If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Policy / Politique
The fee for tournament organizers advertising on ChessTalk is $20/event or $100/yearly unlimited for the year.
Les frais d'inscription des organisateurs de tournoi sur ChessTalk sont de 20 $/événement ou de 100 $/année illimitée.
You can etransfer to Henry Lam at chesstalkforum at gmail dot com
Transfér à Henry Lam à chesstalkforum@gmail.com
Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
General Guidelines
---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
Some Basics
1. Under Board "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) there are 3 sections dealing with General Forum Usage, User Profile Features, and Reading and Posting Messages. These deal with everything from Avatars to Your Notifications. Most general technical questions are covered there. Here is a link to the FAQs. https://forum.chesstalk.com/help
2. Consider using the SEARCH button if you are looking for information. You may find your question has already been answered in a previous thread.
3. If you've looked for an answer to a question, and not found one, then you should consider asking your question in a new thread. For example, there have already been questions and discussion regarding: how to do chess diagrams (FENs); crosstables that line up properly; and the numerous little “glitches” that every new site will have.
4. Read pinned or sticky threads, like this one, if they look important. This applies especially to newcomers.
5. Read the thread you're posting in before you post. There are a variety of ways to look at a thread. These are covered under “Display Modes”.
6. Thread titles: please provide some details in your thread title. This is useful for a number of reasons. It helps ChessTalk members to quickly skim the threads. It prevents duplication of threads. And so on.
7. Unnecessary thread proliferation (e.g., deliberately creating a new thread that duplicates existing discussion) is discouraged. Look to see if a thread on your topic may have already been started and, if so, consider adding your contribution to the pre-existing thread. However, starting new threads to explore side-issues that are not relevant to the original subject is strongly encouraged. A single thread on the Canadian Open, with hundreds of posts on multiple sub-topics, is no better than a dozen threads on the Open covering only a few topics. Use your good judgment when starting a new thread.
8. If and/or when sub-forums are created, please make sure to create threads in the proper place.
Debate
9. Give an opinion and back it up with a reason. Throwaway comments such as "Game X pwnz because my friend and I think so!" could be considered pointless at best, and inflammatory at worst.
10. Try to give your own opinions, not simply those copied and pasted from reviews or opinions of your friends.
Unacceptable behavior and warnings
11. In registering here at ChessTalk please note that the same or similar rules apply here as applied at the previous Boardhost message board. In particular, the following content is not permitted to appear in any messages:
* Racism
* Hatred
* Harassment
* Adult content
* Obscene material
* Nudity or pornography
* Material that infringes intellectual property or other proprietary rights of any party
* Material the posting of which is tortious or violates a contractual or fiduciary obligation you or we owe to another party
* Piracy, hacking, viruses, worms, or warez
* Spam
* Any illegal content
* unapproved Commercial banner advertisements or revenue-generating links
* Any link to or any images from a site containing any material outlined in these restrictions
* Any material deemed offensive or inappropriate by the Board staff
12. Users are welcome to challenge other points of view and opinions, but should do so respectfully. Personal attacks on others will not be tolerated. Posts and threads with unacceptable content can be closed or deleted altogether. Furthermore, a range of sanctions are possible - from a simple warning to a temporary or even a permanent banning from ChessTalk.
Helping to Moderate
13. 'Report' links (an exclamation mark inside a triangle) can be found in many places throughout the board. These links allow users to alert the board staff to anything which is offensive, objectionable or illegal. Please consider using this feature if the need arises.
Advice for free
14. You should exercise the same caution with Private Messages as you would with any public posting.
I can't see any of the diagrams in these posts, just big black squares.
The images are .png files. What internet browser are you using? I think that some versions of Internet explorer (often called Internet exploder) had trouble displaying .png files. You might want to google "IE cannot display .png" or some variant of that depending on what browser you are using...
Another (remote) possibility is that you are unable to access the generated .png file: try clicking on this link to see if you go to the website that coughs up the .png file:
(If for some bizarre reason, you are unable to go to the website eddins.net that would also explain why you cannot see the diagram). You may have something like Norton Internet Protection that is blocking access to that site (for what reason I cannot even imagine, but...)
