When first starting a tactics puzzle you need to count the material for each side.. since most puzzles are about winning decisive material, or checkmate ( at least the ones I've encountered ). I don't think I've ever had a puzzle that was strictly about winning a pawn, maybe those would be the 2500+ puzzles lol. So it's good to know how many points you need to get a decisive advantage in order to know what kind of things you should be looking for. I mean.. unless it's a for-checkmate puzzle.. then you could possibly be down tons of material but still have a win in hand.. or at least some weird draw or stalemate. Other stuff to keep in mind constantly while going through your puzzle is checks, threats, captures, and then just where you can move your pieces in general and what possibilities those moves might create. I'd say practicing tactics helped boost my online rating quite a bit (I haven't been to an IRL tournament). Once you're constantly on the hunt for moves that create options, staying aware of material, whats hanging, checks.. it really does help your play some (at least a bit in my case). Also constantly considering what captures may lead to helped me notice in-between moves more often in my own games. Anyways hope some of this helps. I could definitely get way better myself still but tactics was a great start to having a bit more depth in my games. Good luck!
@gabriel80546 yes, there a millions and millions of tactics..... personally, i have no desire to solve even thousands and thousands of them......... i think people tend to do what is natural for them, whether it's solving tons of them, or working diligently on solving a few... i do only about 10 or 15 at the most per day.........but it's not that unusual for me to spend 15 minutes, half an hour on a single one.... for others, i guess people can binge-solve them, etc...
interested to hear more on this...it's something i'm interested in - which is, how people approach training on tactics, etc... i think i've found what works for me. solving tons of them --------- no fun! at least for me......
speaking of which, jeezus, the capcha puzzle to reply here --- what a puzzler! took me like... a minute or two, lol..........
interested to hear more on this...it's something i'm interested in - which is, how people approach training on tactics, etc... i think i've found what works for me. solving tons of them --------- no fun! at least for me......
speaking of which, jeezus, the capcha puzzle to reply here --- what a puzzler! took me like... a minute or two, lol..........
I am so bad at tactics I almost couldn't reply to this thread bc I couldn't find the checkmate in 1 for the CAPTHCA
=)
Seriously, just look for checks, captures and threats (in that order)
In complicated positions see which of your opponents pieces isn't defended, or only defended once, and look to attack it or remove the defender.
=)
Seriously, just look for checks, captures and threats (in that order)
In complicated positions see which of your opponents pieces isn't defended, or only defended once, and look to attack it or remove the defender.
@Agile-Scorpion #1
You just need some luck and patience.
If chess would be about getting to know 100 tactic puzzles well, then it would be easy.
But each puzzle can have little differences. One pawn on another square can sometimes make a big difference.
If you have a bad day and want to do the puzzles too fast, and come across puzzles that are difficult for you (That can be lower or high rated puzzles) especially after failing a few, your rating can drop a lot.
If you have a good day and come across puzzles which are doable for you, and you are well concentrated and patient, then you can gain quite some rating.
I made 2400 tactics rating a challenge for myself and succeeded. And I'm just an amateur chess player with no specific chess talent.
On Chesstempo it took me years to go over 2000, and when I did all of a sudden I also went over 2100, only to fall back under 2000, and then back over 2000.
To me it is a matter of luck and patience, and of course good calculation and understanding.
In the past I've blogged about that :
www.chess.com/blog/achja/getting-better-at-tactics?page=2
You just need some luck and patience.
If chess would be about getting to know 100 tactic puzzles well, then it would be easy.
But each puzzle can have little differences. One pawn on another square can sometimes make a big difference.
If you have a bad day and want to do the puzzles too fast, and come across puzzles that are difficult for you (That can be lower or high rated puzzles) especially after failing a few, your rating can drop a lot.
If you have a good day and come across puzzles which are doable for you, and you are well concentrated and patient, then you can gain quite some rating.
I made 2400 tactics rating a challenge for myself and succeeded. And I'm just an amateur chess player with no specific chess talent.
On Chesstempo it took me years to go over 2000, and when I did all of a sudden I also went over 2100, only to fall back under 2000, and then back over 2000.
To me it is a matter of luck and patience, and of course good calculation and understanding.
In the past I've blogged about that :
www.chess.com/blog/achja/getting-better-at-tactics?page=2
My peak rating in tactics is 2923 u can just see. Now I have just went 👇 down... Mm
I forgot to mention that it s easy to get high tactical raiting with cheating, but that is ofc quite obvious.
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