Friday, March 20, 2009

My memory ain't what it used to be....

In my quest for the Ultimate chess truth a'la De La Maza I've come to a conclusion that repetitions are not for me. I just learn the solution and on second time round recall, "Oh, it's this and that sack" and miss all the little funny things in position, which are really the key why the position "works". The problem is probably related to the fact that I really really really feel disgusted when repeating those problems...
Another memory failure I noticed is what I would call an autodrive-mode. I can go through games or play a game or two and afterwards I have only vague reflections, like "there were some interesting bishop move" or "the opening move was e4" etc etc.
Gives me a feeling that if I can't recall anything concrete on what I've just trained then how am I supposed to improve at all...
Curiously a blindfold check after doing something chess related seems to cure this autodrive syndrome.
On a more positive note, I've been reading books by Iain M Banks and even if my chess is stalling, reading is still very enjoyable...

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Kakkakakkara

Cts is proving to be a lot harder nut to crack than I thought. The reason for this is because, (surprise surprise) I suck;-). Funny thing is I can't even recall problems rated 1900+ right, somehow my mind just tricks me to focus on different aspects on a position and afterwards I can only wonder how I didn't see the obvious right away...
This "head banging" and reading about other bloggers trying to master "the art of visualization" gave me an idea that I should try visualization as well. So I'll try reading some games on "blindfolded guess a move mode" and solve tactics blindfolded. Maybe cts would go better if I could understand the piece relations and filter out the unwanted noise in positions...