Chess Tactics Server

One method suggested for chess improvement, particularly for people below 2000, is to solve lots of tactical problems (e.g. see de la Maza's approach summarised here). I have been using Chess Tactics Server for a long time now, and after a bit of a break came back to it today.

In total I have attempted 16,135 problems in the last few years, first under the account fj258 and later Alseki. It's interesting to see how rating changes over time. When I started out I think I was around 1100 on CTS, with a peak rating of 1392 after about 5000 problems, and 1522 (before today) after 16,000 problems. Improvement has seemed to be discontinuous, especially after the first few thousand problems - I spend a long time (and many hundreds of problems) in a range of ~20 from an average point, and then suddenly and unpredictably jump to a new average point. It's a little frustrating at times, but definately a good site to use if you are new to chess or keep making tactical mistakes. It helps with pattern recognition and board vision (the ability to percieve the basic interactions of all the pieces on the board very quickly).

I hit a new high today - 1566 - partly because of an uncharacteristically confident approach, but mostly because I had a high RD thanks to leaving the site for a while (a high RD means that the impact of each problem/answer on your rating is exaggerated). Really I'd have prefered it to stay down at 1522, because I won't be getting back to 1566 any time soon. By the end of the problem session I was down to 1480, which is more typical (sessions almost always seem to end with a trough rather than a peak...). Below are a few fun problems. They're not too tough, but on CTS you have to give your answers quickly. Highlight the hidden text below the image if you want to read the solution.


Black to play and win. Solution = ...Qxc2, clearing the f2 square with tempo (if black replies with Bxc2 then ...Nf2+ is a nice checkmate)


White to play and win. Solution = Rb8+, sacrificing the rook with gain of time and forcing ...Nxb8, after which Qxc3 wins easily.


Black to play and win. Solution = ...Bg1+, forcing Kh1 after which ...Nf2+ is checkmate.

Two rounds (and four games) left in the Amber tournament. Ivanchuk leads Carlsen by half a point, with Kramnik and Grischuk a further half point behind.