Book 1: Chapter 2: Mating Motifs 2

       Chapter 2 in Build Up Your Chess: The Fundamentals covers six more mating motifs: Legal's mate, Damiano's mate, Greco's mate, Lolli's mate, Blackburne's mate, and Pillsbury's mate.  Things got real real fast in this chapter.  Some of the lesson puzzles proved more difficult than anything in Chapter 1.  I came up with blanks a few times. so I set up the positions on a board, stared blankly for fifteen minutes, and then checked the solutions.  Having spent considerable time on the lesson portion, I thought I would speed up the quiz portion by not using a board.  I was feeling overconfident after my perfect score on Quiz 1.  Not a good idea.  While reviewing my quiz, I realized that I was dropping points because I hadn't been rigorous.  I stopped after checking a few answers, determined to re-study the chapter and re-take the quiz in earnest.  This is why it has taken me almost four days to post this next entry.

       Well, Chapter 2 is just flat-out more difficult.  I could have studied some of those puzzles for days to no avail.  The quiz consisted of 12 puzzles again, but this time there were more 2-star and 3-star puzzles, for a total of 20 possible points.  I managed 14 points out of 20, which rates me as "good," according to Artur, but not "excellent" like last time.  You can lose points by choosing the less optimal lines or by mixing up the move order.  And, obviously, by failing to find any solution whatsoever.  Overall, this is a very good chapter.  I will review the puzzles which stumped me just to make sure I absorb the lessons.  I need to be "excellent" again, Artur!

      Side note: In the interview with Aargaard, Jacob bristled at the idea of telling students to repeat the material, as Artur does, because they had done poorly.  Jacob is all about positive reinforcement at all times.  I can't help but chuckle at such ideas, and I'm sure Yusupov felt the same way, but he of course gave very diplomatic answers.   Is it really old-fashioned to have high standards?  Is it really much-too-harsh to tell students they did poorly and need to repeat the lesson?  Aren't those standards incentives to work hard?  Of course they are.  By the way, I'll never ask real questions here.  It's all rhetorical stuff.  Real questions would require a humility I do not possess.