Circles Continue - Discovered Attack/Check & Double Check
I'm about 24 puzzles short of finishing my second circle on this group of themes from Reinfeld's 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices & Combinations. The tournament put me about a week behind on my plan for completing the circles, but I'm not too concerned. Also, I don't know if it's from residual causes following the 2-day tournament I just went through, or if it's from this renewed focus on tactics with the De La Mazian circles, but I'm finding that my calculative and visualization abilities have really improved. I'm starting to see defenses to tactics more clearly several moves in advance when calculating variations. I also seem to be developing a feel, or intuition, about certain situations on the board. Just last night, for instance, I played my round 5 OCL game and I sac'd a knight early on for a very strong attack. I ended up getting the piece back later and won the game. What's dawning on me is that tactics are not an end all in themselves. What they are are tools for plan implementation. I think I knew that before, but the full implications of this idea are just now dawning on me. My FICS standard rating is now at its established high at 1724. I think I'll set a short range goal right now of FICS 1850 by the end of the year.
posted by CelticDeath at 8:45 AM
5 Comments:
Have you any idea how FICS-ratings compare to USCF-ratings?
I'm not sure and often wonder that myself. I think I play a stronger game than my current USCF 1474 rating would indicate, but I'm not sure if I play as strong as USCF 1724, although it's possible.
logis, Hmmmm...maybe that will be my barrier breaking goal! :)
You are not alone with this question. I believe all patzers are rather crazy when it comes to ratings (myself included, of course).
There is a handy service on FICS that you might like - SurveyBot. It collects information about user's ratings and you can get an estimate of how your FICS STD rating would compare to lets say USCF.
tell surveybot ratings uscf estimate(If I remember right..)
I have a feeling that FICS ratings 1300-1800 have a difference of 150-200 points to USCF. This difference gets smaller and smaller (with 1890 I got an 1790 estimate) and I believe the >2100 bunch might be even underrated.
Yep, I used surveybot yesterday, and my FICS rating is something like 1570 USCF. Given my recent tournament performance, this is pretty close to what I think my true USCF playing strength is.
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