Tactics Time 2 review by Life Master Brian Wall.

 

I once asked Jerry Kearns' old Korean mother-in-law why she kept her daughter's home so clean.

"God sees everything you do."

I've been writing these Chess emails for over 10 years now and I was rewarded with 100+ entries in Joel Johnson's books.

 

This is a form of immortality.

For 3 months I have been laboring intensely to fill up Chris Peterson's www.DenverChess.com site with a million games.

 

I have uploaded almost a thousand Wall entries myself and if others join my quest, a million will not sound so crazy.

 

A million game march.

The monsoon weather has threatened Joshua Samuel's home in Firestone and last night, took down the internet in Chris Peterson's neighborhood plus stranded him at work all night.

 

So right now that's why DenverChess.com is down - not for long.

I was heavily rewarded for my silent, noble efforts when Tim Brennan and Anthea Carson honored Tactics Time 2 with 100 Wall entries.

 

Well, I haven't counted but it felt like it.

My son Devon has a dozen entries himself. I noticed even 3-4 years ago in Elementary School that Devon never gave up, he kept fighting even a Queen down.

 

I even gave him one of my annual Queen down Francisco Baltier-Jim Burden awards. It made me laugh to see some of Devon's greatest comebacks in print ( if Kindle cloud is print ).

Some entries made me cry. I am old enough to watch dozens of Chessplayers die. Seeing their moves made me realize how much I missed them.

 

I was happy they could live on in this way. Playing over a couple of Steve Dykstra's winning tactics against IM Kamram Shirazi made me very emotional.

 

It was Steve's greatest upset, a legendary Colorado feat at the time. Steve must have been outrated by 500 points. I have all of Steve's games in my room.

 

I recently uploaded 20 of his games to www.DenverChess.com, starting with his #1 game against Shirazi.

So Tactics Time 2 made me both laugh and cry last night.

About half the tactics I solve in 0-5 seconds. If I haven't solved it by then I look for what is loose, hanging.

 

Some I solve before my first blink, others I just give up on.

If I recognize a familiar pawn structure, I get excited. Maybe this is one of my games. Half my games I didn't not recognize because they were blitz games, some 9 years old. Talk about current! One was a blitz game from 3 days ago! It's a weird mix. I think they used online Chess clubs for source material.

If I like a person I am happy if they rate a win, if I don't, I am happy a loss appeared.

There are a few glitches to be worked out and I noted any mistakes or alternate solutions on the CSCA Facebook page. (Note from Tim, I have made corrections based on Brian's feedback, which was really appreciated!)

 

I might complain about a $40 book but at half a cent per tactic it's about the best value you will ever get for a Chess book without illegal downloads.

One glitch was that half the solutions were on the same page and half on the next.

 

I covered half my computer screen with a green cloth so I couldn't see the solutions and raced through 100. (Note from Tim, this should be fixed now also)

 

Then I took the green cloth off and did them again. I realized seeing if I recognized the position's person was just as much fun as solving them.

As a Chessmaster I took all night and solved all problems roughly 95% correctly. I imagine my son going through it much more slowly and get a kick out of seeing the Wall name. Half the rated players in Colorado will have at least one game somewhere. I noticed a lot of Chris Peterson, Katie Wise, Anthea Carson clan, Langseth clan, Tim Brennan, Jason Caldwell, Paul Anderson and many more, even Joel Johnson and Matt Miller from Arizona made the cut.

Sometimes I wanted to scream out the story of the game.

 

Stuff like:

 

I only had 5 seconds left, of course I took the perpetual!

 

or
  

Wait, I played that game on someone else's handle!

 

or

 

Damn, I misses that tactic twice now!

 

or

 

That was a Fishing Pole, a Raccoon, A Fraser Defense!

I knew many of the standard mating patterns but I stumbled a lot on Paul Grimm's "Queen mates" until I caught on to that recurring pattern. (note from Tim, a "Queen mate is when the Queen gets trapped - a term coined by my good friend Paul Grimm)

 

I looked for King and Queen traps first before moving on to lesser material.

I liked the Stop-Start pace. I race along at 5 seconds a puzzle, then I get stuck and just look at the solution.

 

So you can feel like a genius 10 times in a row before feeling like a rat trapped in a maze the 11th time.

 

You can race along as fast as you like but your brakes better be in good condition.

One time when Anthea and I were writing HOW TO PLAY CHESS LIKE AN ANIMAL
I started yelling,

 

THESE AREN'T JUST JOKE OPENINGS TO ME,
SOMETIMES I AM HONORING DEAD CHESSPLAYERS THAT MEANT A LOT OT ME!

 

I get a chill whenever I see a dead Chessplayer's move that I knew well,

 

it's like

 

DEATH BE NOT PROUD, THEY LIVE ON!

I even started playing music 10-20-30 years old to help me remember everybody.

In short I feel like Joel Johnson, Tim Brennan and Anthea Carson have vindicated all the games I have been posting for I don't know how long.

 

Thank you all very much.

Life Master Brian Douglas Wall

 

 

 

 

   P.S. Here is the Tactics Time 2 link again!  You don't have to stay up all night like Brian did reading it in one sitting, but I think you will like it!  http://www.amazon.com/Tactics-Time-Chess-Games-ebook/dp/B00F2NOCTU/

 

     Like Tactics Time on Facebook.

     Follow Tactics Time on Twitter.

     Check out the Tactics Time Blog.

     Read the Tactics Time Kindle eBook.

     If you know someone who could benefit from this, please feel free to forward it to them!

     Not a subscriber yet?  Like what you read? 

     Sign up to get future issues delivered straight to you at http://tacticstime.com!  

 

     � Copyright 2011-2013 Timothy Brennan, All Rights Reserved.