Help me improve at tactics

"1) How long do you spend on any given tactic in that difficulty range?" Presumably less than you, but that is not relevant. Take your time to find the right answer. There is no need to rush. The better you get, the faster you will get as well. Time is not an issue.
"2) What can I do to improve? " Like with all things in life: practice more.
"I'm starting to look at openings and later will spend time on end games" That is the wrong order: start studying endgames and postpone openings to later.
"most of the game seems to be positional play which is what tactics is all about" Tactics often result from a better position, though they also result from your opponent making a blunder. Tactics is more about being alert and profiting from any opportunity that presents itself.

тема ход белых мат в 1 ход

Do errors and blunders in real life, and expect to see them in your chess game...

If you cross the street without looking left and right. Then your probably doing it in chess too.

If you do not wait 3 seconds at a stop sign, then your not taking the time that is required to see what the opponent played, where it is going and what it might have uncovered or left hanging.

Strategy is the answer to better playing. Without a plan, your turning in circles. It's like walking in the dense woods and stepping more often to the left than the right side. Without even realizing it, over time you're going to get lost or you're going to end up at the starting point.

If you repeat the same errors, you will not be able to progress to a higher rating.

Try something new, like trying to draw your games.

If you memorize opening lines, it will not help you learn opening principles. I learned more by playing a one sided pawn opening formation like the stone wall or the slow Italian opening then memorizing openings. Learn a white pawn formation without trying to learn the black formation. Then try to apply or reinvent that white formation when your going to play black. It does not matter if your opponent plays the best response or not in an opening. This practice should help you to practice opening principles and learn to cope with surprises from your opponent. Over time you will be able to notice which players lack chess principles of play.

Work on openings before endings. It doesn't matter how good your endings are, if you can't even make it out of the opening!

Not all openings are the same. Some are for short term traps and others for long term traps. Some create quick checkmates and others, long extended games to finally make it to a draw.
If you don't know what the final result is for an opening, why take that path? Instead use principles of play.

New players only need to learn a few opening to learn what a trap is or a checkmate. Once they learned how to avoid early traps and checkmates, they don't need to concentrate on openings for a while. If they are an average player, they might need to learn common openings,m but by then they should have mastered end games.

A player wants to play better as the game progresses, not the other way around. Like a funnel towards the end game.
As a game progresses towards the middle or endgame the knowledge you learned will be visible. Don't memorize openings, because that's called playing mechanically. You will end up with gaps between your knowledge of opening play. It will limit you in the long run.

Start by a few combinations, not a mouth full.

The few combinations teaches you how to evaluate your best options. Without this skill of being able to search for solutions, your going to be lost or at the very least, find it hard in any opening.

There is more than one way to search for a solution.

Chess has principles of play. Learn one and use it. Keep it in mind all the way through your game. Example: Control your territory. (If the opponent cannot get into your territory, they cannot win.) At the very least control the centre.

With principles of play, there is less of a need to memorize any opening. What happens when you play your favourite first move? Does your opponent play the expected move? If so, lucky you. If not, can you exploit the situation? Probably not, if you did not learn endgames first.

Memorizing openings becomes useless without the true understanding of how to capture pieces.

Be original and think for your self. Invent all your openings. Later you will discover they already had opening names.

Riding in a car and driving it are too different things.
The same goes for chess, think about the probable response before playing your move. Learn to defend or counter attack against your opponent's tactics.

There are priorities and memorizing complicated openings is the last thing that needs to be learned.

Before you jump into a river of unknown openings. Enjoy swimming through the middle and end games first. It will help you grasp the trans-positional openings.

To work on tactics, search for three pieces that are or can lining up.

@Doofenshmirtz

Doofenshmirtz, you said:

"1) How long do you spend on any given tactic in that difficulty range?

2) What can I do to improve? I've started playing games because really tactics are a means to an end, and I assumed (still do, really) that tactics are the heart of a game of chess. I'm starting to look at openings and later will spend time on end games but most of the game seems to be positional play which is what tactics is all about.

Actually I don't want to ask too many questions so that's enough for now."

