Tactics Time Newsletter: Lifting Bulls

Published: Sat, 12/20/14

Newsletter Issue Tactics Time Newsletter Lifting Bulls

Tactics Time

Lifting Bulls

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step... ~ Lao-Tzu


T

his game was sent to me by DuWayne Langseth (1952) from his game this past Tuesday against Paul Anderson (2086) at the Colorado Springs Ches Club.

White to move.

Answer below.

Today I would like to share a story that I read this morning on Quora.

BTW - the website Quora.com is GREAT - people post questions, and then others post answers. It is remarkable how well written many of the answers are, and thought provoking the questions are. I highly recommend it.

The question was:

   Which personality traits often lead to failure?


   Personal and professional failure can have many reasons, but is often due to 'character'. Which personality traits are likely to lead to failure and how can we work around or eliminate them

Here was the answer I really liked, written by Graeme Shimmin (you can read the entire thread here: https://www.quora.com/Which-personality-traits-often-lead-to-failure Many of the other answers are great also):

There is an old story about two Greek islanders vying to become the strongest man on the island.

One trainee bought a newborn calf. The other laughed at him. How could a calf help his rival train? But every day the wise trainee lifted it. Every day the calf got a little bigger and heavier but he could still lift it because it was only a little bit heavier than the previous day. After a year the wise trainee saw the calf was now a bull but he could still lift it.

In the meantime the unwise trainee had tried every day to lift a bull.

He had failed every time.

I think there is a great lesson here.

I see many chess players who get very "gung ho" about improving at chess. They want to "lift a bull" from day one and dive right into "advanced" chess books. Books like "Tactics Time" are "too easy" for them. These types of players often burn out, get frustrated, quit, and go on to some other hobby.

Other chess players are like the guy who lifts a calf everyday. They aren't trying to "lift a bull" from day one, but instead work on making gradual improvement every day, and over time. Eventually they are "lifting the bull", because all of this consistent work and long term thinking pays off.

Here is the game in PGN

[Event "CS Club tournament"]
[Site "Colorado Springs, CO"]
[Date "2014.12.16"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Langseth, DuWayne"]
[Black "Anderson, Paul"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A40"]
[WhiteElo "1952"]
[BlackElo "2086"]
[PlyCount "127"]
[EventDate "2014.??.??"]

1. d4 c6 2. e3 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. Be2 Nf6 5. O-O O-O 6. b3 Ne4 7. Bb2 Qa5 8. c4
d5 9. Qc2 Nd7 10. a3 Ndf6 11. b4 Qd8 12. Nbd2 Be6 13. c5 Qc7 14. Nxe4 Nxe4 15.
Nd2 f5 16. f4 Bh6 17. Nxe4 fxe4 18. Qd1 Qd7 19. Qe1 Bg4 20. h3 Bxe2 21. Qxe2 e6
22. Bc3 Qg7 23. Kh2 g5 24. g3 Rf6 25. h4 gxh4 26. gxh4 Rg6 27. Rg1 Qf6 28.
Rxg6+ hxg6 29. Qg4 Kf7 30. Rg1 Rh8 31. Be1 Bf8 32. Kg2 Be7 33. Rh1 Qf5 34.
Qxf5+ gxf5 35. Bg3 Kg6 36. Kh3 Kh5 37. a4 a6 38. Rb1 Ra8 39. b5 axb5 40. axb5
Ra3 41. bxc6 bxc6 42. Rb7 Bf6 43. Bf2 Ra2 44. Kg2 Kg6 45. Kg1 Ra8 46. Rc7 Ra6
47. Rd7 Kh5 48. Rh7+ Kg4 49. Kg2 Bd8 50. Rg7+ Kh5 51. Rg8 Ra8 52. Re8 Rc8 53.
Rxe6 Bxh4 54. Bxh4 Kxh4 55. Rg6 Ra8 56. Rxc6 Ra2+ 57. Kf1 Kg3 58. Rd6 Kf3 59.
Kg1 Kxe3 60. Rxd5 Kxf4 61. c6 Rc2 62. Rc5 Ra2 63. c7 Kf3 64. c8=Q 1-0

You can play through this game here: http://www.viewchess.com/cbreader/2014/12/20/Game617766439.html

Answer:

It was kind of amusing to me to have a game between DuWayne Langseth and Paul Anderson, because I consider these guys two of the main "anti-Tactics Time" players of Colorado.

I am often guilty of making broad generalizations and using hyperbole and exaggeration to make a point (Brian Wall does this also, even more than I do, and has told me it is an "Irish thing").

For example, I might say something like "You can't get to 2000 unless you are good at tactics". Then people like DuWayne and Paul come along and completely disprove my point and make me feel sick to my stomach :-)

When Charles Darwin was working on his theories he said something like "The sight of a pink flamingo makes me feel sick", because it went against all of the ideas that he was working on.

I feel the same way when I see a DuWayne Langseth or Paul Anderson game! These "black swans" win with little to no tactics, zero risk, closed positions, lots of positional play, and grinding out 6 hour 100+ move endgames with microscopic advantages.

Here DuWayne played 62. Rc5! which blocks the Black Rook's attack of the b pawn, and ensures that White will be able to make a Queen.

Instead of 61...Rc2?? on the previous move, Black could have headed towards a draw with moves like 61...Ra1+, 61...Ra7, 61...e3, etc. Rooks don't always belong behind passed pawns!

Happy Tactics!

Your Friend,

P.S. Thanks to everyone who bought one of our 2015 Tactics Time Daily Chess Calendars! http://tacticstime.com/s/2015-daily-chess-calendar/

All of the calendar's have been shipped at this point and are on their way. I really appreciate the support! We sold over 100 and sent them all over the world. It was a fun project for Anthea and me! We have a lot of good "lessons learned", and we are planning to do this again next year as well.

If you still want one, we have one last batch of 20 that we printed up. We won't be able to send them until Tuesday, so they will not arrive in time for Christmas, but they will still make a nice gift for the New Year!

Thanks again! http://tacticstime.com/s/2015-daily-chess-calendar/

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