Back in 2005 I picked up a book at the local Borders book store titled Rapid Chess Improvement by Michael de la Maza. After using the program and integrating a study time to solve puzzles into my schedule, a rapid chess improvement was attained. I believe that the system Michael proposes with the chess vision drills and the seven circles program is comparable to the work that the Polgar sisters participated in at an early age with their father, Laszlo. The idea is to increase your pattern recognition and memory chunking skills to help the chessplayer’s eye catch tactical opportunities quickly. The video My Brilliant Brain reminds us that new connections are physically formed inside the brain to help us recall information faster and to create these connections we must intake new information. In other words, we must continually learn. When we see a position in chess that we have seen before, depending on how much exercise we have put into the process, we should be able to recover the information instantaneously. A position that arises may also be similar to another position you have seen that may involve the same tactical nuance. Having knowledge of these tactics and positions can lead you to the right move or plan in a current game.
Having done the seven circles twice, I can’t tell you exactly how many rating points have been acquired specifically from the program because I am not very active on the tournament level and my studies have been tainted by other outside materials. I have read numerous books that are not merely focused on tactics alone, yet I do agree with Rapid Chess Improvement. You can spend three hours of your time trying to secure a stronger position in a tournament game using opening knowledge and middle game principles just to “drop the ball” and have your game tossed out like refuse when you miss a tactical motif. It is important to set up a proper foundation with tactics and a study plan that contains advice on time management and offers a real focused goal is perfect for adult players. Michael de la Maza achieves this with his method and any Class E – Class A player can benefit from his advice.
There are some things to keep in mind when reviewing his material. Michael did not reach his 400 or 600 (and some sources say 750) rating points only from the seven circles and the method he recommends. He mentions that he “reviewed hundreds of book reviews and dozens of books” and this is part of any players need to achieve results. Most books are tailored to specific openings, a specific collection of games, or some other specific idea. The fact is that there is no true single encyclopedia of chess as a system to improve a player from the bottom to the top of competition levels. Each person looking to improve his or her play must take on the role of self agent or manager and learn to dedicate time and resources to learning, unless they have the benefit of a parent who will participate in that role for them and support them on the path to accomplishment. And the key point is that learning the correct information for your level of play will save you time and heartache. It is true that tactical misses are the most common errors and are the decisive turning point in lower level players’ games. So work on tactics the most until you reach the expert level.
My personal favorite part of the book and the system is that it emphasizes hard work. So many reviews have been ranting that de la Maza is swindling the chess world with this book and that players can’t reach that kind of achievement so quickly only with tactics and that its too hard to do the puzzles and you might have to quit your day job just to study with this method. {LOL!!} Bunch of whining. If you like to eat food you have to work to get money to buy food or grow it yourself. Is there anyone out there who has actually done the seven circles with true effort, analyzing each position to the best of their ability to try to really understand why the tactic works or gets busted and actually became a worse player? The truth is that this system requires a good amount of work and that is the best part! Chess, like anything in life takes hard work if you want to improve. People like Kasparov, Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Topolov and all the top players live and breathe chess. They study their own games, they are up to date with the latest theory, they follow the results of other players, they write about chess and teach occasionally, and they are constantly gathering and acknowledging chess data. That’s on a daily basis. We must allocate some time to chess if we want to get results, though we may not have all day every day.
What might be most important here is WHAT you study and I agree with de la Maza’s analysis that tactics can be the heart of your study plan if you are not yet an expert strength player. If you can solve a majority of tactical puzzles that you encounter and do it rather quickly, maybe you don’t need to worry about any tactics lessons. However, it could not hurt to try out the program or skip to the end if you are a real hotshot and dedicate a Saturday to see if you can solve 1200 tactical problems. It is possible, though you may not solve every single one perfectly. Mistakes and inaccuracies are part of the learning process. As a system I would include Reassess Your Chess or the Reassess Your Chess Workbook, alongside the seven circles. This can provide a very well rounded study method for adults. I would also include an endgame book such as Silman’s Complete Endgame Course and suggest finding a few key openings that fit your style of play for completing your study plan. But in all actuality, it is not a bad idea to stick to only tactics if you want to improve your game.