Tactics and visualization

I'm peaking my tactic level at 1500+ nowadays, but don't know how to improve. Usually - or at least often - I don't see the whole correct answer, just do what I think is the best first move, and often I don't see the solution before three or four moves. Guess that isn't too uncommon. But does anyone have an advice when it comes to visualizing three or four moves further down the road  in complex positions? I seem to have problems when it comes to seeing/remembering pieces and empty squares before I actually make the move. Don't think I can improve before I get this ... 

 Look for Forcing Moves: Checks, Captures, Threats first, in that order.

 Take the last tactic you did...

 

Thanks for responding, Mr. Bacon, but the question was kind of another one ... 

I think the OP is talking about calculating moves which I really can't do to save my life.

 Exactly - how to remember where the pieces are during a calculation. Thanks for clarifying Toohey_Dee - and good to hear I'm not the only one that struggles. Tips anyone?

What helps me is to train intensively with a rather limited number of puzzles, like 1000 to 2000, and learn them well.  With well I mean I have at the end be able to visualize the end position in a forced line ending with mate, even if the line is 5 or 6 moves long.  

Try the books on tactics in Chessable, there you learn by spaced repetition, so you will safe a lot of time and energy. 

Unfortunately there's no trick or secret to developing this skill (visualization). It's like any other skill. To improve it, you practice it.

So, for example, try to solve the whole puzzle without moving any pieces at all.

If you think that will hurt your online rating, then get a book of tactics and do this.

You can also follow analysis in a book (or from a website) by looking at the position, but not moving the pieces. Follow the analysis as far as you can in your head.

 

 

What will happen? After a few moves the position will get fuzzy and you'll have to calculate again. And again, and again. But slowly you'll get better.

I guess there is one trick I know of during all this... and that's what Tisdall calls the stepping stone method in his book "Improve Your Chess Now." Basically when you start to feel as though you're losing track of the position in you mind's eye, stop there and memorize the position. That way if you slip up later, you don't have to start over from move 1, you can start from your memorized position. You can do this over and over to extend your calculation potentially forever. Also go slowly. Don't calculate like it's a blitz game. You can even pause for a moment after each move and just take a moment to really try and see the new position.

 

One more tip. I'll challenge myself in small ways too. Like after a short sequence that's easy for me to calculate, I'll see if I can answer:

Which minor pieces are left over, and where are they (both colors)?

What is the pawn structure?

Which files were newly opened or closed?

Which player has more pieces (meaning non-pawns) on the kingside/queenside?

This forces you to really see the position.

Do an exercise like that, where you try to visualize as far as you can over and over, for an hour a day (or more if you're up for it).

If you do that every day for a month, you'll notice your ability to visualize (and therefore calculate) has improved.

Thanks guys! Don't think I have a chess brain, but it is great fun, and also good for the brain. I guess it comes down to hard concentration combined with a lot of patience. 

Or unhealthy obsession

@vlunne consistent and concentrated practice over a long period of time (years) is the way to improve visualization.

I am not talented.  Really not.  My visualisation skills are highly limited. Sometimes I have highly talented players in my chess lessons. I can see in few minutes that they have something that I don't have.  For example,  although they are beginners they will rather quickly be able to solve tactics that are rather tough after they understand how the things work.  And they are thousands times better than me to reconstruct a position in the analysis. It is weird to see a beginner to be better than me in such things,  but this has to do with things that I can't influence.  I still will crash them in all games because they don't know openings,  but with some months training I would probably suffer to draw against such players. 

The good news is that you are 1500.

Some players never get there!

Also, there is usually  a positional element to the tactic.

The first thing that I noticed was the lack of co-operation of White's pieces. 

Tactics always hang out in positions like that.

The previous posts have good merit, as well as this other small point.

I have repeated many mistakes, but in correcting them, I usually improve both my tactics and calculation.

After many years, for me, it is still a work in progress.

Enjoy the journey, and you may break through to 1600, if you wish!

Lots of great advises here - this is my first question - almost touched by your great response - sharing IS really caring

I was some days ago 1591, close to my best rating of 1594, but lost a lot of points while playing against strong players, some underrated.

I perceived blitz as a highly addictive thing. Perhaps this doesn't apply to everybody, but for me is blitz something unhealthy, making me nervous, crazy about my mistakes. If I win I start immediately a new game to win again, and if I lose I start a new game to have a good feeling of winning.

But I agree, with blitz you are forced to think fast and to play aggressive.

The huge amount of games that you can play in two or three hours allows you to gain a lot of experience in short time. But the addictive aspect scare me a little bit.

And I am very sensitive concerning addiction, as I am working in a rehab clinic since 20 years. More and more people addicted to online games are coming to us in the last time.

As I see you got very strong in blitz. Do you always analyse your blitz games? How careful are these analyses? I mean, do you just quickly go through the most evident mistakes or do you try to understand positional aspects of the game too?

Let me add two things that helped my visualization:

1. After going over a puzzle, go back to the beginning and visualize the answer.  At this point, you know the answer, so you don't need to calculate.  You only need to visualize.  Try to see each move clearly and, in particular, the end position.  You can then replay the puzzle and make sure you've got it.  This is what helped me the most.

2. Learn the chess board, in particular, which colour is every square.  This seems silly at first, but if you can't even visualize the board, something that never changes, how can you visualize the pieces on the board?  By learning this, you get a firm foundation for your calculation to rest on.  I used the free* ChessEye program, and just a few minutes a day on the first 2-3 levels made a big difference a month later.  There is no need to buy the full program to do the later levels, unless you really enjoy it.  Google it if you're interested, though there is a vision tool on chess.com that does something similar I believe.

I do the same concerning trying to repeat the whole variation after knowing the solution. I follow the advice of a chess author who wrote (or said in a video, I don't remember) that you don't have to try too long to solve a problem, but you have to be sure that you understand the variation well afterwards and repeat the whole line mentally.

For this reason I train with a small number of combinations to be sure I will get well two to three thousand combinations. I mean,  instead of taking a lot of time to learn more than 30,000 combinations.