If you are playing blitz I can't help you.
If you are playing standard time controls (say 30 min. per side) the best advice I can give you is:
SIT ON YOUR HANDS! It eliminates impulse moves.
How to improve at tactics (for advanced (2000+) players)
Sort:
Seems to me you had no respect for your opponent, so you didn't bother to calculate forcing lines. As you said, at 2000 you know enough to see these things.
I suspect when I have good games against higher rated players this is sometimes the reason. I misplay enough moves that they relax, meanwhile I'm fighting for my life, so I calculate every forcing thing I can.
IMO it's not practical to say to yourself "I'll treat someone -500 the same as +500" And even if you could, you'd waste a lot of energy.
But there should be some base amount of work you do, and never do less no matter who your opponent is. As your game shows, if you're not even looking at checks... well, then anyone can beat you, could have been -1000 rating points.
Aug 3, 2014
0
#4
Yes, looks like lack of concentration against lower-rated players. If I remember correctly, you posted a game featuring the same problem a couple of months ago.
Aug 3, 2014
0
#5
Your problem might be just in your selection of candidate-moves to analyze.
Generally speaking, it's not possible to analyze all of the alternative moves at each step in your calculation... you need to "screen" them first, and decide which ones to look at in greater depth.
This is a recursive process, which must be repeated each half-move of your calculation. Eg: to analyze five moves deep, you need to do a candidate-move screening nine times as you calculate, before you can evaluate the line.
zezpwn44 wrote:
It seems that my biggest weakness is tactics. I feel that I understand chess better than most others with my rating (in the 2000-2100 range), but I miss simple things that people of my rating certainly shouldn't be missing!
Here's a recent example from a tounrament game I played, where I lost to a player 500 points below me
I know people generally give advice such as "do tactics trainer" or "study tactics books," and I have in the past, but any other advice for eliminating this weakness from my games?
I'm not sure how much puzzles (where you KNOW there's a tactic) will carry over to games, where there's no way to know if a combination is present and you're on your own, but I've definately missed several tactics lately that are well within my range to calculate, like the one shown.
I would suggest askinng yourself 3 questions:
Does my opponent have any forcing moves
Do they have any captures
Do i have any captures
Basic i know, but it would have prevented this. Even Krammnik missed a mate in 1. Its going to happen no matter how much you improve.
Well, it's not just against lower rated players. I missed something simple in two other rounds of the tounrament too, against people close to my rating.
Then it sounds like you have bad analysis habits. We all miss tactics of course, but at 2000 you shouldn't be missing simple things often.
Maybe you're calculating a few lines very deeply or maybe you calculate too quickly.
But for example in the game you posted after 21...Nxa3 it seems you didn't calculate at all. 22.Ka2 Rxc1 23. xa3 is 3 ply deep, essentially all capturing moves, and obviously lost. To me that seems like a psychological error more than anything (call it patience, focus, or whatever).
Coach Smirnov suggests a few things to avoid blunders. 1- Before playing any game in tournament solve some easy tactical exercises to worm up your brain like you do some physical worming up before a physical game. 2- Sit calmly and closing your eyes try to visualize a favourite game ( with rating 2000 you should be able to do that others can visualize some opening moves they lknow ). 3- During game you can do 15-20 seconds blunder check after deciding your move by imagining you have already made your move and now checking position from opponents point of view.
Maybe some of those will be useful, yes
Use a programme like Chess Tactics Pro or Chessimo (with pattern repetition) and work on it for an hour a day for three months.
I know you start by saying you've worked on this in the past - but clearly it's a weakness. So you have to work on it! Currently it seems that you are not putting any time into it.
It seems that my biggest weakness is tactics. I feel that I understand chess better than most others with my rating (in the 2000-2100 range), but I miss simple things that people of my rating certainly shouldn't be missing!
Here's a recent example from a tounrament game I played, where I lost to a player 500 points below me
I know people generally give advice such as "do tactics trainer" or "study tactics books," and I have in the past, but any other advice for eliminating this weakness from my games?
I'm not sure how much puzzles (where you KNOW there's a tactic) will carry over to games, where there's no way to know if a combination is present and you're on your own, but I've definately missed several tactics lately that are well within my range to calculate, like the one shown.