Tactical Puzzles Series - Part 1

Hello everyone. During my time as a chess coach I've noticed that intermediate level chess players are considerably poor when it comes to tactical play. Most of these players are dead set on learning opening sidelines to try and gain a considerable edge in the opening. This of course, does help them get a very nice boost in online blitz rating but when it comes OTB rapid or classical chess these players tend to score considerably lower than their expectations. The reason is simple, in a 3+0 game played online if you get into an opening line that your opponent is unaware of 8 times out of 10, you're going to end up winning the game. Sometimes your opponent will simply mess up the opening and you'll get a clear winning advantage; other times your opponent will consume a lot of time in the opening and then ultimately lose under time pressure. However, when you try to apply the same strategy in an OTB standard time format tournament, your opponent takes his time and safely gets out of the opening and now you're left with no other choice but to rely on your positional and tactical understanding of the position, something you're not that great at. Ultimately, you end up with a 2200-2300 chess.com rating and a 1700 - 1800 FIDE rating.

So, in this article I'm going to explain how you can get better at tactical play. I know what you're all thinking, just solve some puzzles on a daily basis and you're all set. Well, you're not wrong. However just solving the puzzles is not enough, you need to know how to get the maximum output while solving these puzzles. I've seen players look at a puzzle for 10 seconds and just start making moves. If they get it wrong, they just try it again. This is a terrible way to solve puzzles.

Let's take a look at how one should go about solving puzzles:

1. Set up the puzzle on a chess board, don't just solve it on you mobile or laptop.
2. Try to figure out the solution in your head without touching any of the pieces on the board. Try to calculate every single variation. Don't just play a move because you feel like it should be winning, that is not the purpose of this exercise.
3. Once you've calculated every single variation and you're dead sure that this is the solution then you get a pen and a notebook and write down all the variations.
4. Once you've written down the solution, then you play all the variations over the board that you have set up. Remember you are not to look through your notebook while you play these.
5. Once you're done with these steps then and only then do you make your move on the puzzle that you had opened on you mobile or laptop.
6. If your solution is correct then congratulations if it isn't then start again from step 1.

Now that you know how to solve the puzzles let me give you some puzzles to solve. These won't be very hard. I'll post about 10 puzzles every day and I'll gradually improve their strength.

I'll upload 10 puzzles daily. Solve them using the method mentioned at the start. For further guidance you may inbox me directly.