How to Improve Tactics

I have lost a lot of games lately due to silly tactics. It's not because I don't check for tactics- I do. It's a part of my checklist. I find that I just don't see tactics because I overlook moves. In other words, my tactical skill is really bad, and I don't think tactics trainer is helping. In tactics trainer, I know that I'm looking for tactics, so I just look at every forcing move. In a game, positions like that don't come up all the time. Besides, I don't learn from tactics trainer anything other than the moves, even when I do it slowly.

So is there any way to improve at seeing chess tactics that has worked for anyone out there? I am grateful to those who answer. The things I miss are not combinations, it's just often things like bishops pinning my rooks to my queen, missing outside-the box moves that wouldn't immediately be obvious that win material, or forks in the middle of the board.

Also, I am playing in a chess tournament soon and I fear very much that I will lose in this fashion in my tournament due to tactics. Is there anything I can do in the next few days that will help me see this stuff?

I am not an expert, but I will try.  Here is your last game.  A big part of avoiding tactics is learning how to avoid positions that allow tactics to develop.  See the notes in this game which was your last loss.  There were a lot of positional mistakes that make you vulerable to simple tactics.  Also, in preparation for your 19th move, you needed to really calculate hard before you make your move.  Spend 5 minutes if you have to because there was a lot going on. One final point to make regarding avoiding tactics.  When playing chess, our brains get tired.  When they get tired, they make mistakes so be mindful of positions that require a large calculation load. 

You might want to take a pawn, but if that pawn opens up the position and allows a lot of potential for your opponent, at the very least, your calculation load will go up.  I am playing a 3day online game where I am up an exchange and I decided to grab an en prise king side pawn to ensure the endgame win.  I was thinking this has to be good because it wins a pawn and opens up the kingside, exposing his king.  This did in fact ensure the endgame win, yes, but it also opened up the g-file for his rook and queen.  The tactics this opened up were unbelievable.  I trully would have lost this game if it weren't for the fact that in on-line chess you have access to an analysis board and plenty of time to calculate.  I've never calculated so much in all my chess playing, just to survive the game.  So be mindful of moves that give your opponent a lot of activity.  They might be good moves, but you also have to think practically about what your brain can handle. 

Another way to avoid blunders is to make the move in your head and then visualize the position in your mind for about 15 to 20 seconds (don't make any additional moves in your mind while you take the time to do this).  Once you have that position "fixed" in your mind, take a look at what moves your opponent has.  Move everyone of his pieces in your mind if you have to.  To "see" the blunder, you might need more time to fix the position in your mind.  Obviously, you don't want to do this on every move, but when there is a lot going on in the position like moves 18-20 in this game. 

One final point I want to make is that it is clear from this game that you should be calculating more lines.  Whenever you find a line that you think is promising, stop and look for a better move.  You'd be amazed at what you will find.     

Thank you for going through the analysis. You have a very interesting way of looking at this-avoid tactics until my tactical strength is better? Is that what you're saying?

Is there anyone who has improved his or her tactics using methods other than the Tactics Trainer who would like to share his or her methods with me?

First is to know the different kind of tactical motifs that are available in chess. I learned to see and exploit or avoid tactics by understanding the typical patterns that different tactical combinations use and look for them in positions. I did this with a few pieces first, very basic positions that after a short while I could almost instantly demonstrate the tactic. I created the positions on flash cards for ease of use. Then I began to use more pieces in the positions. Once I felt like I understood how the patterns worked and could recognize them pretty quickly I got a tactical book that divided the tactical puzzles by motifs- forks, discovered check, skewers, ect, which reinforced my ability to find each tactical motif as quickly as possible. The last but most important idea is I am adding positions where tactical combinations aren't there or seemed to be there but can be refuted and will fail. This will force me to first determine if any tactical combination is present and if so does it actually work. Much like you have to do in regular games.

Maybe that would help you?

Yeah, that would make it more realistic. Are there any sites that do this?

Don't know why you're not taking more advantage of your diamond benefits.  There are close to 20 courses on tactics on the Chess Mentor and over 100 videos.  The Chess Mentor tactics courses can be done over and over again until you've burned the patterns into your brain, kind of like a digital set of flash cards.  IM Danny Rensch has some great videos explaining all the tactical motifs and of course there is every specialized kind of endgame position imaginable covered by someone.  I'm just saying...

Don't listen to these guys. Have you ever tried doing a wordsearch? You can either go row by row, letter by letter, or you can just cast your eyes over the whole puzzle and words will pop out at you. There is a time and place for each approach. Now taking it to chess, the simple tactics that you talk about, should not be searched for. They need to pop out at you. When you calculate, then it is different. When you calculate you want to make sure that you examine everything carefully. There are two ways to train the former ability. One is doing tactics of course and the other is to play 1 minute games. 

For training tactics, the best site to use is chessemerald. Just type it in google. The problems last only a few seconds and are a 100 times easier than chesstempo or chess.com tactics trainer. The idea is to train your tactical vision on that site rather than your calculation.

As for the latter, I suggest you just play very messy positions in bullet chess. Even start with 1...f6 if you want to. The point is just to see tactics. 

