The two things nobody tells you to look for
Every other page here names the pattern before you start. These two refuse to, and the refusal is the whole training.
- 2 motifs
- 240 positions
- Section Blind Spots
A labelled puzzle trains half a skill. You learn what a fork looks like, which is genuinely worth having, but you learn it in a context that hands you the word first. Over the board nobody hands you the word. The gap between solving a puzzle headed "find the fork" and finding the same fork in your own game is enormous, and it is the gap this section exists to close.
The en passant skill is the same problem in its purest form. The capture is legal for exactly one move, it appears in no candidate list that a player has not deliberately trained, and the position it is available in almost never looks like it is about a pawn. It is the one rule in chess that is regularly forgotten by people who have played for years.
Every motif in Blind Spots
Work through the section in order Nobody tells you what the pattern is. That is the point. Five graded levels per motif, four positions a lesson. Open the courseOther sections
- First MovesMate in one, free pieces
- TacticsForks, pins, skewers, traps
- Checkmate PatternsBack rank, smothered, mate in two
- Sharper TacticsDiscovered attacks, deflection, x-ray
- Sacrifices and Quiet MovesSacrifices, zwischenzug, zugzwang
- EndgamesPawn, rook, queen, minor piece
- AttackingKingside, queenside, mating attacks
- OpeningsTactics from real openings
- The Ladder1200 to 2400, four rungs
- Open Games1.e4 e5, and the argument over f7
- Ruy Lopez LinesMorphy, Exchange, Berlin
- Sicilian SystemsAnti-Sicilians and main lines
- French VariationsAdvance, Exchange, Tarrasch, Winawer
- Caro-Kann VariationsExchange, Advance, Classical
- Sidelines and SurprisesGambits that should not work