https://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory is the best no arguing
Are tactics the best thing for 1200-1400 players? Also, chess.com tactics rating?
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Thanks, this looks good as a map for which topics to study.
Also I may have gotten a little cocky with regards to my tactics. Obviously all of my games are still usually decided by the level of tactics that I solve on the “Puzzles” here on chess.com. Perhaps the issue is more “What ‘method' or ‘routine' helps me to make sure I catch these in actual games?
Proper strategy and decision making leads to superior positions that have tactical opportunities.
Learn strategy. Not your ideas but what the position is telling you to do.
This website really has all you could ever need as far as studying goes.
I would be interested to see what tools exist for spotting tactics in game. Maybe like a tactics trainer where you have the option of saying “no tactic” or where the move wins only a pawn simply improves the position. I think that would be a great training tool.
I want a trainer that simply presents ANY position where there is one best move (by a point or more) and you have to find it. Even if no material is won!
A book called "Practical Chess Exercises" was like that. It was hard. I couldn't do it. It is exactly how you just explained.
Proper strategy leads to tactical positions/opportunities.
Practical Chess Exercises by Ray Cheng
Thank you so much! This is indeed what I am looking for! I will go through it.
Someone should develop software to automate this process so that more players are exposed to this more effective training tool
Hello all. Fellow chess lover here. I hear all the time that "until someone plays at XXXX rating, (Some people say 1500, others say 2000), the only thing they need to focus on is tactics.” Or “Tactics will get you to 1800 alone.” However, I’ve never seen any hard statistical evidence for these claims.
In fact, I have a (in my opinion) relatively high tactics rating of 2361 at the time of writing this. But I’ve never gotten my rapid score above ~1280 [on chess.com] (I’m not interested in improving my blitz/bullet scores. These seem like “empty calories,” to use a food analogy). I also see many players with ratings on all time controls in the 1800-2000 range, who have hardly done any tactics at all! But perhaps they practice in other ways
1) Should I pay attention to a tactics trainer score, and if so, should I focus on other parts of the game such as strategy or openings?
2) Is there a better way to practice tactics/combinations than the chess.com trainer?
3) Is anyone aware of any hard evidence regarding the fastest way to improve in chess? Peer reviewed sources are especially great, but anything is good, really.