The most important thing about tactics is recognizing themes and motifs, not concrete lines. For instance, in your game, lining your Rook and Queen up on the same diagonal which your opponent had a Bishop for nearby should have been setting off a mental alarm. Likewise, always look out for motifs such as discovered attacks and pins. These come not from concrete lines, but from pieces being on the same path before the position opens up.

Way to be rude Omar.

The way I learned to play tactics was to study the games of Morphy, Tal, Alekhine, Pillsbury; tactical monsters like that.  But it sounds like you are a little beyond that stage, so I'll recommend Tactics for Advanced Players by Yuri Averbach.  That book helped me a lot, both in the middlegame and the endgame.  But, if you don't mind my adding this, you might want to give a deep look at Kasparov's games, 'cause if there's one player who revelled in exploiting obscure or hidden tactical resources in a given position, it was Garri.  Looking at his games might just put you in the mindset of looking for those "blindside" moves.

Omar's having a bad day.  He's afraid chess is driving him crazy, that's why he's a little cranky.  Me, I don't need chess as a chauffeur....

Thanks, guys. I liked the chessemerald site and used it a bit today. Also, I thank dashkee for the recommendation of the book. I'll look into it.

Omar makes sense. The basics like "don't hang pieces" and "don't miss basic tactics" should become second nature. Calculation comes in when you have a board full of angry pieces threatening each other and their kings and you want to make sure your moves are safe.

But getting to the stage where the basics are instinctual is a long road. Just repetition of tactical courses/puzzles/problems is good for that. Eventually it'll seep in. Also, 1|0 is horrible for training tactics, but good to test if you've internalised the patterns since you only have about 1 second to see something and bash out a move.

Have you seen this book? http://www.amazon.com/Tune-Your-Chess-Tactics-Antenna/dp/9056914049/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_3_QQDK?ie=UTF8&refRID=1B6TZKW6B952FENDQXJC

In Chris Falter's review, he says the book gives seven signals to let you know when a tactic may be possible. They are

"* King position (leading to mate threats)
* Unprotected pieces
* Alignment (leading to pins and skewers)
* Knight fork distance
* Trapped pieces
* Crucial defender/overloaded defender (leading to "remove/deflect the defender" combinations)
* Impotent defense/defense too far away"

I think when people do tactical puzzles on chess.com or chesstempo or wherever, they often look for these signs first, even though they know it's a tactical puzzle, in order to narrow down what type of tactic is there. That's the way I do it anyway.

You could try something that has at least helped me. I have the same problem, still do, but I'm a lot better at sniffing out tactics now than I was. My advice?

Slow down!

Take each problem one at a time. Don't rush it. Take notice of what you see and what you don't see. Noticing what you don't see is just as important. Record what you don't see. If you're having trouble noticing discoveries or double attacks, or queen traps, or king boxes--you'll begin to see patterns emerging. In my case, I tend towards tunnel vision, and have to remind myself to look for a group of alternatives. Look shallow first, before looking deep. I've been cured of a couple blind spots by this method--queen infatuation and failure to notice hanging pieces seem to be a thing of the past for me.

yeah whatever. there isn't really some special method about it. you just do the freaking trainer again and again and again and again and again not really worrying about or caring too much if you get something wrong. get something wrong just take a second look to see what it was and be on your way again. you'll know what you're actually seeing and when you just guess, you'll know when your search is getting more efficient and accurate. just something that comes with time.  how efficiently you use time to improve in this manner depends on what your goals are. if you're just aiming to get to a certain level of blitz play, say ~2000ish, you don't, normally, really have to be so serious about it, this will happen rather quickly.

also depends on your mindstate from day to day hour to hour. you have to obtain and maintain a certain mind state. sometimes things you normally do see become invisible for a half hour and thirty seconds, then it's back again. things you don't usually see you see, for five minutes only. it's a strange and idiosyncratic process.

there are a lot of puzzles that are rather useless for this process. bs problems. they do exist. because the people making the tactics problems think they are being funny/clever. in reality they are just being annoying. some types of problems are suited for rapid fire solving, some are meant to take 5 whole minutes. if you are just trying to do the rapid fire solving thing, it can be rather annoying if you keep getting the 5 minute problems.

http://www.chess.com/blog/Till_98/huge-tactics-training

Hi dpnorman

I have seen your stats and you have increased your ratings considerably since this thread was written. Could you tell us your secret? What kind of training have you done? tatics trainer? Other? thank you

Hello! I have same question as zizgz. You have exponentially improved your tactics and ELO since this thread was posted. Can you tell us how did you do it? What was your study plan for chess and what resources you used for it?

The key to spotting tactics in game situations is knowing when to look for them. There are some basic keys in any position that should tip you off to the possibility that a winning tactic exists. They include:

1.  unguarded pieces; there's a saying in chess that "loose pieces fall off". Always look for tactics that can win unguarded pieces or pawns.

2.  overloaded pieces; if a piece is guarding more than one other piece or square, a tactic may exist that wins material

There are other keys, but these are probably the two most common.