Another Tactics Question

I'm working on easier tactics problems, trying to do them over and over. 

My question is, should I be taking my time, making sure I have the right answer before moving, or should I be trying find the patters quickly?  I've read arguments for both sides, just not sure what the best way to go about it is. 

Thanks for any advice.

The point of doing tactics is familiarizing with common patterns, in order to not have to figure them out during an actual game (bonus points for seeing them used against you!). If you immediately spot a pattern, move right away, otherwise take your time to figure out what's going on.

More importantly, realize that chess.com tactics rating means absolutely nothing, only ever do tactics to improve, gaming the system in order to maximize your rating is a boring and useless exercise.

When I solve tactics problems I like to spend as much time on each move as I would if it were in a rated tournament game. I don't like to play for speed. When I have familiarized myself with the patterns enough, then I will become quicker and quicker naturally without having to force myself to play fast. Also I would rather try not just to spot a certain pattern and play the move the tactics trainer wants me to, but calmly assess the position and calculate all variations and sidelines. In a real game I also have to make sure there are no hidden escape chances for my opponent. Spotting a pattern and instantly playing the correct move is all good and nice in tactics trainers, but going to fast can backfire in your face in a real game.

Each method helps in a different way.  I like to solve it completely as if it were a real game.  I try to look at every variation not just what is likely to be the main line.  In real games you lose because one line or another will refute a pretty looking tactic.

But it's also useful to expose yourself to many patterns quickly to build a mini database of patterns in your head.  In that case you can game the system (so to speak) and play a nice looking move knowing there is no refutation.

Depends how much patience/how tired I am. Often I just play natural moves and see what happens.

Playing for a pattern instantly without looking at any of the defensive moves is very dangerous, in fact there are tactic problems designed especially against that kind of the behaviour. (The obvious move will backfire and lose instead.)

If you want to really solve a problem you should look for several moves and not gamble.

private pyle, the answer to your question lies in the way you've phrased the question, just with a simple replacement of "or" with "and".  You wrote "Making sure I have the right answer before moving or trying to find the patterns quickly".  The way to do it is to NOt guess! Guessing os the Wrong way to do tactics problems, and making haphazard moves in hopes they will eb accurate is the WRong way; that would be training bad habits. The way to do it is to make sure you have the right answer before moving, and by repeating that particular puzzle over time getting faster and faster at recongnizing the pattern. So the simple answer to your question is go slow, and get it right, and by repetition of the particular problem you can go faster. Hope this helps. 

Exactly the information I was looking for.  Thank you all, I appreciate it.

Thanks again.  I got a paid membership to chesstempo.com on Friday.  I just made a set of all puzzles rated under 1200 and I'm been doing those.  I appreciate the advice.

I rather think it pays to give respect to the time element. So, on becoming conscious that you are taking too long, make your best guess. You can always go back and study the problem w/o the timer any longer playing its part but the gain you make by letting the timer - initially - hussle you along is that you gain confidence when you find the combination quickly and easily and you get to notice the particular themes and combinations which you don't see easily.

awesome. me too. all kinds of problem sets. mates in two rated under 1200. mates in three rated under 1200. pins rated under 1200. etc. you can go hogwild with creating custom problem sets. just remember to do one problem set repetitively until its in your long term memory. the blog "empirical rabbit" has tons of stuff on learning by doing tactics puzzles. He has tons of stuff. Look at his the Bain experiment, The Dan Heisman experiment, The Coakley/Heisman etc experiment, the spaced repetition experiments, etc. 

http://empiricalrabbit.blogspot.ca/

Wow, great website.  Thanks!

I just want this comment to appear twice because I like it.