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You should ask MORE questions. The more questions you ask, the quicker the chess-teachers will be able to pinpoint and target your disconnects and provide you the appropriate material to fill in the gaps of your understanding.

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The first point I want to smash into smithereens is this idea that "tactics are the heart of chess".

Tactics are NOT the primary consideration in chess, much less are they the heart of chess.

Listen carefully to the following sentence. It will save your chess life. Reread it DAILY until you can see it start to take effect in your move-choice selection:

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Fundamentals: EVERYTHING that a piece does/influences where it sits, present and future.

Tactics: EVERYTHING that happens/changes when a piece is moved.

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The idea that what separates us from the masters is their genius capacity to cold calculate thousands of variations, 100s of moves deep, is not why GMs clean the board with our tears every time, seemingly with little effort.

No. There is something else that is going on there. There is something primary happening there. There is something that tactics can't account for that they're employing. They're using a muscle in their brain that has to do with creativity and invention and ingenuity, a muscle that we don't even know exists.

This is why they can find tactical shots that are merely 3-4 moves deep, a depth that almost anyone can calculate, and yet these shots are 'invisible' to the rest of us until we're shown them.

If we played a friendly game with them, about 10 times a game they might give us the, "nuh uh don't move there because then (insert 2-3-4 move tactical shot here)."

They are NOT finding these tactical shots because of their tactical prowess, no, they are finding these tactical shots by first studying the fundamentals of the position.

They don't start with, "if I take there then they move there then I go here....naw...thats won't work. If I go here and then they go there....no that's not it either.

They start with understanding how that pawn on d5 communicates with all of the friendly pieces and all of the enemy pieces.

They start with understanding the communication and relationships between pieces.

They study the roles of all of the pieces, and without using tactics to test something, they know which pieces are overworked and can be targeted. They know which pieces are in danger of being distracted.

It's only when they feel they have the understanding do they then play the tactical combination through in order to prove if their THEORY and ANALYSIS was correct. In other words, "do the tactics allow to safely play what appears should be played here?"


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It's my contention that starting with move 1, GMs collect/gather the total influence of every piece on the board, understand what the pieces do, and then work from that narrative. They don't have to look at a board position to see and calculate that a piece is overworked, they understood that it would be overworked even before that specific variation even played out. It's not a matter of looking deep that earns FIDE titles. It's a matter of looking BROAD.

I'm not saying that there is no value in assuming that a side should "move to win" and then taking a few seconds each move to scan for a blunder or a lucky shot...CERTAINLY tactics have value or else all of the pieces would stay on their starting squares...

...but at the same time...

...we don't play 1. e4 just for the sake of playing 1. e4 either!!

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It's just to say that based on the fundamentals (where the pieces are and what they do there), we then employ tactics to justify our plans and targets.

Essentially, tactics are the law that mitigates where our plans can and can't work.

The plans, the creativity, the understanding, the invention, the ingenuity are primary.

Chess lives within these attributes.

Tactics are merely the tools that we use to effect our plans.

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I think I might have a lecture here that will make the point.

Try this on for size see how it fits:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTSSWtTpfjY

@Doofenshmirtz #1
IM Alex Smith, writer of the excellent book "Pump up your rating", said that the "Woodpecker" method worked great for him. My conclusion based on that (I had that book a few years ago but donated it to friends, so I can't look it up now) is that repeating tactic puzzles works, especially repeating the failed ones. You can easily do that on other websites, like : chesstempo website and I believe chessable has the option as well now.
Some more on the "Woodpecker" :
http://saychess.org/new-training-method-mistake-chunking/

@GBA87 #14
A beginning chess player must always work on their endings.
For example checkmate with queen vs. lone king, and checkmate with rook vs. lone king are a must to learn.
Then ... the better the chess player gets, more different types of endings should be studied.
You are right that chess endgame knowledge is worthless when things *always* go wrong in the opening.
But only studying openings, and then *always* making mistakes in the endgame, or ... avoiding endgames, is not the way forward for the lower rated chess amateurs.
A good balance, including studying endgames, makes more sense to me.

@achja Balance is important, but openings, tactics, and basic positional themes should be your main focus. Obviously, you need to learn the basic checkmates, but things like the Philidor and Lucena positions should wait