Trying to find the tension between going after big, tangible goals and yet still holding them lightly enough that you can still feel an explosion of joy crossing the line in 5th. Focused on the process & for preparation to meet opportunity. But plan to enjoy it no matter what
Sarah Hall, athlete
First of all, apologies for being a day late. It's been quite a weekend one way and another.
My trailer for The Invisible Chess Podcast has now launched. You can find it on Spotify and most other places you like to get your podcasts. Unless where you like to get your podcasts happens to be itunes which takes a couple of weeks to set up, apparently.
Please do have a listen and like/subscribe/help get the word out there.
Secondly, again if you're here from Ben Johnson's marvellous newsletter, you may not know yet that this is a weekly series aimed at newcomers to blindfold chess that builds from the beginning. You may prefer to check out week one and work your way through.
Alternatively, if you're looking for something a little more challenging, you might want to follow me on twitter (@unseenchesspod) where I often post more difficult puzzles and positions.
MAKING YOUR OWN FUN
I mentioned last week that in Week Seven I was going to talk about something comedian Stewart Lee said in a recent interview. Subsequently I realised it would fit so much better with next week's topic and decided that I should save it for Week 8.
So instead, today I'm going to address how to find blindfold puzzles. There are a few specialist books out there (Martin's published two good ones) but if you aside from them, you can always build your own library of workout material. And you could do this even with positions that would be difficult to solve even without sight of the board.
As an example, I saw this position (but in a diagram) on twitter last week:-
WHITE:
Kb6; Re5, Be4, c3
BLACK:
Kd7; c4, e2, e3
White to play and win.
It's a study by Reti. And it's by no means trivial to solve.
And yet, we can still turn it into study material for our blindfold training whatever our level. How? By asking ourselves questions.
For example:
(Assuming they don't move again, which of the Black pawns are currently on squares tha would allow them to be captured by the White bishop?
What diagonals is the White king on?
How about the Black king?
How many different ways could White check the Black king on move 1?
How many of those checks are 'safe' (i.e. would not drop material)?
Which is the most dangerous Black pawn for White, and why is that potentially a problem for the White bishop?
You see? These are all really good questions to ask for your day's blindfold work. And they're easy to think up and you don't even necessarily need to visualise the whole board to ask and answer them.
When I come across a position like this I either put it straight into my notebook or I email it to myself to do so later. It only takes a few seconds and before you know it you're building an impressive training library.
The other thing you're doing is reminding yourself that "solving the problem" isn't the point. It's all just training material for us, and an opportunity to build our skills. Our goal, remembering the Sarah Hall quote at the head of today's blog, might be to get every puzzle right, but sometimes it just isn't going to work out like that. We might not cross the finish line first or even at all. That doesn't mean we can't be successful or enjoy ourselves.
WEEK SEVEN EXERCISES
In the spirit of this week's theme, the exercises are all taken from three difficult studies published in John Nunn's book Solving in Style. Feel free to try and solve them blindfold if you like - or even set them up on the board - but your daily blindfold training is to answer some questions about each position.
STUDY A: V & M PLATOV 1907
WHITE:
Ka8; Rc3
BLACK:
Kh8; Bd1; d2, d6
White to play and draw
EXERCISE ONE:
What colour squares are the pieces on?
What diagonals are the pieces on?
Wich are the two pieces that are only on one diagonal?
EXERCISE TWO:
Is it possible for Black to check the white king? Would that be 'safe'? (HINT: it's not. Why not?)
Assuming Black could make several moves in a row, how many moves would it take for Black to move the bishop to a square where it could give a check without being captured?
STUDY B: V & M PLATOV, 1909
WHITE:
Kg3; Be7; Ng1; d3, h5
BLACK:
Ke3; a2, d5, h7
White to play and win
EXERCISE THREE:
What colour squares are the pieces on?
What diagonals are the pieces on?
EXERCISE FOUR
How many ways could White check the Black king on move 1?
Assuming White could make several moves in a row, how many moves would it take for the knight to reach a square where it would check the black king?
STUDY C: GURGENIDZE 1976
WHITE:
Kc5; Ng1; c7
BLACK:
Ka4; Rd3
White to play and win
EXERCISE FIVE:
Why can't White just win by promoting the pawn 1. c8=Queen?
How many different squares could the White knight move to? How many of those are safe?
And finally,
EXERCISE SIX:
Find your own position - either a study or a position from a game - or maybe a puzzle you say online somewhere. Note it down, including some questions about that position.
Leave it aside a few days. Come back and try to answer those questions without setting up the board and pieces.
Have a good week everybody.