Tactics Training, how much does it help?

I see. I think I'll give that a shot aswell. Good idea. Thanks.

All of my progress (from a low of 943 to a peak of 1445 on chess.com) was during a 2-month period late summer/fall last year where I blitzed through hundreds of tactics problems for a few hours a day to the neglect of opening, endgame, and strategy study.  

Then I had to back off because of stupid other obligations (like career and people, bleh), and it has been downhill since, but I plan to return.  Of course, at my low level, just learning not to put your queen on a square where the enemy's bishop is pointing can probably gain you 300 points.  

For higher level players, I don't know except what de la Maza preached in his book...I just think of a guy like Tal making "unsound" moves that still crushed Botvinnik and Smyslov when they were the top players of the previous 2 decades, albeit his reign was brief, but he won the blitz title in 1988 I think and beat Kasparov in a blitz game right before he died in 1992, when his brain should have been chessically senile at the age of 56. 

"chessically senile at the age of 56" hmm!!

Okay, here is my first post :)

For me I find the tactics training to be invaluable. Not so much in improving my game significantly, but more for helping to see over and over again the patterns that make for various plays.

Like anything, the more you do something the more it becomes as second nature. The more times you cover a set pattern or type of move the easier it becomes to spot in live games.

It is easy to make the mistake that if you do lots of tactics training you will shoot up the rankings, but that's not really the point of it. I feel the benefit is something that you experiance over time as you start to develop more of an eye for particular routines.

I hope that makes sense and acts as some encouragement to people to keep at it.

All I would say is that most of my games are decided tactically and I'm on the right end of the tactics more often the more I work on tactical exercises - both simple "multiplication table" tactics and very difficult calculation problems.

Are you going over your games afterwards to see if you missed any tactics? I'm betting a shiny new internet that there are a lot more tactical opportunities in your games than you realize.

Hi

 I am new at this. I agree that tactics training is really helpful.I am enjoying the 300 puzzles someone is kindly posting. Can someone please explin the differences (and benfits) of Chess Mentor vs the Tactics Trainer on chess.com. Are the tactics and puzzles the same thing? Do you use them both? One first then the other? Any help would be appreciated.

Use them all.  Over and over and over.  You're training your mind to recognize patterns.  The more often you see them, the better you'll get.

Tactics are positively fundamental; you will literally never launch a sound attacking sacrifice (but doesn't lead to say " forced mate in 3") if you aren't extremely comfortable with them. Attacking chess is very hard even when you are really good at them, but if you don't know tactics, you're lost when it comes to evaluating sacrifices and dynamic positions. Even in positional chess, you're always waiting to pull the trigger and initiate something, else we'd just be moving around aimlessly forever. Tactics always dictate the play because they are forcing ideas you have to react to. They were right when they said chess was 99% tactics; listen to them!

And I agree with Omar's point that Tactics Trainer is more like combination trainer. Training can be more basic than that: You can literally just practice scanning positions for all the little things like hanging pawns and pieces, pins or potential pins, same for forks, setting up discovered attacks, etc, and once you get really good at that, combinations will come much more naturally. Your sense of danger will also get much better.

it helps also to detect if your opponent is about to make a tactical shot on you.
I was playing someone OTB and he was trying to set up a bodens mate on me.
had I played a slow move he would have suceeded but I detected what he was trying to do and prevented it.
some players move their pieces in order to make a tactical shot. It is easier to read if you are tactical trained.

In another game I tried hard to find a tactical shot against a player however he was the one to make a tactical shot against me.

it is sometimes more important to be able to detect(and prevent) tactical shots against you than to find a tactic against your opponent.

I actually think that contrary to what I often hear, in many ways tactics during real games you play can actually be easier to find than the ones in tactics trainer. This sounds stupid, because there isn't that guy whispering you in your ear that you have a mate in 5 when it's there. Indeed, that is one valid point, but not necessarily conclusive. Actually, when you're in the game you naturally understand the specific context of the tactics; you get a feel for what squares are going to be controlled as you get used to the piece positionings in the game. In Tactics Trainer, they throw you in this totally random, sharp position completely in the dark! You have no idea what to look for or what's important, and there are tons of possibilities coming at you all at once -- that never happens in a game because you don't start a game from move 27.

Haha, yes. But many people like myself needed convincing: I would for too long stubbornly do things my way all the time -- I'd hear don't study openings, study the endgame, study tactics; I'd be like no, I'm studying openings, and not studying endgames, and not studying tactics, justified by my incontrovertible theory of improvement -- it's like arguing against the law of gravity -- such can lead to painful consequences!

The best improvement I've made as a player is by far, actually listening to what I've heard ever since I've been playing.

More important is using the skills you gai properly in games. In tactics trainer, you know there is a tactic and look for it. In games, you need to treat every position as if there was a tactic for you AND for your opponent, and if it's there, find it. If you don't put your full effort into practically playing games, your tactics training will be limited in terms of its effect on your game!

You're right, you need to apply it to your own games, but you need to understand the basics (isolated combinations) before you can play practical chess properly at the same time. In other words, you need both, but I'd start with more fundamental isolated situations first.

I agree entirely buy I think the whole idea of tactics training is spotting isolated combinations, so that you can then apply those skills in games! I was trying to describe something I've been feeling recently - I didn't put effort into my games so I dropped rating points. I can still solve fairly complex tactics, however. I realised the lack of strength compared to my theoretical ability based on tactics is a difference in attitude from solving tactics to playing games. Once you have the tactical knowledge, you need to work harder during your games because you are looking for more difficult combinations, not work easier because you are "better" at chess. If you gain tactics skills through training but become more lazy in choosing moves, I think your tactical skills in practise will take a fall, or at least, not improve.

If I could play Petrosian, and I took a huge amount of effort over each move while Tigran ate crisps, drank cans of lager and smoked, while barely looking at his moves, I would have as much change against this genius world champion than I do against the average user on this site.

tactics training gives you the opportunity to help you , improve your game, so in fact by itself it doesn't help you at all.

"Once you have the tactical knowledge, you need to work harder during your games because you are looking for more difficult combinations, not work easier because you are "better" at chess. If you gain tactics skills through training but become more lazy in choosing moves, I think your tactical skills in practise will take a fall, or at least, not improve."

With all due respect, I must be honest -- my experience suggests the opposite. Indeed, everything has been easier for me ever since I've gotten better with basic tactical training; my mind has not needed to work as hard to find promising tactical continuations. I've noticed it in particular in my last tournament.

Actually, it isn't always about working hard -- sometimes you can overwork in fact. It's about being able to see relevant tactical themes in the blink of an eye. Whether you search for strong combinations or not is up to you during the game -- you do what you feel you need to do and what is appropriate. But anything you attempt will be much easier because those patterns are totally with you. You won't have to stop and say "wait, am I hanging mate?", because you will be able to tell just by seeing if the patterns are consistent with a possible mate or not.

Finding what is there will be easier; indeed, becoming better at tactics will not make more opportunities magically appear (strategy will ), you'll just be able to spot them the second they arrive.

But yes, applying the basics is the second step.

Incorrect move - good try!
You got 0 of 1 moves (0%) correct. 

My story  

Tactics Trainer is good, but you practically have to live on it for it to work....I think.

I think the harder you try to see the point of the tactic on move 1 before moving the more you learn. if you can't find the answer look harder.
don't sacrifice your queen unless you know you've got a win.

I have forced meself to look very hard on finding solution on move 1.

to start with I got a minus score even though I solved it.
2 years later I am now able to solve some puzzles under 10 seconds.
and I am starting to select candidate moves and reverse the move order.