How to become tactically sharp?

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gravitasHub
title I have struggled to find tactics in games. How to train yourself in order to find them in games?
borovicka75
You must solve puzzles every day. On chess com you can solve 5 per day, if you buy premium membership you can do more. If you dont wanna spend money then go to lichess or chesstempo and there you can solve infinity puzzlez for free
medelpad
Be consistent and don’t get complacent with your tactics solving, if you don’t have a premium membership I would recommend doing tactics on lichess.
BigChessplayer665
borovicka75 wrote:
You must solve puzzles every day. On chess com you can solve 5 per day, if you buy premium membership you can do more. If you dont wanna spend money then go to lichess or chesstempo and there you can solve infinity puzzlez for free

I just grinded and insane amount of games each day

Thers more to it than just grinding but I definitely didn't grind much puzzles (like once a month max lol ) doing puzzles is not necessarily how you get good at tactics even if it does ((sometimes ) help a considerable amount though sometimes it takes weeks or months or sometimes just s few days for the puzzles to start to pay off

BigChessplayer665

I would recommend trying the texture that work on you (or almost work but you saw it ) half the time your opponent will mis it though try not to get greedy with the tactics make sure it doesn't lose you a game

If it's a solid move and a threat that improves your position that's when the tactics start getting good though at your level.it probably doesn't even matter if your down queen do try to create tactics in your games

BigChessplayer665

Puzzles help tho you (occasionally ) get puzzle tactics in your games even if it's only every ten games

OldPatzerMike
Abcmnu wrote:

Solve tactics but not aimlessly . First understand each motif separately Pin, Fork , Skewer , Decoy , Deflection , Quite Moves etc.

Practice hundreds of tactics of particular motif when confident mix things up!

This is excellent advice. Aimlessly solving a bunch of tactical puzzles doesn't necessarily help. There are 2 things you should do with every puzzle. (1) Calculate it to its end before making your first move. You don't get to take back moves in a real game, so train yourself to figure out the full solution on your own. This will improve your chess beyond tactics by honing your calculation skills. (2) When you first look at the puzzle, try to figure out what tactical motif is present -- undefended piece, unsafe K, overloaded defender, etc. This will help you to solve the puzzle, but more importantly it will train you to look for the motifs in your own games.

Best of luck and much enjoyment in your chess journey.

BigChessplayer665
OldPatzerMike wrote:
Abcmnu wrote:

Solve tactics but not aimlessly . First understand each motif separately Pin, Fork , Skewer , Decoy , Deflection , Quite Moves etc.

Practice hundreds of tactics of particular motif when confident mix things up!

This is excellent advice. Aimlessly solving a bunch of tactical puzzles doesn't necessarily help. There are 2 things you should do with every puzzle. (1) Calculate it to its end before making your first move. You don't get to take back moves in a real game, so train yourself to figure out the full solution on your own. This will improve your chess beyond tactics by honing your calculation skills. (2) When you first look at the puzzle, try to figure out what tactical motif is present -- undefended piece, unsafe K, overloaded defender, etc. This will help you to solve the puzzle, but more importantly it will train you to look for the motifs in your own games.

Best of luck and much enjoyment in your chess journey.

I guess though getting the right positional style ,right type of blunders,endgames ,ect is important if you can't get the tactics in your games because you don't know how to get your opponents to make blunders or mistakes then it doesn't matter if your 3000 + elo and really good at puzzles

OldPatzerMike
BigChessplayer665 wrote:
OldPatzerMike wrote:

This is excellent advice. Aimlessly solving a bunch of tactical puzzles doesn't necessarily help. There are 2 things you should do with every puzzle. (1) Calculate it to its end before making your first move. You don't get to take back moves in a real game, so train yourself to figure out the full solution on your own. This will improve your chess beyond tactics by honing your calculation skills. (2) When you first look at the puzzle, try to figure out what tactical motif is present -- undefended piece, unsafe K, overloaded defender, etc. This will help you to solve the puzzle, but more importantly it will train you to look for the motifs in your own games.

Best of luck and much enjoyment in your chess journey.

I guess though getting the right positional style ,right type of blunders,endgames ,ect is important if you can't get the tactics in your games because you don't know how to get blunders or mistakes then it doesn't matter if your 3000 rlo and really good at puzzles

I'm not sure what you're saying, but I certainly agree that being good at puzzles doesn't translate into tactical excellence in a game. My point was simply that solving puzzles correctly instead of randomly improves one's chances of recognizing tactical opportunities in a game, and it has the added bonus of training one's calculation skills.

blueemu
gravitasHub wrote:
title I have struggled to find tactics in games. How to train yourself in order to find them in games?

You won't find a tactic in your game unless it is THERE.

Perhaps it isn't "spotting tactics" that is the problem. Perhaps it's "setting the tactics up".

BigChessplayer665
blueemu wrote:
gravitasHub wrote:
title I have struggled to find tactics in games. How to train yourself in order to find them in games?

You won't find a tactic in your game unless it is THERE.

Perhaps it isn't "spotting tactics" that is the problem. Perhaps it's "setting the tactics up".

Exactly

blueemu

Read my posts on page one of this thread:

GM Larry Evans' method of static analysis - Chess Forums - Chess.com

... specifically posts 4, 7-to-10 and 12.

Then play over the three sample games, reading the annotations.

wickedNH

Do 30,000 puzzles and always look for tactics especially in messy positions.

BigChessplayer665
wickedNH wrote:

Do 30,000 puzzles and always look for tactics especially in messy positions.

First part no(depends on how you learn chess ) second part yes assume that there are tactics even if you don't see them and if a position looks complicated it's even more important to think in a critical position

The main thing is actually getting the tactics if you don't see the tactics that's a whole separate issue working on pattern recognition and calculation would help with that (not always puzzles but is a good exercise if you do puzzles sometimes )

wickedNH

You could try the woodpecker method.