Tactics Time Chess Newsletter: Here comes Honey Wu Wu

Published: Sat, 04/12/14

Newsletter Issue Honey Wu Wu

Tactics Time

Honey Wu Wu

No price is too great for the scalp of the enemy King. ~ Koblentz


T

his position comes from the game Andy Honeyu Wu vs Anthea Carson, Round 2 of the C.S. Chess Center April Tournament, played today, April 12, 2014.

In the position on the right it is White to move.

Answer below.

Today I would like to share with you a new software tool that I have been playing around with.

The tool is called "Anki", and it is a flash card, spaced repetition tool.

You can see the website here: http://ankisrs.net/

Basically the way it works is that you can set up flash card decks, and Anki will present the information to you. When you are ready to see the answer, you see the "back" of the card, then let Anki know if it was easy/hard/etc.

Anki will then show you that card again at an appropriate time, based on how well you did. If it was easy, it might not show it to you again for 12 days. If you got it wrong, you might see it again in a few minutes.

The software can be used to learn anything - simple addition problems, foreign languages, state capitols, or in our case chess, and chess tactics.

I found a deck of premade flashcards that contain a large collection of chess tactics problems here: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/2999073864.

The nice thing too is that you can edit the flashcards yourself, and add notes, or create your own from scratch.

In the book "Chess Master at any age", the author, Rolf Wetzell, talks a lot about how he used flashcards to help him remember key positions. He compared chess knowledge to a large bowl of water, where the water is constantly evaporating, and you have to keep refilling it.

The software is free for Windows and Mac. There is an iOS version that you have to pay for.

The other nice thing is that the software will sync up. So you can do some problems on your phone, some at your desktop, some via web browser, etc, and it keeps track of all of that.

I love the Tony Robbins quote "Repetition is the mother of skill", and Anki is a perfect software implementation of that idea.

Here is the complete game

[Event "C.S. Chess Center April Tournament"]
[Site "Colorado Springs, CO"]
[Date "2014.04.12"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Wu, Andy Honeyu"]
[Black "Carson, Anthea"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C78"]
[WhiteElo "1713"]
[BlackElo "1712"]
[PlyCount "37"]
[SourceDate "2014.04.12"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O b5 6. Bb3 Bc5 7. c3 d6 8. d4
Bb6 9. h3 Bb7 10. Re1 O-O 11. Bg5 Qe7 12. Nh4 exd4 13. Nf5 Qe5 14. f4 dxc3+ 15.
Kh1 cxb2 16. fxe5 bxa1=Q 17. Bxf6 Nxe5 18. Qh5 Bxe4 19. Qh6 1-0

You can play through this game here: http://www.viewchess.com/cbreader/2014/4/12/Game135187814.html

Answer:

19.Qh6!! is a brilliant move by Andy!

I was sitting right next to Anthea and Andy in Round 2, and this game was 100 times more interesting than the one I was playing. I saw this tactic, and although I always root for Anthea, I was hoping Andy would play it because it so beautiful.

White has some spite checks, but cannot stop the duel threats of ...Qxg7# and if 19...gxh6 20.Nxh6#

Great job Andy!

Happy Tactics!

Your Friend,