Best is chess.com's own tactics trainer.
Improving Tactically
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chess tempo free tactics puzzles unlimmited
my choice for the moment:
chess.com
chesstempo.com
http://chess.emrald.net/index.php
( http://oldschoolchess.wordpress.com )
Sep 1, 2009
0
#5
Chesstempo is superior to the tactics trainer here because
1) It's free to do an unlimited # of problems
2) You have a choice between standard and blitz modes, which is one more option then tactics trainer provides.
However, my personal reccomendation is ward farnsworth's predator at the chessboard, which is on his website for free online. (just google "chess tactics", it's the #1 hit)
Book
as many as possible..! i mean, its up to you, on how many you can grasp..
The Emrald CTS (posted above) was one of the first tactics servers out there, and I recommend it for improvement of speed calculation, as required in bullet chess and other time crunch situations.
ChessTempo is a newer tactics environment that focuses more on problem completion than speed, although speed is also a factor in blitz problems. I think this method is better for calculation in general.
chesstempo.com is by far and away the best tactics trainer out there.
clavio wrote:
How many problems should I solve each day?
I'd say you should keep attempting puzzles until you get bored or tired. It's much more effective to challenge yourself with stronger puzzles in a good state of mind than trying to solve weaker puzzles while you're fatigued. But that's just my opinion.
ChessTempo is Cool........it serves lots of puzzles , we can commend ,rate and tag each and every problem , can set to timed mode and untimed mode , we can even do it unregestered and we can check the statistics of our done problems and also graphs and diagrams are there.Its too cool.
happyfanatic wrote:
However, my personal reccomendation is ward farnsworth's predator at the chessboard, which is on his website for free online. (just google "chess tactics", it's the #1 hit)
I agree. If you have not read a tactics book yet, it would be best to start with Predator at the Chessboard. I have learned alot more from this book than from chesstempo.com or Sharpen Your Tactics.
Puzzle collections are for keeping you in good practice once you already have the foundation of knowledge.
Bardu wrote:
I agree. If you have not read a tactics book yet, it would be best to start with Predator at the Chessboard.
But only parts of the book are available free online, and the two printed volumes cost around 40 USD together. Plus, judging from the samples of the printed edition, the diagrams look horrible.
"How many problems should I solve each day?"
Don't do what everyone has been saying and go until you burn out, I suggest doing maybe 20 every day, and i mean EVERY day, until it becomes as natural as brushing your teeth. No burnout and no dropping practice that way.
In one year, you will do 7,300 chess problems. That should be enough to boost you 100 elo points or so ( ﾟ ヮﾟ).
Sep 2, 2009
0
#16
chessoholicalien wrote:
But only parts of the book are available free online, and the two printed volumes cost around 40 USD together. Plus, judging from the samples of the printed edition, the diagrams look horrible.
I don't know anything about it being only part of a book, but if it is, the books themselves must be huge. There's a ton of FREE information on that site, and it gave me an excellent tactical foundation. The quality of the diagrams is a trivial detail, especially considering the quality of the verbal explanations that accompany them.
To the original poster, just go take a look for yourself and then decide.
chessoholicalien wrote: But only parts of the book are available free online, and the two printed volumes cost around 40 USD together. Plus, judging from the samples of the printed edition, the diagrams look horrible.
No, it is all available online. The diagrams are of the same quality as in Sharpen Your Tactics or any other chess book. The important part is, as happyfanatic said, he thoroughly explains each problem, helping you learn successful thought patterns.
You also might try some of chess.com's tactics Chess Mentor courses. Without a diamond membership you can only do 3 a day, but you can combine them with training at other sites mentioned above.
I suggest this site:
there are more than 22.000 chess tactics exercises all to interactively solve against the computer wich confute your bad moves.
You can solve all problems without registerig but if you register your Glicko ELO rating is calculated.
I'm not a chess junkie, so I'm not familiar with all of the sites and books listed, but here's my $0.02 nonetheless...
Puzzles are cool, but don't teach as well without an explanation to accompany them. Thus, start with a book, learn the concepts (pin, discovered attack, fork, skewer, deflection sacrifice, etc.), then use the puzzles to sharpen your knowledge of those ideas.
Personally, The only book I've read on the subject is "Tactics" by Yassir Seirawan in his 'Play Winning Chess' series, but it helped my game quite nicely. I also come here to get my daily dose of 3 tactics trainer puzzles.
OK. I'm done. I'm going to check out the other puzzle sites listed here until I go numb from chess O.D.
Im around 1000 ICC. I hear that at that level tactics are probably the best way to improve. Which would you say is better, a book like Sharpen Your Tactics! or a site like chesstempo.com.