THINK blog Volume 2 Chapter 13

THINK goes from strength to strength

With 912 members at time of writing, Team THINK is approaching another milestone steadily. The main team (there are many others in the nexus, something for everyone you might say. Join one if you haven't already) continues to be a force to be reckoned with in Lichess Bundesliga (N.B. the letters are like rooms on the same floor of a hotel: a team in 10A is competing at the same level as a team in 10C). Liga Battle 5(C) took place on Sunday 10th of August, Think came second and were promoted to Liga 4(A), came 6th and played the next round in 4(C), came 9th and played the next round in 5(A), finishing sixth and therefore staying in the fifth tier for the next round.

Congratulations to Gassiman for winning the the 2025 THINK Blitz Championship, which in turn affected the results of Brainbox Challenge LXV. The next round of Brainbox Challenge began Saturday 16th August 11:59 UK time and ends Saturday 30th August 11:59 UK time.

A few words about puzzles, games and making headway

Now that I have attempted over 14000 puzzles on lichess, I thought some observations may be warranted.
Sometimes we win without playing well, sometimes we lose without playing badly. However, only one of those is likely to be exaggerated by self-deception.
For clarity, I am not talking about playing a no-increment game, noticing a time advantage and exploiting it by such measures as sacrificing everything with check: that may be effective but is likely not accurate in the computer-evaluation sense (which is to say measured in average centipawn loss or acpl). I would imagine that everyone has had the experience of holding an overwhelming material (materiel?) advantage over one's opponent and yet losing on time while seeking to convert this to a win. I confess to past occasions where I have been thus disadvantaged and steered games towards such a conclusion deliberately. Anyway I posit that a clear-eyed perspective on why we have gained or how we have gained rating is key to making any progress as a player.

For those of you who enjoy cryptic crosswords, there is an analogy in getting the answer because the letters fit but not being able to parse the answer. And I would say that this is valuable in tackling chess puzzles also.

OK puzzles are just puzzles, and something like puzzle storm where you really have to do it on instinct may be a good way to warm up muscle memory for playing, or a way to work out tilt after not playing as though without much memory or much muscle. Or puzzles might just be a way of passing time when not in the right frame of mind to do anything else: again, a sort of tilt-sink though useful when tilted by life in general and not just chess. But sooner or later interesting puzzles crop up, and there is a dilemma between losing (even more) puzzle rating and losing the opportunity to know the answer to the puzzle*.

The thing to do, whether or not you get the puzzle right, is to click the link to the game it's from (which appears once the puzzle ends) and work through the puzzle (which often differs from what actually happened in the game) and beyond until it is clear why the best move is the best move. I think I should also say that less is more, and that the law of diminishing returns applies. But if you're anything like me, you're not going to stick to a limit of half-a-dozen puzzles per day when you get the first two right and the other four wrong. At the end of the day, you're better off doing loads of puzzles and playing a few games than the other way around. Believe me when I say that I have learned this the hard way (though I am not entirely sure that there is an easy way).

*to fluffy bunnies I say what William Shatner famously once said to hardcore Star Trek fans (who can decide amongst themselves what they want to call themselves).