No no I gave the solution :)
Kinda slow tried to say motif was over used in the o.p. but yeah.
@Monist said in #1:
> Another is that I regularly miss certain motifs, quite a few of them in fact. An example of the latter is me failing to see or forgetting to look for trapped enemy pieces.
I'm sure you are good at solving puzzles, just don't know what to solve in actual games. I had a minor problem which was usually missing little details like my queen was exposed or there is mate in 1.
It helped me a lot making an actual checklist: in every move, look for: checks you can do, checks you could receive, and state of queens.
Little by little, you'll be adding more motifs (exposed pieces, forks, pins, trapped pieces) and, as @dboing has written, learning what to discard. Also (the most important aspect) you must remember the other player also wants to win!
I think there is a question of generalization. The puzzles are spectacular exemplars. My suggestion to actively engage in the theme perception, theme recognition, and them expression (even voting, which requires an added confidence, sometimes the puzzles don't have the themes that are present, was so that the task might be, as you increase and read the carefully worded definition of lichess (mouse hover theme when in theme mode), and as you increase your confidence from such experience, as yourself where in the puzzle you just tried (success or failure does not matter, you can press its thematic juice in all cases, actually failed puzzles might synergize with the consolation victory of at least figuring out, what them it was that you missed.. runaway sentence.. can't fix..
One probably early task, for uncertain themes, is if others have already voted for some themes, to figure out in the puzzles just solved, where there were seen exactly.
anyway.. I was saying the problem is one of generalization from spectacular to more grey games scenery with not just one screaming tactical move winner. Why the them insistence. Because it depends on your attitude in actively seeking themes in the short sequence solution.. even those that others say are not there.. or not figuring out exactly where the voted theme happend in the sequence that others found.. It is not enough to just puzzle by theme.. you have to pin point where that was.. And theme are actually rarely anlone.. Also, as you progess in naming, you create conscious handles, a sort of scaffold that can help you figure out, how flexible the postion features can be with respect to a theme. Find how separated the multithemes can be.. that exercise i belive would strenghen your judicious generalization muscle... how far can a logical definition apply. (there are not all perfect autonomous defintions, some are like fonctions wihtout all their arguments, and function as lego adaptors for other themes... etc..
Lichess made a very beautiful thing there. It should be used. at leat try for some time... to challenge yoursself about how far you can stretch the application of themes you have practice using the thematic filer for puzzle offer by lichess. Go into random mix, too. where you don't know the existence of a particular theme at first.. do both. even the ones where you know in advance a theme is present. it may be a minor theme, not the most difficult theme to perceive.. have such critical though, about where the puzzle was a good example of that theme or just happened to be collateral theme to another, that was hard to see, and probably justfied the puzzle rating...
I haven't read the entire discussion. I have found it quite useful to first solve the puzzle/tactic/combination in your head, then write down the full solution, pencil and paper, including all variations, without rechecking the diagram. Then you check the solution provided.
themes. not calculation. or calculation about themes..
Think globally, act locally!.
edit: ... but not later. or too late, forgot how that goes.
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