One of the teaching tools I never have enough of are puzzles. You know what I mean, positions that range from “Mate in 1″ to “Black to play and win” to “Find the best move” (which might be a win, or might only be the best way to keep from losing).

So I’ve been working recently on getting positions from all the puzzle books I have into the computer so I can use them in teaching. Since most of my students are beginners, I’ve started with the easy puzzles, entering 30 per day into the computer. I’ve discovered several errors (and notifed the compiler when possible about them) but I’ve noticed something else.

Even though the problems are very simple ones (usually I find the solution before I finish setting up the diagram) and I’m spending only about a half-hour a day doing this, my tactical vision seems to be improving. I’ve played four rated games, and gone over games from 4 matches of my HS team, and I’m seeing tactics better than previously. In at least two of the games I saved the point with some sort of a tactical ruse (AKA swindle) from a very bad position, and in several of the student games I pointed out quick little tactical shots they missed which I had seen immediately while walking by their board during the match.

No idea if the improvement is permanent, or if it’s just a fluke. Will be watching to see, though. After all, I still have about 5000 puzzles laying around here to pop into a computer.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2006 at 10:57 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.