I too have that problem, as do many others, I believe your best bet is to have one last look at the board for the less obvious moves before you move. Play as often as you can and learn by your mistakes. Have fun.
Cheers
How to improve my vision of the board?
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Consider looking at the board in terms of quadrants (sections). For example, divide the board in half from left to right and then in half from top to bottom... so that you see four, 4 by 4 square areas. Then try to understand what is happening in each quadrant. Before making a move try to look across connecting quadrants to see whether there are attacks coming in from afar. The point is to consider the relationship of what is happening in different areas of the board. Remember, Bishops, Rooks, and Queen are long range pieces which can attack into one or more quadrants at once!
I try to remember that every position has a story to tell... and it's my job to decipher that story. This line of thinking allows me to see the board as a whole and to see themes at play.
Dec 17, 2008
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#4
For the amount of time given This is probably why I fail in the tactics trainer also im in the same boat.
Dec 17, 2008
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#5
Tactics, tactics, tactics!!! The more you study them, the easier it will be for you to spot them.
One thing that helped me to see the board better was learning how to mate with just a Knight and bishop
just spend a lot of time looking for all possible moves
Dec 17, 2008
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#8
I think the best bet is just lots of practice and study, you will get better over time. Just have patience
I will tell you the best way for you to improve your tactics but be prepared to have 30 minutes of the day set aside for study. First go out and buy tactical problem books, 303 tricky tactics, 303 tricky checkmates, 303 tricky chess problems are all good as well as other books. Slowly work your way through the books. When you have finished all the problems start over again and go through the books. When you are at the point where you can easily go through the book time yourself. If any problems hold you up stop the timer and try to understand why they slowed you down. Then begin working on cutting your time in half. When you have done all of this you will be a very strong tactical player. You will be able to see tactics instinctively on the board and your rating will go up a few hundred points. However if you want this to work you have to devote atleast thirty minutes each day to this until you have finished. I have only gotten through the books mentioned above twice and already my rating has gone up over 100 points, and I'm now a 1655 uscf player after having played in just one tournament as a 1584 player.
Dec 17, 2008
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#10
I've read tons of chess books and done a number of the books with hundreds of problems in them. I greatly prefer the tactics trainer because while the time limit can be annoying, it's more realistic. You don't have forever to sit and work out a problem when you have an opponent sitting across from you.
Plus tactics trainer has almost 20,000 problems in it. More than most books combined.
Tactics trainer is not a good place to learn tactics, but it is a good place for you to practice tactics that you have learned and test your speed at seeing tactical patterns.
The best way to learn the tactical ideas is what I stated in my first post.
I agree with Phelan. Along those lines you might try a free approach:
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/iphone--itouch-chess-flash-cards-site
I setup the site described in the post in order to work on my tactics. I figured it would be of use to others as well.
- Carlos
The key to using the tactics trainer is to avoid guessing. Wait until you are sure you have determined the best move. If you lose on time, that will reflect on your rating. But in order to learn, you need to work through each problem until you find the answer. Don't Guess.
Why spend $25/year while you can spend $29/lifetime on a awesome tactic software. This software can only be used for XP; unfortunately vista has some problems. However, this program:
http://www.chesscentral.com/software/ct-arts-chess-tactics.htm
"No less than 1217 main examples (with over 1000 supplementary examples), classified according 3 criteria:
Chess Tactical methods (Annihilation of Defense, Distraction, Decoy, Open attack, Opening of a file, Space clearance, X-ray attack, Interception, etc);
Chess Combination motifs (Geometrical motif, Weakness of a file, rank or diagonal, Opposing, A piece is overloaded, Bad position of the pieces, Limited material, etc);
Difficulty – Select the difficulty range of the positions you wish to be tested against."
This program has an elo rating ranging from (i.e. FIDE) 1600-2300. Trust me ive had this program for a year. And i see something new everyday. Trust me you will love this program.
i thinks its hard to get rid of; just practice mre often and take longer to see every part of the board, and what you are trying to do, what oppurtunities there are, and what your opponent is trying to do.
Everyone has that problem is speed or blitz chess.
Tacticts trainer
cjus - Thank you for your suggestion looking at the board in four sections. I am going to see if this will work for me. It would seem a lot easier than taking everything in at once and getting confused. I like how you make each move tell a story. Okay, I feel I have been in powered with this knowledge.
Phelan's advice is right on. Other books to consider: Heisman's Back to Basics: Tactics and Polgar's Chess Tactics for Champions. Software is also fine, like CT-B or Chessimo. CT-ART is too advanced. chess.com offers Chess Mentor for learning tactics. Only after you learn tactical motifs and a good thinking process, chess.com's Tactics Trainer and chess.emrald.net are good for practicing them.
Also, don't neglect your thinking process. Heisman's "Novice Nook" articles can help you there. Checks, captures, threats. In the first position, if you had begun by considering checks, Nf6+ would be move #1 or move #2 you looked at, even if your tactical eye was not able to spot the solution immediately.
Ok, I'm an intermediate Chess player, and I try to spend an hour or so every day playing Chess. My rating on the tactics trainer is too low (between 1100 and 1200, don't exactly remember). I found out that my vision of the board is too bad. I can discover the best move, but after a lot of time thinking, while an easy move (eg a forced mate or a Queen fork) could exist while I just don't notice it. This is probably why I fail in the tactics trainer and other timed matches.
Here's an example:
As you can see, Black's last move was c6 trying to place pressure on my Knight on d5. I had to move quickly, so I just played Nb6 to fork the Queen and Rook, and overlooked an easy grand fork on f6.
Can anybody help me improve my vision of the board to analyze the best move in the shortest time? Thank you!