Seven Circles are Hard

Let me say upfront. Doing Michael De La Maza's ideas of seven circles of chess tactics is hard.

Very hard.

In the past I've tried to complete seven circles of CT-ART 3.0 (twice), seven circles of Winning Chess Tactics for Juniors by Lou Hays and seven circles of Chess Tactics for Students by John Bain. And with all, I've never gone past the third circle.

Until just recently, that is.

Last month I took 28 days to go through the 450+ relatively easy positions in Bain, first in seven days, then six, then five, four, three, two, one.

I must say - by the time you're on the fourth circle, you really are flying through them and recognising them by sight and memory.

I'm currently on my first circle of the Lou Hays book, so it's probably too early to celebrate, but at least I can say I have finished one complete seven circles exercise - even if it was with the simplest tactics book I own.

Sometimes a small victory is all you need to get yourself over your past failures.