Chess: Tactics and more tactics

MEXICO CITY (process.com.mx).–Former world champion Max Euwe says: “Strategy requires thinking, tactics requires observation.” And this ingenious phrase contains an interesting chess truth. On the one hand, the strategy requires analyzing the environment, the qualitative elements of the position, the assessment of the different alternatives so that, eventually, the chess player can decide who has the advantage or how to get it. And this – of course – requires a meditation process that takes time. On the other hand, tactics is a relatively mechanical process: once the chess player has seen the elements of a possible tactical combination, he knows that it is possible to gain an almost inescapable advantage. It is evident that in some positions there may be details that change the nature of the position but in general, when certain elements are present, the combinations come out almost in a “routine” way, as the Mexican International Master Guil Russek has told me more than once. .

In other words, tactics can be learned and mechanized, because basically what is observed in the positions where there is a tactical solution is that the elements in what the pieces are doing on the board are repeated. Thus we find certain patterns that even already have names that define them, such as “the Greek sacrifice” or “Anastasia’s mate”.

Today there are many books where a series of tactical positions are compiled and the most common topics are studied. In fact, in I talked about a small manual that I wrote to work on the art of mastering tactics and that I send it for free to whoever asks me for it. However, there are other much more extensive works, where more than 1000 tactical positions, brilliant combinations, mating attacks, etc. have been compiled. Come on, the two best known for many years are the books by Fred Reinfeld: “1001 Mate Attacks” and “1001 Sacrifices and Brilliant Combinations”. And perhaps the greatest merit of the American author is that he made this enormous compilation when there were still computer programs to analyze and collect positions. Come on, he made it by hand.

However, although these books are almost required reading for the tournament player and those who seek to compete in the science game, today technology gives us a series of incredible tools. One of them is the app called CT-ART (Chess Tactics Art), which can be obtained for Android phones (with Apple’s iOS system). This app, in the phone version that you reader have, will You will be able to keep track of how you work on your tactics. How many exercises you do per day, how many you solve correctly, which ones you fail, etc. In addition, the system has interesting features, such as helping the user when they make a wrong move, indicating them. the general plan. Even if that is not enough, CT-ART will give you a 5×5 board with the basic elements of the topic being studied. The system deducts points when the chess player makes mistakes in the moves that it believes are the ones that are correct. resolve a particular position.

There are also versions for Mac and Windows, but I think the modern chess player should take advantage of now having in his hands a portable device that allows him to work on his tactics everywhere, on the bus, when waiting at the dentist’s office, etc. Therefore, there is no longer an excuse. You can download the free version of the app (limited in number of exercises), and for about 300 pesos, you can get the full version that contains about 2,200 exercises (based on the book “The Art of Combination”, by Maxim V .Blokh). If you like chess, CT-ART is an essential app to improve in the fertile field of chess tactics.