Tactics

What is the best way to study tactics? I have used chess.com's Tactics Trainer extensively, but I still miss a lot in my games. Any suggestions?

Try 303 tricky chess tactics by Malestrom . It will keep you busy for a while.

Sorry Neslanovac,

Already got the book and finished it. Not a huge fan of it, though. The fact that it was divided into categories made it extremely easy, and I learned very little from the book. It teaches basic pattern recognition, but not much more. Can you suggest something a bit more advanced?

Tactics:  Work diagrams every day in order to build a bank of visualiztion patterns in your mind.  Begin by purchasing, Irving Chernev's book, 1,001 Chess Sacrifices and Tactics." 

Begin with the first diagram in the book.  There is usually 9 diagrams per page.  Sit down with a timer and the book.  No chessboard or pieces.  Do not set the position up on any physical board.  Set the timer for 3min. When the time is up or if you choose a move prior to time running out, stop the timer.  Check your answer in the back of the book.  If you got it right put a check mark next to the diagram.  If you got it wrong put an X next to the diagram.  Reset the timer and move on to the next diagram.  DO NOT linger on the diagram you just completed.  You will come back to it at a later date.  The diagram that you got wrong is simply a visual pattern that is not in your memory bank yet.  Do 6 pages of 9 diagrams per page per day.   Do the Chernev book diagrams 3 times all the way thru, paying special attention to the diagrams you got wrong. 

Later on you can purchase or borrow books of diagrams of tactical positions from actual GM and IM tournament games.

This is known as doing your chess exercises so that like an athlete you can stay fit.  What you are doing is building a bank in your mind of tactical visualization patterns.

Endgame:  Work diagrams every day in order to build a bank of checkmate visualization patterns in your mind.

Begin by practicing the basic checkmate endgames (K+Q v K, K+R v K, K+2Bs v K, and K+B+N v K) until you can do them in your sleep.  You only need to know one endgame technique wih all the basic checkmate endgames.  I call it 'corralling the enemy King.'  The power of the piece(s) form a fence around the enemy K.  With the help of your own K, step by step, you keep making the fenced in area smaller driving the enemy K into a corner of the board, and then you deliver checkmate.  In the K+Q v K basic checkmate endgame caution needs to be exercised in order to not stalemate the enemy king.  In the K+B+N v K, the enemy K has to be driven to one of the 2 corners that are the same color as your B.  If the enemy K runs to either of the opposite color corners, there is a standard W pattern technique for extracting him from that corner and driving him along the edge of the board to the right color corner where you can deliver mate.

Practice these until you can do them in your sleep.  I can guarantee you, after 3 months of practicing these you will see mating nets, in the game you are currently playing, because it will jump up off the board and smack you on the forehead in a flash.  I know because it happens to me all the time.

A perspective that will save you thousands of hours.  Chess is siege warfare in the form of a game.  Siege warfare was practiced by human armies throughout history for centuries in many forms.  The assault on a castle in medieval times in movies is the most iconic example for the general public.  No matter what the form of siege warfare is employs three methododlogies: restrain, blockade, and execute the enemy.

Mr. Nimzowitch's book, "My System" is a detailed general instructional manual on restrain, blockade and execute the enemy on the chess board.  It paraphrases an overarching principle in chess:

Winning chess is the strategically/tactically correct advance of the pawn mass.

The essential companion book to "My System" is Hans Kmoch's, "Pawn Power In Chess".  It is the exhaustive manual on the details of pawn play employing the methodologies of restrain, blockade and execute the enemy.  Mr. Kmoch's book as a bonus details, regarding the opening the folowing fact:  Almost all openings result in 6 characteristic pawn structures.  He shines a light on those 6 characteristic pawn structures, and details the prospective plans of attack for both sides (White and Black) based on the pawn structure (terrain of the battlefield on the chess board.)  In other words, the pawn structure forms the hills, mountains and valleys of the battlefield on the chess board.  Any plan of attack must conform to the pawn structure.

