u/ImprovementSea320

Hi everyone, I saw on a video a type of exercise I never seen before, and I think it can be really helpful to improve calculation and visualization.

They are like regular puzzles but you need to solve it after 4-5 moves of the given position. It would be a position and below it there are written the next 4-5 moves to visualice them and then the real puzzle comes: after these moves find the winning tactics or whatever the puzzle asks.

Does anybody know where to find more exercises like this? Im interested in making more of these

EDIT: apparently its a thing but I just didnt know it existed. I found you can do this puzzles in Listudy and Pumpvhess as someone in the comments said

As a d4 player I know how annoying can be to face openings with different positions as the usual d4 -d5 ones, and where tactical themes can extend well into the middlegame. This can be seen in the kings indian, the benoni and the Benko, for example. Actualy it makes sense that these openings are the ones with my lowest score. So I want to play them myself as black.

Im leaning more towards the Benko because Its lighter in theory than the KID and sounder than the Benoni. I have played against all 3 of them as white and I find the Benko to be the most dangerous as well. One mistake and black equlizes easily, getting a more comfortable position thanks to the superior pawn structure.

I know that the Benko theory is more oriented towards knowing tactical patterns and plans rather than concrete lines and variations. Besides the first moves where white can accept or not the gambit, as well as defend the pawn with e3, but after that the positions are pretty similar.

So Benko players what are some books, courses, tips… resources in general you found useful and important to play the Benko with success? And Also what do you find annoying or comfortable from white to play?

Hey everyone,

I see a lot of posts like “Looking for sparring partner” or “Im learning X opening and I would like to practice the middle games arising from that” here in r/TournamentChess. I have done some sparring myself with some redditors, but I think we can benefit from each other in a deeper level and get useful insights of our chess from other players. Here is what I thought about:

First, and in the line of the type of posts mentioned, instead of sparring openings in 3-4 games with your partner, I think it would be better to get feedback/opinion of him about said opening. For example, I am now learning the Classical Sicilian for black, so let my partner explain his view of this opening (if he plays e4 of course) and see what are his preferred lines and why, the most annoying for him black can play etc. Also in the case he is an experienced player it can be useful with which lines he feels comfortable in or not. We all know what the critical lines are and what the engines mark as best, but we don’t know what players our same level would actually play, so I think this a better way to learn further the new opening we are studying. Of course if my partner is interested in an opening I play we may exchange knowledge. Personally, I wouldn’t mind even exchanging PGN files.

Second, and focused for serious club players (my case), we can do a simulation of what our preparation would be like if we had to play in a tournament. And eventually, if both agree, play a game. This comes from the fact that lots of players starting around 1800 FIDE have games uploaded in the database (my case too) and any player can prepare any engine line because they know what you play. So I think it can be helpful to have other player our same level doing a simulation of what preparing a game against us would be like and preparing against them (sharing our FIDE profile with each other). And then, explain our preparation to each other and exchange PGNs. This way, if we find we can be prepared against very easily, we can act in consequence learning new must-know-lines or having a secondary opening to avoid unpleasant surprises over the board.

It may sound that I put too much emphasis into the opening, but I think its where we can benefit each other the most. We can improve our endgame and middle game play independently reading books, and playing and analyzing games by ourselves. Surely it can be helpful, but I don’t think a sparring partner is absolutely necessary for middle game and endgame improvement.

This being said, Im interested in doing both approaches, as I have games on the databases and Im aware people can and will prepare the games with me knowing what I play, as well as Im interested in getting insight in the openings Im learning, and can give insights myself on the openings I play. If you are interested too, please comment your level, openings you can play and can explain, and openings you are learning and want feedback from opposite color players. Just like this:

-Im 1950 FIDE (Im playing well so I think I can reach 2050 fairly easily)

-Openings I play and I can give feedback on:

\-As white: 1-d4. Catalan and Fianchetto variations against everything but Benko. Benko I play the e4-Bxf1-Kxf1 and g3-Kg2 variation. I also used to play and I have experience with the Queens Gambit minority attack.

\-As black: I play Dragon Sicilian and sometimes the Modern Defense against e4 (and learning Classical Sicilian). And QGD against d4.

-Openings Im learning and I want feedback on: Classical Sicilian as black with the 2…d6 d4 cx Nx Nf6 Nc3 Nc6 move order. Also I will start learning the Benko gambit to have something Sharp against d4

Please comment yours. Looking forward your answers and hope we can help each other out.