I think I understand what your feeling and I believe it has to do with not playing up to that point.
You are more likely to see certain tactics in games because you know why you have certain pieces on certain squares.
Does anyone else have this problem?
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I'd like to consider myself a decent enough player where tactics are concerned (I have no trouble spotting them in my games, or even master games that I go over), but for some reason, I'm really bad at solving tactical puzzles.
Pretty much all of my practice on tactics has come from actually playing games, and I feel like I'm able to keep in mind which pieces are loose and what potential tactics exist in the position on some level, but when I'm thrust in the middle of a tactical situation as in a puzzle, it takes me a while to gain my bearings - I'm not able to solve them very well at a glance unless it is really obvious.
So I was wondering, does anyone else have this problem? And if so (or even if not), does anyone have any advice on how I can fix this? I'd like to be able to practice using puzzles to improve my tactical ability, but I'm having trouble using them very effectively...