Wednesday (Kinda) Warrior Roundup Week of 8/12

Sorry for the slight delay. It’s been one heck of a week since returning from the US Open.

To see how tactics fit into my overall training plan, please read it here.

I have been, and will continue to, scream from the rooftops that something sorely lacking in many players’ training process is spending a bit of time solving “simple” puzzles. Simple, in quotes, since simple for one may be difficult for another, and vice versa.

However, this should be a tiny fraction of your overall training. Maybe 10% at most of your overall tactics training time.

That is why I added Priming the Pump.” First, we solve some simple stuff to get the ol’ brain moving, then we work on the harder stuff. Keep in mind that these puzzles are shown from the side that will be on move after the move in the caption.

This serves as a visual example of the time frame I gave above. Here, you have four puzzles, all of which should be solved relatively quickly, followed by one extremely difficult puzzle, which will force you to work on calculation unless you are already a very advanced player.

You can pick up the book I use for the harder stuff here. Combinative Motifs by Maxim Blokh. Don’t worry that the primary language isn’t English. The puzzles and solutions are understandable, and that’s all that matters.

Until now I have been using studies from Modern Endgame Studies by Jacques Mieses, recently updated by Carsten Hansen. I’ve been doing this because I am starting to incorporate more endgame studies into my own training. However, for the sake of expediency, since I now have Harold van der Heijden’s amazing endgame studies collection, I will be using these. This is due to the fact that copying a FEN and PGN take a fraction of the time that entering everything by hand does. I’m nothing, if not lazy.

Also, for anyone interested, here is a large list of books I recommend or that have been recommended to me over the years.

OK, let’s see how we primed our pumps.

That’s a free rook for White after