oblivious

What helped me was trying to be as accurate as I could when solving tactic puzzles. I basically turned them into analysis exercises where I worked hard for the opponent to falsify my intended move(s).

I did them from books. When you do a puzzle online you usually make moves as you go. I recommend trying to find the whole solution from the diagram. After you've calculated and you're satisfied a line works, write it down. Then go back over the line move by move and work hard to find ways for the opponent to mess it up. All of this still without moving the pieces or checking the solution.

Your goal is not only to find the tactic, but you need to find the best defense, the most stubborn defense, the most annoying moves the opponent can make. For example if you capture, don't assume the opponent will recapture. Assume they see everything you do, and will try to mess up your plan.

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Types of defensive tries:

First clearly define the immediate threat you're posing, you have to know this before you look for a defense. Usually the single move will threaten to win material (or be a capture), open a line, or infiltrate.

 - Direct defense. The move defends as many of the key square(s) or pieces as possible. If your move was a capture, then typically the direct defense is a recapture. Don't just find 1 way to defend, find the most efficient / effective way they can defend. If a queen has two squares to choose from, which does more? On which square is she more mobile? If they can recapture two different ways, which is better? If the primary threat was to open a file, then the opponent makes sure the file stays closed.

 - Capture. They capture a key attacker, or capture material to draw away an attacker.

 - Counter attack. The opponent ignores the threat and makes a threat equal or bigger. If you're threatening a knight, find all ways for them to threaten a knight or better. I'll include checks here (a threat on the king trumps any other threat). From your post it sounds like you'll want to focus on this idea. Remember your opponent has a will of his own and may refuse to react directly to your moves!

 - Accepting the loss. Instead of pulling pieces out of position for a defense that ultimately fails, the opponent allows you to execute your threat, and simply tries to improve piece placement somewhere else on the board. (This mostly helps test if you actually have a threat to begin with, because if your move can be ignored, there is no real threat.)

I appreciate your quick response. I think I will purchase a few tactics books and see where this gets me.

No problem

It ended up being a really long post, sorry for that.

Basically I look at 4 types of responses:

Direct defense, capture, counter attack, and ignore.

When I started doing that I felt like it helped me a lot in my games. Sometimes it made solving puzzles take a long time, but I was always pleased when I'd accounted for the defense the solution gave, and when I didn't, it was almost always instructive for me.