Tactical puzzles broken down
Knowing different tactical and mating motifs makes calculating variations through recognizing (these) patterns much simpler and they gradually become second nature.
First, attempt this puzzle before scrolling down:
The above problem took a GM just 2 seconds to solve after looking at it, and yet it took fritz 5 several minutes to deduce a forced win.
The reason being is that this puzzle has 4 tactical components to it, or 4 attacking patterns, which, once mastered, make the problem much easier and quicker to solve by a human.
Patterns
1) The basic knight fork - In the puzzle above, this fork was particularly forcing, in that it forced White to capture the knight on g3 and prevent NxQ.
2) The Taimanov Knight Check - This is a common theme for opening up the h-file:
3) The Rook Decoy Sacrifice - Enabling Black to bring their Queen into action with gain of tempo:
...and:
4) Mating with the Queen on h2 / h1
Simply knowing these four tactical building blocks, and calculating as to whether it was possible in that unique situation, led to the quick and brilliant 8-move combination above!
I hope you enjoyed that!
