Association of concepts and ideas in our memory is vital to our everyday existence on just about every level. We maintain mental "maps" in varying levels of detail and the better we can develop and utilitize these maps, the better we can do when the inevitable problems and challenges come our way, as we will have stored away knowledge about similar problems and their solutions.

Now, we've been going through parts of Andrew J. Banks' eclectic book, Checker Board Strategy, as part of our long standing Checker School series, and Mr. Banks has the following interesting observation about memory and association:

"Association of ideas is the third way of developing a logical memory. If I merely say 'Think of something!' you will be at a loss for ideas. But if I say, 'Think of an article of clothing,' ideas will flash. This test illustrates the power of association. After you have learned a problem, meditate and reflect; thus you often can associate that problem with a similar one."

We definitely think Mr. Banks is in accord with us. After all, as described above, we mostly solve problems in general by implicitly or explicitly comparing them to problems we have solved in the past, and extending or adapting those previous solutions.

So, then, look at the position below. Is it comparable to or associated with anything you've seen before? Does that give you some ideas?

WHITE

BLACK
Black to Play and Win

B:B6,10,K31:W8,13,17

Access your memory bank; correlate, adapt, and extend, and find the solution--- this one isn't all that difficult. After you're done, associate your mouse with Read More to check your answer.

Solution

31-26 8-3 26-22 3-7 22-25 7-14 25-21 Black Wins.

A nice man-down win. Mr. Banks points us to page 8 of Boland's "Familiar Themes" for more examples.