Here are the final verdict after working my way through Igor Khmelnitsky's fine book.
The overall score (1446) is probably fairly accurate. My Chess Buddies at the office are both rated 1550ish and I feel half a step behind those guys.
I am still surprised by my crappy Tactics Score. Well, I just need to keep "finding those forks" on a daily basis.
| Category | Score | % | ELO |
| Overall | 280 | 46.6% | 1446 |
| Middlegame | 158 | 41.6% | 1372 |
| Endgame | 122 | 55.5% | 1698 |
| Calculation | 83 | 46.1% | 1552 |
| Strategy | 92 | 57.5% | 1668 |
| Tactics | 105 | 40.4% | 1274 |
| Attack | 81 | 50.6% | 1366 |
| Counterattack | 99 | 49.5% | 1470 |
| Defense | 100 | 41.7% | 1609 |
| You are Better | 133 | 60.5% | 1640 |
| Equal | 96 | 43.6% | 1359 |
| You are Worse | 51 | 31.9% | 1270 |
| No Sacrifice | 161 | 57.5% | 1656 |
| Sacrifice | 119 | 37.2% | 1257 |
Posts
Yeah, repetition is a huge part of tactics.
ReplyDeleteMy opponent last week, he asked me if I had spent all my time to find the ...Bc5 skewer, and I replied "No, I spotted that in 2 seconds, was planning on what I was going to do if you _didn't_ do that." Then I thought to myself "If you had lost to that move/pin a couple hundred times like I have, you'd probably find it, too!"
;-D
I've known that tactics are my weak-spot for quite a long-time now. When I started studying them, my OTB results instantly improved in a big way. Of course, I mostly slack and read other books, so I can get very rusty as well.
Tactics are weird! Or, it is very easy to overlook the difference between "Here is a problem for you to solve" and "Here is a game for you to play".
ReplyDeleteI should do this too...not sure if I would go for the Fischer book, or the original....Is this a repeatable exam or just a one-time exercise ?
ReplyDeleteThe difference between the books is probably small. I somehow liked the Fischer book a little better. It felt slightly more polished and streamlined.
ReplyDeleteWell, I suppose you can take the exam many times (i.e. solving the problems and adding the scores) if you just photo copy the score sheets.
I liked the very first book a little bit more and I am sure that you can re-do it another time. I am not so sure about this one.
ReplyDeleteThe good thing is that it's worth to take the positions and play them out against a computer to proof that something is indeed winning or drawing.
I just finished the Bobby Fischer book, my overall rating was an astonishing 1920. This can't be right, or at least it doesn't reflect my real strengt. On the other hand it shows that with enough time I am able to pick the right moves. Now I only have to find them. :-)
More in my own blog later this week.
Wow! You have potential for the Game. I will have to make do with passion.
ReplyDeleteHa, I got my calculation wrong, the overall rating is 1750. Still quite good, just 6 months ago it was only 1450.
ReplyDeleteThat is solid improvement, amigo! Keep it up!
ReplyDelete