a friend of mine tim moroney rated uscf 2050 gave me a bunch of puzzles with a twist. they werent tactical in nature, at least not all of them. some moves were strategic or setting up a position later or just when you should castle etc. didnt tell me the answers of course. when shown the game of the century/move of the century, i got it right. why? because i was told that the move of the century was right in front of my face! puzzles that may or may not be tactical or strategic in nature translate better in game, because they make you ask...."IS there a tactic here? SHOULD i just castle? control a key square?" and so on. this trains you to ask these questions in game rather than playing random moves, and just not spotting tactics because in game you dont get a notification that says "alert! game winning tactic". im certainly not strong enough to coach but i know this method just sounds like a good idea right? and it helped me, as a student, which is what you wanted the advice for, so i thought id give my input
chess teaching question: spotting critical positions
and this also turns into independence training too. it could be a trick puzzle where the answer is ridiculously simple like changing the pawn structure! they learn to be confident in their own choices! mentality is very important esp otb!
I basically concentrate on n-forks, b-pins, and r-xrays. After opening development and if position doesn't necessitate defense, candidate moves should start with looking for n-fork obvious possibilities. Then durable b-pins. And always rooks opposite opponent K or Q. Then calculation can start with how to make it work if possible. Usually looking for some sort of removing a defender.
After awhile, looking for fork and pin opportunities and getting used to removing a defender often gets to be a regular game time habit.
a friend of mine tim moroney rated uscf 2050 gave me a bunch of puzzles with a twist. they werent tactical in nature, at least not all of them. some moves were strategic or setting up a position later or just when you should castle etc. didnt tell me the answers of course. when shown the game of the century/move of the century, i got it right. why? because i was told that the move of the century was right in front of my face! puzzles that may or may not be tactical or strategic in nature translate better in game, because they make you ask...."IS there a tactic here? SHOULD i just castle? control a key square?" and so on. this trains you to ask these questions in game rather than playing random moves, and just not spotting tactics because in game you dont get a notification that says "alert! game winning tactic". im certainly not strong enough to coach but i know this method just sounds like a good idea right? and it helped me, as a student, which is what you wanted the advice for, so i thought id give my input
Thanks for your thoughts. Interesting idea. Could you elaborate on how these puzzles helped you to pause and evaluate whether you have a tactic or other critical move in your game, rather than skipping past these critical moments the way people often tend to do? Could you give an example from a game you played? Thanks again.
rather than knowing the answer was tactical, these'trick' puzzles made me stop and deeply evaluate every situation so that i can properly identify what my objective is. if it's tactical i had to learn to find the tactic, and otherwise. to be honest i dont play a lot of important games so i cant give a specific example but i feel its helped tremendously with my in game thought process. the puzzles didnt make me better at tactics or otherwise, but they literally forced me to evaluate the situation every time, which if a student isnt lazy should easily translate to the board
actually i take that back, in made me much better at spotting tactics which is half of tactics honestly
I have a question for fellow chess coaches:
I've had quite a few students who practice tactics (doing the tactics trainer on here, solving puzzles from a book, or some other such thing) and get good at solving tactics problems, but can't spot tactics in their own games. The issue is this: when you're looking at a problem, you know there is something there to be found. But in a game, no one tells you when to stop and look for tactics. So many developing players can solve puzzles, even hard ones, but can't spot critical positions in their own games and skip right past potential tactical shots. If you were to give them the same position in the tactics trainer, they'd solve it easily. But they can't tell when such a moment has come up in a game.
So my question is: How do you teach this skill? What tools do you use to help students learn how to spot critical positions? I have my own ideas on this, but I'd like to hear others' thoughts.
Thanks.