A way to stop hanging pieces to simple tactics

I saw this asked in a different topic, and decided to post my answer as a whole new topic.

What helped me was solving puzzles for accuracy. It becomes a calculation exercise.

The goal isn't only to solve the puzzle's main line, but to also have an answer to each reasonable defense the opponent might try. This way, you're having to look for good moves for the opponent too. I suggest spending as much as 30 to 40 minutes on a puzzle before giving up. Don't move any pieces, solve from the original position only. It may be best to begin with checkmate puzzles, that way you know for sure what you're looking for (instead of wondering if you win a little material, a lot, or even checkmate).

Do this enough, and the focused work on what the opponent can do in response to your intended move will become a habit.

Here's a random puzzle as an example

White to move

As an example of what typically happens during a session I'll give you an incorrect solution. Try to visualize it:

e6+ Nxe6 Bxe6+ Kxe6 Qf5 mate

Ok, now we have a line that looks good for us. This is only the beginning. Now we have to go back and look for ways to improve the opponent's defense.

e6+

Visualize only that move, and pause. What are black's legal moves? Black can only capture with the knight. ok so now we have

e6+ Nxe6 Bxe6+

Again pause. Last time we recaptured for black and black was mated, but what else can black do?

Black can play Ke8, so now maybe we calculate

e6+ Nxe6 Bxe6+ Ke8 Bf7+ Kd7 Qf5 mate

Good, but now we have to go back again and try to improve the defense. Kd7 wasn't forced.

e6+ Nxe6 Bxe6+ Ke8 Bf7+ and pause, where else can the black king move? It can move to f8

e6+ Nxe6 Bxe6+ Ke8 Bf7+ Kf8

If you look from here, the attack continues, but there's no quick mate. So now you start over. We haven't considered what other first moves white has.

Qf5+ Nxf5 e6 mate

Now we have to check for improvements for black

After Qf5+ black can also play Ne6

Qf5+ Ne6 Qxe6 mate

After Qf5+ black only has those two moves.

And only after finding those two Qf5+ lines have you solved the puzzle. While doing an exercise like this, to help stay organized you can write down lines after you're done calculating them.

What you'll find happens after a lot of practice is you'll pause after visualizing your intended move and work hard to find annoying opponent's moves right away... you wont just assume a recapture, or something that helps you. When this habit shows up in your games, you'll be much less likely to miss something bad that can happen to you after your move.

Good idea.

Stopping hanging pieces is easier said than done. Awareness and practice is the answer.

this is excellent - thankyou 

despite my rating i solved this rather swiftly. very good puzzle.

Its not so much finding the solution but all the opponents tricky replies.  I have practised thousands of tactics and have never achieved a rating higher than 1850 (chess tempo) Maybe its because I was focusing on volume?  Now I think I will take the op's advice and try to focus on accuracy even if it takes a while to solve the tactic.

Agreed! :D

Good lesson Chin. I hope to see more.

Thanks for the lesson.

I saw that without the e4-Knight, e6 is a mate similar to a Double Bishop mate.  I then saw that I had a distraction for the e4-Knight, Qf5+, requiring the Knight to move and allow checkmate with either the Qieen or the Pawn.

better tactics are helping me, but not enough to completely stop from hanging pieces.  Too often, my evaluation stops right there. I may not notice if N x Q results in a check of my King that screws up the whole attack.  Dan Heisman calls it "Hope Chess" - you found a great move and hope your opponent doesn't have a better one.  I'm studying some of his books and articles that include Thought Processing and hope I have the self discipline to undo years of bad thinking habits.

Great recommendation!  I do the same thing.

Also, as a retired teacher, I looked at Tactics Trainer here and at chesstempo.com and considered: how could I make the tactics I found for each problem stick in my head better?

The best thing I found to do was to look at the tag(s) after solving each problem and make sure I can define that tag (a Skewer vs a Pin, a Double Bishops Mate vs Boden's Mate, a Dovetail Mate vs a Swallow's Tail Mate, etc.) and make sure I recognize how it was used in the problem. I notice on chesstempo.com, there's a lot more argument in the comments about which tags applied to the solution - that may be due to a more extensive tag list.  Entering into such an argument with a comment also helps cement that tactic in your head.  In any case, we tactics students should memorize the Tactical Motifs on these pages:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics--definitions-and-examples

http://chesstempo.com/tactical-motifs.html