Getting the most from Chess.com tactics trainer

Hello All,

My everlasting journey to improvement continues with trawling through books and not seeming to get much better, so I have decided to turn my attention to doing tactic puzzles on here...

Ive noticed each tactic type has a % rating in my stats, can I focus on my worst perfroming types or do the puzzle appear randomly?

An experience of improviemtn using tactics?/ or ideas on how much time to spend on them etc would be greatfully received!!

 The TT is a brutally honest reflection of your skill.  IMHO you would be better off hitting the tactics courses in the Chess Mentor (Lessons).  Until you are quite familiar with the various tactical motifs the TT can be demoralizing .  Why yes, I do speak from bitter experience...LOL.  

But yes, you can choose to work on your weaknesses in the TT and choose anything you want to practice, but only in unrated mode.  There is a small grey box just to the left of the big orange button.  Click on that and then Custom.  You can choose any of the motifs to practice or even just practice previously missed problems.  It's a quite versatile tool so enjoy and I hope it makes you better.

Tactics are important however I find that when I do too many tactics for a single day my perfomance drops by a huge amount. So I wouldn't recommend doing them for more then maybe an hour at that point I start to experience a lot of chess blindness.

 Here is a sample of the kind of Lessons I recommend "mastering" before hitting the TT hard.  Lessons to learn, TT to test...

• Champion Tactics with GM Wolff - Forks

  Avg Rating: 1316

  This course is designed to explore the fork motif in the game of chess. The fork occurs when one of your pieces can attack two or more of the opponent's pieces. It can be executed with any piece other than the King and it is a very powerful strategy which can quickly turn the tables and lead to a decisive position.
•  

  images.chesscomfiles.com/chess-themes/boards/green/24.png";);">

  Champion Tactics with GM Wolff - Pins and Skewers

  Avg Rating: 1515

  Pins and skewers are two ways that the "long-range" pieces (the bishop, the rook, and the queen) can attack two or more pieces simultaneously along the same rank, file, or diagonal. This is another basic tactical tool that is easy to understand and critical to master. When you can clearly see in your mind's eye all the potential for using pins and skewers, you will discover that your "long-range" pieces are much more powerful than you realized. You will also protect yourself from potential disaster! With...
•  

  images.chesscomfiles.com/chess-themes/boards/green/24.png";);">

  Champion Tactics with GM Wolff - Double Attacks

  Avg Rating: 1506

  A "double attack" occurs when two pieces make two attacks at the same time. The difference between a fork and a double attack is that a fork is one piece attacking two things at the same time, while a double attack is two pieces making two attacks at the same time. The trick to seeing this possibility in any chess position is to look for any situation where one piece is "covered" by another piece, where if the piece where to become "uncovered", it would create a threat.
•  

  images.chesscomfiles.com/chess-themes/boards/green/24.png";);">

  Champion Tactics with GM Wolff - Discovered Check & Double Check

  Avg Rating: 1339

  These are a specific kind of Double Attack or Discovered Attack. A "Discovered Check" happens when one piece moves away and "uncovers" check against the king by the piece behind it. "Double Check" is the same thing, except that the piece moving away also puts the king into check, so the king is attacked by two pieces at once. Discovered check sometimes is used in an attack against the king, sometimes is used to win material, and sometimes is used to do both. Double check is usually focused on attacking...
•  

  images.chesscomfiles.com/chess-themes/boards/green/24.png";);">

  Champion Tactics with GM Wolff - Deflecting the Defender

  Avg Rating: 1652

  Deflecting or removing the defender is all about getting a defensive piece out of the way. Often you'll have a situation where if you could just get one of your opponent's pieces away from a key square, you could execute a powerful attack. Sometimes you can't get the piece out of the way. But sometimes you can. Sometimes it's not obvious that you can, but if you look hard enough and you're creative enough, you'll see the way through. And the best way to get better at finding those opportunities is...
•  

  images.chesscomfiles.com/chess-themes/boards/green/24.png";);">

  Champion Tactics with GM Wolff - Clearance Sacrifice

What a great list, baddogno!

I bookmarked each one and will go through the lessons. Similarly, IM Danny Rensch's "Patterns Everyone Must Know" and 5 Pins, Discoveries, etc. "You Must Know"  video series at chess.com is definitely worth a look!

I also suggest maximizing pattern recognition skills when doing tactics training.  If you fail a problem, go back and work it until you figure it out.

Then, look at the tactical motifs (TAGs) involved as suggested at the bottom right of the chess.com Tactics Trainer and ask yourself why you didn't see those motifs sooner (bad pattern or sequence recognition!).

Similar tags are on chesstempo's tactics trainer.

If you're not familiar with a TAG, you can set the chess.com Tactics Trainer to do unrated theme tactics with that tactic to familiar yourself with the pattern (that may require paid membership). Chesstempo similarly has unrated theme problem training (partial list below):

You should slowly memorize all the tactics names, patterns, and sequences on these pages - know the name allows you to more quickly retrieve the information from your brain:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics--definitions-and-examples

https://chesstempo.com/tactical-motifs.html

Additionally, these positional motifs can lead you to seeing tactical motifs:

https://chesstempo.com/positional-motifs.html

The Chess tempo links look good!