Why is it that the human brain so often refuses to consider winning chess tactics?
Every chess fan marvels at the wonderful combinations with which famous masters win games. How do they find those fantastic moves? Do they have a special vision? And why do computers outwit us tactically?
This rich book on chess tactics proposes a revolutionary method for finding winning moves. Charles Hertan has made an astonishing discovery: the failure to consider key moves is often due to human bias. Your brain tends to disregard many winning moves because they are counter-intuitive or look unnatural.
We can no longer deny it, computers outdo us humans when it comes to tactical vision and brute force calculation. So why not learn from them? Charles Hertan's radically different approach is: use COMPUTER EYES and always look for the most forcing sequence first!
By studying forcing moves according to Hertan's method you will:
- develop analytical precision
- improve your tactical vision
- overcome human bias and staleness
- enjoy the calculation of difficult positions
Charles Hertan is a FIDE master from Massachusetts with several decades of experience as a chess coach. Instead of rehashing the usual classic examples he has unearthed hundreds of instructive combinations which appear here for the first time in print.
by three-time US Champion Joel Benjamin
The study of tactics holds a necessary place in the regimen of players of all levels. One can find explanation of fundamental tactical elements - pins, skewers, forks, etc. - in a host of books, but the process of finding the killer moves is still rather mysterious.
Hertan's work calls to mind the underdog success story of Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics. The little-known Dutch correspondence grandmaster compiled positions for thirty years until he produced a masterpiece which took the English Chess Federation's Book of the Year honors in 2006.
Hertan, a FIDE Master living near Boston, has spent a comparatively small but still impressive fourteen years researching, organizing, and codifying 650 tactical positions of all varieties. Like Van Perlo, Hertan has unearthed a multitude of positions appearing in print for the first time. I have a feeling that Hertan's opus, like Van Perlo's, will be warmly received.
In my lectures I have occasionally explored the demands of solving complex problems at the chessboard. Hertan has done so here on a grander scale with the aid of the useful concept of
'computer eyes'. From my experience working at IBM on the Deep Blue team, I know that computers can find strong moves that humans overlook because they appear too outrageous to consider. It is a sign of the growth of computers that the term 'computer move', which once was assigned to an ugly and pitiful move, is now used to connote a strong but surprising move computers are better equipped to identify.
But my own human travails suffice to bring Hertan's idea close to heart. In many of my games I have discovered astonishing moves and combinations that seemed (to me, if not the spectators) to fall out of the sky.
Yet there is a thought process behind every great chess move, and by organizing and explaining the nature of these magic moves, Hertan has brought us all closer to being able to find them.
Content:
007 Foreword
011 Introduction
016 How to Use this Book
017 Chapter 1 - Stock Forcing Moves
59 Exercises
065 Chapter 2 - Stock Mating Attacks
101 Exercises
103 Chapter 3 - Brute Force Combinations
127 Exercises
135 Chapter 4 - Surprise Forcing Moves
155 Exercises
165 Chapter 5 - Equal or Stronger Threats
181 Exercises
189 Chapter 6 - Quiet Forcing Moves
205 Exercises
215 Chapter 7 - Forcing Retreats
233 Exercises
241 Chapter 8 - Zwischenzugs
261 Exercises
269 Chapter 9 - Defensive Forcing Moves
287 Exercises
295 Chapter 10 - Endgame Forcing Moves
319 Exercises
327 Chapter 11 - Intuition and Creativity
349 Chapter 12 - Various Exercises
367 Afterthought
369 Explanation of Symbols
370 Glossary of Terms
376 Index of Names | 