help a noobie

Okay, I’m not great with words but I’m going to do my best at explaining my problem. Here it goes. I like to do chess puzzles, as does everyone. The majority of the puzzles I’ve done I got correct (I have gotten quite a few wrong). It only takes a few seconds (35 max. Which depending on the time settings, is either a long time or barely any time. Pretend I’m in a rapid game) I figure the reason it takes that short of time is because I know what I’m looking for. However for some reason, I cannot translate that into a game. When I’m in game I can’t find nothing for the life of me. This leads me to ask the questions: Is this an opening problem, do I need to do more puzzles, or is this a problem with piece movement? I hope that makes sense.

In my opinion, that’s totally normal. Puzzles kind of guide you, you know there’s a tactic, so your brain is locked in. But in actual games, it’s harder because you don’t know when tactics are there. What helped me was slowing down during games and always checking for checks/captures/... also, going over my own games and spotting missed tactics made a big difference. It gets better with time and practice.

Thanks for the advice! I do play a lot of bullet games (randomly moving until opponent runs out of time 🙃) I should start playing more rapid games. So that way every move has (or at least should) have some reason. I am contemplating getting diamond membership because I recently got a job.

Train calculation, not just tactics.

I struggle with this too. Playing longer time controls (which I don't do; I'm one to talk!) can help you greatly with this.

Alternatively, try going to Lichess for puzzles. All of the puzzles they generate come from actual games that were played on the website, thereby making them more "relatable."

in puzzles, you know that you have a winning combination, so you look for one. I always miss mates and tactics in games cuz i never look for them

hm

Don't worry, I am going to finally help you. Ignore all the previous coments, i am here to save you, I will transport you through the battles to the victory. I will break all your obstacles and defend you from your opponents, I will never let you wander in confusion. You and me together, holding hands, looking forward to the potential enemies at the horizon, under a sunset

Yes it help me

Do more puzzles, the patterns will show, it just takes time, back rank mate is probably easy to spot for most people after like 5 puzzles with that theme, the more you do of other puzzles (smothered mate, dovetail mate, skewer, etc) the easier it is to spot in a real game, it just takes a lot of puzzles to see smothered mates or other harder stuff

https://www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/989842

Take this puzzle, its a discovered attack to win the queen, you failed it, but thats all part of a process, you will succeed, but always review failed puzzles, especially at U1000

Hey @Christophaaa2007 👋

Makes sense, and you're not alone! A lot of players experience the same thing — crushing puzzles but struggling to apply them during real games.

Here are a few things that might help:

1. Puzzles are tactical snapshots – They’re often from positions where something is about to happen. Games, especially in the opening and middlegame, require more positional understanding and planning, which puzzles don’t always train.

2. Try Custom Puzzles or Puzzle Rush Survival – These can help you mimic game-like decision-making under time pressure, especially if you select positions by themes (like “defence” or “middlegame”).

3. Practice slow games – Play 15|10 or 30-minute games and annotate them afterwards. Look at moments where you felt lost and compare them with puzzles. That’ll help bridge the gap.

4. Study common openings – If you often feel out of place in the first 10 moves, a little opening prep can give you confidence and better positions.

5. Be kind to yourself – You’re working hard and asking the right questions. That’s a big part of improvement 💪

You’ve got this! Keep going, and feel free to drop your games via my messages if you need advice—I'm happy to help!

— @JosephReidNZ ♟️

How to play chess

Winning tactics flow from a positional advantage. If your positional understanding is not up to snuff, or if you can't even recognize a positional advantage when you see one, you are not likely to find the tactic. Claims like .... At your level you should focus on tactics..., or ...chess is 95% tactics therefore you should study lots of puzzles are misleading and should be taken with a grain of salt. Sure games are decided by tactics, but without the positional understanding, so called tactical skills aren't worth much.

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond…

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond

Be wary of free Instructional materials. There's loads of it on the internet, most of the stuff I see is worth about what you pay for it.

Hey @Christophaaa2007 

Everyone has given some good advice, but I also wanted to add that I find with my students the biggest thing that blocks seeing tactics or 'puzzles' in games, is actually due to the correct thought process when deciding your moves.

1. We know that we should first look for opponents checks, captures and threats. If we evaluate this as not an issue, we can then move to our pieces and thoughts

2. Here there are many different things to think about, but if you're struggling to see tactics, your first thought should be to look for them! I know this sounds simple, but training your brain with this thought process means that you won't miss them in the future. There are definitely cases where more advanced tactics are just harder to spot, and as people have said, this comes with solving more and more complex puzzles, but you should always be looking at your pieces thinking, can I fork, pin or skewer something here, rather than just, "ah my knight looks a bit out of place".

Hope that helps,
- @FinkeChess 🌰