his position comes from the game Steven Kaufman (1773) - Dean Clow (2103), Round 1 of the August Denver Chess Club.
 

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

 

   Answer below.

"Still those of us who have spent time with Blohk and Brennan and Reinfeld know all-too-well the limitations of such study.  It's easy to find a killer shot when you know one exists in the position.  It's much harder when your clock is ticking away and there is no teacher nudging you towards the correct move".

   I have not read the book, but I think the idea is that you go through the moves of a game, and look to see if the players have missed any tactics during the game, or if any of the moves that were played are unsound tactically.

   This seems like a good idea to me. 

   Often when I meet with my coach Joel Johnson we play through games to practice openings, where I do not know what the next move is (kind of like the Solitaire Chess column that Bruce Pandolfini does).  Often, I have to figure out on the spot if there is a tactic or not, with no hints.  The only real way to do this is to check for tactics on every move. 

   BTW, whenever I miss a tactical shot, or get a combination wrong, Joel loves to tell me "You need to work on your tactics!" Then laughs hysterically at his own joke lol.

   But most of the time I do find the tactics, and even on occasion find a tactic that Joel missed (he is very good with tactics though, so it doesn't happen often).

   I'm all for trying new ideas when it comes to tactical study.  I think it all boils down to the fact that you have to look for these tactical shots on every move. 

   Bobby Fischer famously said "Tactics flow from a superior position".  This is certainly true. 

   But the problem is that I think many players interpret this to mean - I need to get a superior position before I start to look for tactics!

   Wrong!

   At the class player level tactics come up all the time!  Superior positions, inferior positions, totally losing positions, etc. 

   Before I started to study openings (which was only in the last year or so), I almost always was worse positionally, and the only way I was able to win games was because my tactical radar was set to DEFCON 1, and all I did was constantly look for tactical shots. 

   I was like a tactical terminator, send back in time, to change the future for one unlucky opponent.  And if there was no tactical shot, I did everything I could to set up a tactical shot.  You can't become a GM playing like this, but you can win a lot of games. 


   Here is the complete game:

   Answer: 

   14...f4! is an immaculate deflection from Dean forking the Queen and Knight. 

   White cannot capture the pawn because of 15. Qxf4 Qd1# which happened in the game.


   Happy Tactics!

 

   Your Friend,