Question from a U1000

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salmanalathurwastaken
I know all the basic checkmate, fork, pins etc patterns but i fail to recognise them until when i analyse the game. How do i?
RAU4ever

There are 3 possible reasons for this. The first one you'll hear a lot: not having enough pattern recognition. In a sense that's true: you might 'know' basic forks etc. but it doesn't mean that you instantly spot the pattern in a position. That requires even more pattern recognition. The second one could be to do with your mental process when you're playing a game. For example, if you never look for tactics specifically, you'll miss them. Every move you should do a quick tactical check in the position. 

The 3rd possible reason has to do with how you try and find tactics. I think this is an aspect that is very much underdeveloped with a lot of lower rated players and it gets little attention when learning about tactics. There are different solving strategies to find tactics. They all have to do with looking for forcing moves. A forcing move is a move that your opponent has to respond to. If you put your opponent in check, they have to respond. Forcing moves are: check, threatening mate, taking pieces, attacking pieces of a higher value and attacking pieces that are insufficiently defended or undefended. Insufficiently defended pieces are pieces that are attacked as much as they are defended: they're fine for now, but attack them another time and they'll need to move or find another defender. So a good solving strategy during your games would be to keep a track on the forcing moves in a position and which pieces are undefended or insufficiently defended. 

So with every move by you and with every move by your opponent you could do something like the following mental process: 
- are there any new ways to put their or my king in check?
- are there any new ways to threaten mate or be threatened by mate?
- are there any new undefended pieces out there?
- are there now any insufficiently defended pieces out there?
- are there any new ways to attack the undefended pieces out there?
- are there any new forcing moves attacking the now insufficiently defended pieces out there?
- are there any new ways to attack a piece of a higher value out there? (especially relevant if for example your queen has moved, this might mean that there are new forcing moves to attack the queen on the new location)
- are there new capturing moves out there?
- were any forcing moves lost by the last move, either because pieces are now defended, the king moved, a mate thread is defended against or a line/file/diagonal is blocked, etc.?

This sounds like a lot of work, but it's not so bad, because the amount of forcing moves in a position doesn't change that fast. I mean, if one side castles, then there might be some new checks and some old checks have been lost, but it's not likely that there are now new pieces left undefended. It'll also make you a lot more alert to possible tactical possibilities. Especially the check on which piece is undefended is important: loose pieces drop off. When you plan to make a move, you should always do a quick check which new forcing moves would be available and whether it leaves any of your pieces (insufficiently) (un)defended. Whenever the number of (insufficiently) (un)defended pieces increases, you should really check whether there's a tactic.

To remember to do your mental process, think 'check, take, attack'. All of the above should be done as fast as you can, because of the time constraint on every game. In time it'll go very quick and it'll be much more intuitive than a rigid process. 

salmanalathurwastaken
RAU4ever wrote:

There are 3 possible reasons for this. The first one you'll hear a lot: not having enough pattern recognition. In a sense that's true: you might 'know' basic forks etc. but it doesn't mean that you instantly spot the pattern in a position. That requires even more pattern recognition. The second one could be to do with your mental process when you're playing a game. For example, if you never look for tactics specifically, you'll miss them. Every move you should do a quick tactical check in the position. 

The 3rd possible reason has to do with how you try and find tactics. I think this is an aspect that is very much underdeveloped with a lot of lower rated players and it gets little attention when learning about tactics. There are different solving strategies to find tactics. They all have to do with looking for forcing moves. A forcing move is a move that your opponent has to respond to. If you put your opponent in check, they have to respond. Forcing moves are: check, threatening mate, taking pieces, attacking pieces of a higher value and attacking pieces that are insufficiently defended or undefended. Insufficiently defended pieces are pieces that are attacked as much as they are defended: they're fine for now, but attack them another time and they'll need to move or find another defender. So a good solving strategy during your games would be to keep a track on the forcing moves in a position and which pieces are undefended or insufficiently defended. 

So with every move by you and with every move by your opponent you could do something like the following mental process: 
- are there any new ways to put their or my king in check?
- are there any new ways to threaten mate or be threatened by mate?
- are there any new undefended pieces out there?
- are there now any insufficiently defended pieces out there?
- are there any new ways to attack the undefended pieces out there?
- are there any new forcing moves attacking the now insufficiently defended pieces out there?
- are there any new ways to attack a piece of a higher value out there? (especially relevant if for example your queen has moved, this might mean that there are new forcing moves to attack the queen on the new location)
- are there new capturing moves out there?
- were any forcing moves lost by the last move, either because pieces are now defended, the king moved, a mate thread is defended against or a line/file/diagonal is blocked, etc.?

This sounds like a lot of work, but it's not so bad, because the amount of forcing moves in a position doesn't change that fast. I mean, if one side castles, then there might be some new checks and some old checks have been lost, but it's not likely that there are now new pieces left undefended. It'll also make you a lot more alert to possible tactical possibilities. Especially the check on which piece is undefended is important: loose pieces drop off. When you plan to make a move, you should always do a quick check which new forcing moves would be available and whether it leaves any of your pieces (insufficiently) (un)defended. Whenever the number of (insufficiently) (un)defended pieces increases, you should really check whether there's a tactic.

To remember to do your mental process, think 'check, take, attack'. All of the above should be done as fast as you can, because of the time constraint on every game. In time it'll go very quick and it'll be much more intuitive than a rigid process. 

This was really helpful thank you! 

GeorgeWyhv14

First out is Gut move.

Until you see a pattern then you can start checkmating your opponent.