Don's Inferno

The Nine (Ten) Circle Program
I was going to wait until I finished the program before I doled out advice on how one might improve de la Maza's program, but there are a few knights in the early lap of Circle One, so I'm gonna sound off now.I think there are a few problems with the Seven Circle program. 1) It covers too many problems. 2) It doesn't leave enough time to digest early material before moving on to more difficult material. 3) The first Circle takes too damn long. You have to go two months before you can claim victory. 4) The workload is a bit much for people who and not young and unemployed. 5) "Seven circles" is poetically incorrect. There should be nine circles to correspond to the nine circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno. You won't write the "Eight Commandments of Chess Improvement", would you?As such, I presentDon's Nine Circles for Tactical Chess ImprovementFirst, my nine circle program can be completed in the same 127 as de la Maza's. I'm adding more circles, not more time. Second, it actually has 10 circles. This is because hell has expanded since Dante wrote the Inferno. There are several new classes of sinners -- televangelists, sandbagging chess players, spammers, etc. In addition, they had a bit of an overflow problem after the Third Reich started showing up. As such, they had to build an addition. That and I need 10 to make the math work out. Circle One -- 32 days -- level 10-30 Max time -- 10 minutesCircle Two -- 16 days -- level 10-30. Max time -- 5 minutesCircle Three -- 8 days -- level 10-30. Max time -- 2.5 minutesCircle Four -- 32 days -- level 40-60. Max time -- 10 minutesCircle Five -- 16 days -- level 40-60. Max time -- 5 minutesCircle Six -- 8 days -- level 40-60. Max time -- 2.5 minutesCircle Seven -- 8 days -- Level 10-60. Max time -- 1.25 minutesCircle Eight -- 4 days -- Level 10-60. Max time -- 37.5 secondsCircle Nine -- 2 days -- Level 10-60. Max time -- 30 secondsCircle Ten -- 1 day -- Level 10-60. Max time -- 30 secondsI think this approach would work better. It would give you more of a chance to master the problems at the different levels before moving on, but it keeps the same last 4 cirlces to cement the pattern recognition. In the words of Darth Vader, "It is too late for me, my son", but I thought I'd pass this along as future de la Mazians might find it more beneficial than the program as originally outlined.Level 60 starts tomorrow.121 days down, 34 to go954 problems down, 84 to go in Circle TwoLevel 10: 97%Level 20: 88%Level 30: 76% Level 40: 68% Level 50: 63% (finished strong)