How to get in the habit of using tactics.

I know what tactics are, but I seem to miss them in games. How can I get in the habit?

Practice tactics. Do puzzles from books, from the Tactic Trainer here, from tactics traineter on other sites. Get familiar with as many patterns as you can and keep practicing.

Then, take a little time in your games to look for tactical continuations. One of the ideas behind doing a lot of tactics is to recognize situations in your games where the tactics might be possible, or close to possible. Then to use calculation to figure out if a tactic actually exists.

TacticsTrainer/Chesstempo/lichess

Playing against a computer program, even a medium-level program, helped me quite a bit. I simply got tired of missing some tactical shot every other move, so that forced me to watch for such oversights at nearly every move. Recently I began reading books on tactics, and that helped me immediately by helping me to spot unnatural ways to recapture that would win me a pawn through Zwischenzug, for example, since the book made me aware of ideas I wouldn't normally have thought of.

it is important to do repetition with tactics.

Do like I did in my science tests in high school; write it on the palm of your hand 'USE TACTICS'.

Always look out for undefended pieces and loose king (pawns around it have moved, or most pieces are on the other side of the board).

When you see them, then calculate forcing moves (checks, captures, and threats) to see if something works.  The more you do this in games and the more you solve puzzles, the more you develop your sense for when tactics are present in a position.

Somebody posted a request for a mental check list on this site a few weeks ago. I think that's a good idea, and that's something I've been wanting to compile for myself for years, but I never got around to it. As one person pointed out here a few days ago (http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/rooks-trapped-by-diagonal-pawns-bishop-sacrifice-always-look-for-check), always look for checks, no matter how ridiculous they may seem at first glance, since checks are very often the cause of lost material, Zwischenzugs, or the start of mating combinations. Maybe I'll try to locate that post and respond to it. As you said, hanging units are a good sign of a potential tactic. The start of my checklist would be something like:

1. consider all possible checks

2. look for hanging pieces

3. look for Zwischenzugs

4. determine if opponent is in Zugzwang

5. determine if opponent has any trapped pieces

6. look for undefended N2 squares with the rook and knight still in place

7. look for forks

8. look for skewers

9. look for discovered attacks

10. consider underpromotion

...

It would be a long checklist, but it might be worthwhile, at least for review and practice. I think most people rely on pattern recognition instead of mental lists to detect such anomalies, but such a list couldn't hurt, other than memorizing time and perusal time.

This is a nice list - and very helpful.  Thanks for posting!!

Does this mean the list is incomplete?

Yes, the list is *very* incomplete. I didn't mean for anyone to start using it yet. That was just an example of the top few items I would put on the list, the ones to check first. Maybe I'll try to locate that thread I mentioned. It was about 3 weeks ago. That had a longer list.

Here's that thread of which I was thinking, but it wasn't really focused on tactics as I had thought:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/what-do-you-say-to-yourself-before-you-make-a-move

Here's a thread about the more general topic of analysis of a position before deciding on a move, although that thread also isn't focused on tactics:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/why-is-why-the-most-important-question-to-ask-in-chess-positions

I'm in the process of practicing, studying, and organizing my knowledge of tactics myself, so I'm very reluctant to keep adding to my hasty above list until I can see how the study of tactics all fits together so that I don't duplicate items, subsume items, get carried away with endless specific positional possibilities, etc. If I can come up with what I think is a good list that I might use myself, I'll either post it here or create a new thread about checklists and/or taxonomy of tactics.

I think one problem with a 'check list' approach is that it can become too long and impractical and the one size fits all approach doesn't apply in all situations. However, having a logical and disciplined approach is a good idea. I try and reduce my thinking into the following:

1 What has the opponent got? (Tactics first, checks, captures threats, then positional ideas.)

2 What have I got? (Tactics first, checks captures threats, then positional ideas.)

3 Consider candidates and calculate.

That should basically be enough.

Earlier this year when I started learning to play chess beyond a casual level, I tried to read How To Reassess Your Chess. At the time, most of it was beyond my skill level.

However, his talk about the concept of imbalances sunk in. After that, I began a simple system for when I play Online Chess to help me identify imablances, tactics and strategy. 

I make a column for White and a column for Black. Then I begin listing what I think are weaknesses and strengths for both sides.

For example:

White -

- Bf4   (Bishop on f4 is a weakness)

+ a3 (a3 is an asset)

Black -

-- d4 (Really bad)

++ DBL rooks. (Really good)

> Any possible strategies; gain control of a square, exchange a piece, advance pawns, etc......

? ..d5  (candidate move)

?! QxR1 (candidate move, seems like best move.)

That's it. It is a bit tedious at first, especially if you are not used to spending time on your moves. But, I found that after about 5 games, it was pretty fluid. After about 20 Online Chess games, I found I was able to do this quite easily in live games.

One thing I find useful is that as you learn new concepts in strengths, weaknesses and strategy, they fits right in with no problem.

“When you don't expect a gift, you don't look for it”  - GM Vishy Anand 2793

Play long time controls and expect tactics. I try to calculate as deep as I can and when my opponent plays something I don't expect, one of us missed something.

Always look for in-between moves. Practise makes perfect