Do tactics really help?

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Avatar of Zycirline
Game_of_Pawns wrote:
B1ZMARK wrote:

I would laugh at them and stalk their games for hours and compile a list of games where they get completely molested by their opponent, heavily annotate it with snark remarks and post it in a public forum 

Hahahahaha. I hate to think what you'd do to someone who actually wronged you...

 

Mental note: don't piss off B1ZMARK. He wouldn't have to search through many of my games lol...

Well id probably do nothing

Avatar of Magnus_Chase19
blueemu wrote:

If you are very good at tactics but can't seem to spot and exploit them in your games, then it's probable that one of two factors is holding you back.

Either:

1) Poor situational awareness. Perhaps the tactical opportunities do come up in your games, but you miss them because you fail to spot them and just play some boring move "on auto-pilot" instead. This can happen because there is one major difference between tactics puzzles and a real game: with the puzzle, you already KNOW from the start that a winning tactic exists; you just need to find it. In a real game position, you have no such assurance.

2) Poor strategy, poor positional play. Tactical opportunities don't just float down out of the sky like snowflakes. They appear in positions where you already hold the advantage. This is just common sense... you won't find a winning move unless you have a winning position. That's what MAKES it a winning position: tactics flow from a superior position. So perhaps it's your strategy that's at fault... you don't see any tactical opportunities because you never reach the positional superiority that would generate tactical solutions.

 

i usually dont study openings and lines and i am a positional player... Whenever i try a not so obvious tactic, my opponent always spots it

Avatar of blueemu
Magnus_Chase19 wrote:

... Whenever i try a not so obvious tactic, my opponent always spots it

What you seem to be describing is not a tactic, but a trap... based on a trick. When a tactic is based on a positional superiority, "spotting it" does little good.

Here's an example off-hand game, from decades ago (the late 1970s):

 

Avatar of GrandioseStrategy

Tactic training will help tactics. Training your endgame will improve your endgame. And so on. That is how I understand it. 

Avatar of Kpacher5

the principle is : better lose interesting game than winning boring end game

 

"boring end game", instead of immediately calling out that endgames are boring, you should know how important endgames are being a 2200 rated player. if this dude who is asking for help reads your post and goes "oh wow very cool i dont need to learn endgames now i just have to follow her advice yay" imagine if he gets in a king and pawn endgame and dosent have the slightest of idea how to draw the endgame (if he is on the side who only has a king and opponent has a king and a pawn) there is a technique in that endgame that can sometimes be drawed depending on the position of the king and the pawn, and not like he can just make up "oh wow i can go here takes takes haha its a draw" its something that needs to be memorized atleast for the 1200-1300 player. and if he calls it boring and dosent learn it then he will lose elo AND percentile, honestly i didnt expect a 2200 to post that lol,

also you dont get those interesting positions every day, every match, the reason karpov held the world champion title was because he was a positional player who used to bind opponents play, chess is not always "AHHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU FELL INTO MY TRAP THIS IS SO INTERESTING POSITION HAHHAHA I HAVE THIS PIN LETS GO WEEEEEEEEEE TIME TO MURDER MY OPPONENT WITH MY KING AND QUEEN HAHAHAHA KE2 MODIFIED BONGCLOUD" ok this last one was a joke

Avatar of MsnChess712

Of course solving puzzles helps. Solving puzzles is finding the best move in a position which is what you want to do in your games. Most importantly it helps you calculate faster.

Avatar of Game_of_Pawns
Magnus_Chase19 wrote:

Whenever i try a not so obvious tactic, my opponent always spots it

I know this has been said already, but I really want to emphasize it. You're not describing tactics.

 

Also, I agree with Kpacher. Well said.

Avatar of harshalpatil2001

Yes guys. Tactics do helps in progress. I have reached 2500 with the help of tactics but I would not say that only solving tactics helps. You have to analyze your own games, solve tactics while analyzing your games, Check how strong player plays, endgame study, positional play. opening theory study etc. there are so many things other than tactics which helps in order to progress

Avatar of wolfje95

Hi everyone! Solving puzzles really helps! This weekly video on Friday includes 5 puzzles to solve and a game analysis.  https://youtu.be/Spx5RRpiRcg Enjoy and have a good weekend!

Avatar of drmrboss

10000 tactics gaurateed +100 rating minimum for all untitled categories.

(Lower rated players may get +200 )

The higher rated players always get minimal benefits no matter whatever you do as rating is not linear progress but more like exponential numbers. 

Avatar of chamo2074

https://www.chess.com/game/live/12905698963?username=magnus_chase19

This game says it all, you spent two seconds on the move that cost you the game, you had 8 25 minutes your opponent had 6. You can;t blitz out moves in rapid like that. In Tactis you should calculate it's not just easy forks and skewers.

You premoved Bg5????? why would you premove a move that hangs a bishop in a rapid game? and you're claiming you don't improve!
Your positional play is not worthy of saying you're a positional player either, too trade happy

Avatar of Game_of_Pawns

There was definitely a good point there, iliasviel. I fully agree with you that it's better to lose a complicated and enjoyable middlegame, than trade down and win/draw. It's just always good to be very clear when giving advice. People love to misinterpret, and your previous post didn't make that very hard to do thumbup.png

Avatar of Kpacher5
iliasviel0 wrote:
Kpacher5 wrote:

...........

 

obviously endgame is important.

i just see lot of players exchange pieces just because they can without getting positional advantage to go quicker into endgame.

that way they miss tactical opportunities.

 

oh,

ive hardly ever seen that happen but you have got a point lol

Avatar of play4fun64

People forget. Bricks don't fight back! Play against stronger players rated or unrated. That's the Way to Improvement.

Avatar of llama47

 - Find all of your moves that are captures or checks or other big threats  (this will be important at the end of my post)


 - Don't guess moves
 - Try to calculate the whole line to the end before playing the first move
 - Try to find the best defensive moves for the opponent
 - Analyze every puzzle you fail and every puzzle you find interesting
 - Retry every puzzle you fail a few days later, and if you fail it again, retry it again a few days later etc.

 - During your games, find all your moves that are captures or checks or other big threats (even if they seem like horrible blunders) and calculate a few moves to see if it leads to something good.

Avatar of MRMUNZER

Absolutely if you have a strategy behind it all tactical moves work to a accomplish your strategy to win but be flexible adjust your tactics or even strategy (in extreme situations only) depending on your opponents through against your tactics and some times there are situations where you have no clue what to do learn from the mistakes 

      

Avatar of play4fun64

Chess is 69% TACTICs and ,31% straTOEgy.

Avatar of IcyAvaleigh
tactics only help if you understand the tactic at the end :)