Day 126 / 239 to go

Today I took the freedom to continue with Richter´s DVD on improving my calculation. It was mainly about visualisation once you are going deep into a position... Actually, it is worth to remember it simply because it helps to dig deeper into variations (and it is exactly what my coach means when he talks about "setting stepstones").

Here´s a nice puzzle where this technique can help - White to move (and it is NOT about finding the mate):

(However, todays video clips were not all instructive and helpful: I have to admit, that I sometimes simply lack to calculate just one move further in order to get things right. It seems that I am not the only one since Richter is talking about this problem on his DVD, too. Unfortunately, he lacks to provide good advice on how to overcome it...)
NEVERTHELESS; I hear Richter repeating that it is incorrect to calculate too deep into a variation too early/soon: His advice is to include yet more variations within the candidate moves before calculate a single variation until its end. I am not yet able to fully understand and/or make use of this advice. But I will try to remember it and give it a try - maybe it helps to reduce my more or less constant time trouble...

Tomorrow I will most likely take a day off due to extensive work+travel - I will not be at home before 2000 and I then need to pack my stuff: we will head towards Tenerife on Saturday morning. As already indicated, I will work on three chess books during the stay (now it might become clear why I worte "I took the freedom...": because I will have an intensive time with Aagard, Lommer & Co coming up), but most likely will not be able to report daily... 8-/