Agree with Scott. Also believe that the TT is ideal to drill the patterns. It helped me to start getting a bit in shape again. Should post less and do TT more...
How to increase tactics rating???
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That's not saying I think it's good to play the first OK looking move. Just don't spend half hour if you don't see it, I think it would benefit you more to study another 60 problems.
Sep 14, 2012
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#24
I do them pretty quickly - apparently the program does not encourage a lot of thinking time because you aren't given more than a few minutes per puzzle, tops. AND you start losing pts the more time you take to respond but I guess learning how to "ration" out your time to solve it before the clock runs out (and maximizing what little time you're allotted) is worthwhile.
Sep 16, 2012
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#25
I've heard from several sources that you can only really absorb about three new patterns a day. After that, you're not getting much out of more tactics time. After you've missed a few tactics in a day, go over them again, and call it a day. Go back tomorrow.
I have found it useful to count material during the sequence so you
know what you need to accomplish. I use chesstempo.com and highly
recommend it.
Sep 16, 2012
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#27
There's a definite technique for tactics trainer. Most puzzles involve forced moves so if you go straight to those you can quickly find out if they work. Also tactics trainer LOVES queen sacrifices, so look for those. Because of the timer, you can't possibly analyse all the other possibilities, so you often end up moving without really looking at all the consequences. If you read the comments from other members afterwards, and go to the source from the computer, you realise how much analysis you actually missed.
It's certainly good for the development of pattern recognition, and I'm on TT virtually every day, but I find that too much tactics trainer tempts me to take shortcuts in my games. I have to consciously force myself to look at all alternatives rather than jump for the first good move that I see otherwise I get hammered in the middle game.
Sep 16, 2012
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#28
Genghis McCann I never thought up about looking at OTHER players comments or the source analysis, but it sounds like a good idea!
I also agree with other comments that to improve your tactical eye one needs to just do thousands of tactics problems over a short period of time.
In 2008 I did 40-100 tactics problems daily for a few months. This created a DRAMATIC improvement in my tactical sight. Now, it barely helped my calculation skills, if at all, but I after doing all of that training I saw far more than I ever did before. Keep in mind that i was about 1900 USCF when I did this and had already been playing chess for 12 years. It was one of the things that helped me make 2000 USCF several months later, the other main thing being good openings preparation.
The interesting thing is that I DID NOT maintain my tactics routine, but I did not lose my "new" tactical vision. It has stayed with me ever since: some days I am sharper than others, but I definitely felt the quantum leap and I assure you the effect is very real.
I used Chess Combinations Encyclopedia and CT-Art 3.0 when I did this work.
Now I use tactics trainer and I have noticed that it has not helped my vision, but has improved my calculation skills. I don't know what to make of this, but it's interesting.
I'm pretty weak so only at around 2250 atm. Having said that I can give a few pointers.
1. More or less all TT exercises are either finding a mate, winning material or saving material. If you look at problem you can generally tell which one it is based upon situation so if you have several pieces pointing at king it's probably mate (know your greek gifts, smothered mates etc), if it's a complex position on board with a lot of tactical posibilities it's probably material (also includes hanging pieces!) and if you have several pieces/hanging in danger you should try and work out how to maintain material. Knowing which it is helps limit variations to look at and gives you some idea of what you're aiming for.
2. Take your time. Often I find right idea instinctively but with wrong move order. If you're unsure if two moves in your variation can be interchanged go for the most forcing one to avoid giving your opponent an extra resource. Also note that any variation where opponent can repeat to get to original position should also be discarded as your idea is probably wrong.
3. Get in the right frame of mind. When doing tactics you should only be thinking about chess and have no distractions. This means you should avoid putting your dinner in microwave for 5min and doing 3 problems when it's cooking. I would suggest also doing a couple of chess problems like puzzle of the day to warm up your chess thinking to get in the habit of carefully analysing variations.
Hope that helps but in the end how far you get in tactics depends upon your board vision, calculating speed and knowledge of common tactics/combinations
Taking your time to understand the position and how a certain tactic is used in it does aid in retention of the tactic. When you study a master game you don't skim through it to understand how they made their moves and plans, instead you take your time to understand what is going on and why moves were made to learn from them.
Silman (amoung others) actually advises skimming over them and trying to see as many games as possible, to try and learn the patterns rather than the specifics of each move.
http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-point-of-studying-master-games-part-one
In my mind there are different things you are trying to improve by how you approach tactical problems (and master games):
1. Pattern recognition: This just depends on volume, do lots so you pick the patterns up over time.
2. Calculation: Taking your time to look at every response and calculate the variations to the end.