No, I have only really thought about endgame studies because the concepts are much deeper and more instructive than mate problems. Besides with computers finding all the mates these days, proving an endgame study valid is much more complicated and rewarding. I am sure the audience would be extremely interested in trying to solve one of your original studies. Thanks for your input to this chat site. A player of your strength improves all of us lesser mortals who read and digest what you say. Despite the strength of computers, strong players have insights that computers just can't give us.
I think that composing end-game studies requires some special talent or at least a large amount of dedication. The problem is not to come up with a position that can technically be called "endgame study" ( I do have a few of my own but I doubt that they are worthy of your attention). The problem is to come up with something that is really different and significant. With nearly 100,000 endgame studies on record, it is increasingly difficult to come up with something new, especially if you deal with positions with limited material. You might come up with what looks like a nice enough study only to discover later that the same ideas have already been already dealt with in similar or better fashion in a number of studies. First of all to compose studies one must be an endgame fanatic and know quite a bit on the subject. Inspiration comes with knowledge here.
The problem is to come up with something that is really different and significant. With nearly 100,000 endgame studies on record, it is increasingly difficult to come up with something new, especially if you deal with positions with limited material. You might come up with what looks like a nice enough study only to discover later that the same ideas have already been already dealt with in similar or better fashion in a number of studies.
Agree.
If you don't fear becoming discouraged, buy the van der Heijden endgame studies database --- "76,132 endgame studies" -- and you'll see just how thoroughly and brilliantly the field of endgame studies has already been covered.
You might even find that John Nunn (among others) has already found and publicized busts to classic studies; including those that you are just now discovering in his 2002 book "Nunn's Endgame Challenge" .
No, I realize that these are extremely easy to solve for players of even modest strength but they are good to teach kids with as I said before.
Two points should be made here:
(I) Part of what makes a good puzzle is when (in the case of White to move and win) Black has hard-to-find mating or winning threats of his own that ruin any White move that is incorrect.
In this case, if White starts with 1.Bxg7, thinking Black responds with ...Kxg7 and mate quickly ensues with Qh6+, Nf6, and Qxh7, this line is totally ruined by Black instead responding ...Rb8!
Now White can't take the time to set up a mate because of the ...Rb1 threat. In fact, White's best defence is then Qf1, which totally evaporates any immediate mating threats of his own.
So in that sense, this is an excellent teaching puzzle, as long as THAT part of the puzzle gets across to the pupil: Qh6 is the only solution BECAUSE it gives Black no time for ...Rb8. So far everyone that has responded saying they found Qh6 in so many seconds has failed to mention this key aspect of why Qh6 is the only solution. Maybe they saw it, but it needs to be mentioned to make the solution complete.
So the lesson of this puzzle is not only the pattern of the attack, but also that one of the keys to success in chess is to know not to be blind to obscure threats from the other side, and to always check for them. This pattern actually has a lesson from the Black standpoint: if White plays a move like Bxg7, don't resign immediately, look for counterplay.
(II) What Chris Mallon wrote, "Part of the problem is knowing that it is a puzzle, people look for a puzzle-type answer". If a young or new chess player is taught only via puzzles, that player is going to get into middlegames and then always be looking for puzzle-type moves. Puzzles are tactics, and tactics don't always exist. So teaching tactics (puzzles) should be balanced with teaching strategy (positional play).
Last edited by Paul Bonham; Wednesday, 28th November, 2012, 01:57 PM.
Reason: typo
Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.
If you don't fear becoming discouraged, buy the van der Heijden endgame studies database --- "76,132 endgame studies" -- and you'll see just how thoroughly and brilliantly the field of endgame studies has already been covered.
You might even find that John Nunn (among others) has already found and publicized busts to classic studies; including those that you are just now discovering in his 2002 book "Nunn's Endgame Challenge" .
Thanks for the tip.I will order this DB. However I have searched for any published busts on Nunn's 250 studies and have only found the one bust that another reader found in my other thread.
Last edited by Alan Tomalty; Wednesday, 28th November, 2012, 03:29 PM.
Reason: a mistake
Pal Benko covers endgames in Chess Life magazine quite well. It appears the last frontier for chess endings are table-bases for computers to solve endgames with 6 or 7 pieces, I am not up to date on the latest findings. In some endgame solutions over 50 moves are needed to solve for mate.
Tweet
Comment