Seven Castles, Seven Enchantresses ... and Seven Circles

I've begun my descent through the Seven Circles of Tactics.

In the words of Don Quixote,

... is there any greater joy than seeing, before our very eyes, you might say, a great lake of boiling pitch, and in it, swimming and writhing about, there are many snakes, serpents, lizards, and many other kids of fierce and fearsome creatures, and from the middle of the lake there comes an extremely sad voice, saying, 'Thou, O knight, whosoever thou mayest be, who looketh upon this fearful lake if thou wishest to grasp the treasure hidden beneath these ebon waters, display the valor of thy mighty heart and throw thyself into the midst of its black and burning liquid, for if thou wilt not, thou canst not be worthy of gazing upon the wondrous marvels contained and enclosed within the seven castles of the seven enchantresses which lieth beneath this blackness.' And no sooner has the knight heard the fearsome voice than without hesitating or stopping to consider the danger he faces, and without even stripping off the weight of his heavey armor, he commends himself to God and his lady and throws himself into the middle of the boiling lake, and when he cannot see or imagine where he will land, he finds himself among flowering meadows even more beautiful than the Elysian Fields ...

And so I throw myself into the boiling lake in hopes that I will find at the end of the ordeal, not misery, but flowers (or a better tactical prowess).

I finished the first set of exercises. I blew threw them. But then I went back and read some of what de la Maza and Heisman said about tactics. I need to drill the tactic in my head ... know it like the multiplication table. So now I'm slowing down a bit and taking my time to make sure I understand each exercise. If I incorrectly solve it, then I'll go back over it again a few times before moving to the next one.

And the descent continues ...