Connecting the Dots in Chess
I have made an observation while solving puzzles, that I feel will improve my tactical puzzle solving skills, and might have direct application during actual games.
When solving a tactical puzzle of intermediate to advanced level I either:
1. Have no clue how to go about solving it and get it wrong.
2. Have multiple ideas that look promising, but after further analysis don’t win {usually end up playing one of the two and get the answer wrong}.
3. Solve the puzzle correctly.
This post is going to focus on solving the 2nd category above. I have found that you will get many more puzzles correct by combining ideas that arise by analyzing different candidate moves. Unfortunately, by not making a link between the two, or forgetting about your first idea when looking at the second, I mainly fail to connect the dots and only after reviewing the correct answer do I see that I had been on the right track and would have answered correctly if I had combined my candidates.
You might want to solve this puzzles on your own before reading the answers below taking into account your thought process while doing so and then see if you encountered the same issues as I did.
Read the rest at http://www.beginchess.com/2010/06/06/connecting-the-dots-in-chess/
