
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Autographed and Personalized (when requested), 2011-2012 Chess
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Copyrighted @ 2012 Igor
Khmelnitsky
For comments or permission to reprint
please send inquires via email or
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(*Bonwell, C.,
& Eison, J. (1991). Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom
(ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1). Washington, DC: George Washington
University, p. 2)