Your 1/2 hr. per day will  make achieving a rating of USCF1800 within 2 yrs. possible.  But, you will have to combine that 1/2 hr. with weekend rated over the board round robin tournaments which consume considerably more time (your entire weekend.)  Playing 60-72 rated tournament games per year, which means you would playing chess 10 to 12 weekends per year.  About one tournament per month. One weekend out of every month you would be dedicating to chess.    

If one weekend per month would not fit in with your family's extracurricular activities.  There is always correspondence chess which you can play from home in your spare time.

So, casual player with limited spare time.  I hope this post helps you.

Good luck and hardwork/study in becoming a 'professional gunslinger (a very strong player.)

@Dargone: I have used chesstempo in the past and have not gotten any spectacular benefit from it. Chess Tactics for Students looked extremely basic, unfortunately. Reviews said it was a good book to read right after you learn how the pieces move. I'm not THAT bad at tactics.

I'm looking for a book or other source for players in the 1800-2000 range. I would not say that my tactics are sub-par, but I have picked up a lot of ultra-sharp openings recently that really require some good tactical knowledge.

@transpo: My USCF rating is currently 1867. If it drops to 1800 after to years of practice, I'm going to be really disappointed.

Are you playing otb USCF rated tournaments in the under 1900 section or under 2000 section?

Buy 2 books "My System" and "Pawn Power In Chess", software Chess Openings Wizard (Book Up), Chessbase games database in pgn.  The computer will build your opening tree automatically once you input the openings for your opening repertoire.  All you have to do with Book Up is practice your openings daily.  And, play 60-72 rated tournament games per yr. That is about one tournament per month  

Also play 5 min to:  reinforce your opening repertoire lines, practice handling the clock under time pressure, and practice/experience assessing a position in short time pressure constraints.    

@transpo: No, I mostly play the Open around here. In large tournaments, I either play one section up or in the U2000. I've already read Pawn Power (Great book!), and I plan to read My System once I finished a detailed study of HTRYC. Not going to happen with Chess Openings Wizard, though. I've got a Mac.

look for tactical opprotunities in your games. see a weak back rank. attack it. see an open file to penetrate take it. see a weak dark square complex in a castled Kingside position block the f7 pawn with a pawn and support the heck out of it with pawns and a bishop and march the queen through to the other side of it.

You have got to play otb tournaments. 

When you are reading/studying My System keep in mind that he is a staunch advocate of the Hypermodern Theory of Chess.  Especially when he writes about the 'small but secure center' and 'manouvering along inner lines.'

Unless you have already contacted the owner of Chess Openings Wizard (Book Up), do it, he is one hell of a nice guy.  Just e-mail him at his website.  He may have a solution for your Mac pc. 

For the record, my chess.com tactics rating is currently 2380. It reached a maximum of 2532, but I have been using it some recently under low-sleep conditions. However, I have heard that the ratings on here are highly exaggerated.

If your looking for books for advanced players there are a few I can recommend

Chess tactics for advanced players  is good

Nunn has a recent tactics book that is very good too

http://chessok.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=8&sort=20a&page=2

these are the foundation for the ct-art if you like books better

the advanced ones are quite difficult

Renko has some good stuff for chessbase too

believe it or not The old reinfeld books are very good too because the difficulty is random which is more realistic to a game. and they are cheap. Larry C said that when he was  ayoung player he read the reinfeld books until he could recognize the tactic instantly.

I've seen that Chess Tactics for Advanced Players before, but don't remember where. I checked on Amazon and it's $50.00+. You know anywhere I can get it cheaper?

you can probably find a pdf around

Legally, that is...anyway, I prefer a hard copy.

OK HOW to study tactics is different that what to study.

tactics are just recognizable patterns. Think of it like math, 2x2=? ... we should know this instantly but we arent born with this knowledge and it wasnt instantly recognizeable until we practiced it, over and over and over and over. hundreds of times. Then we start to build it 2x4, 2x6 2x11, 2x14 etc we build our pattern recognition. The answer is 100% right everytime because we cannt stop ourselves from this. Its a habit. things get more complex if we start to stay ok 22 x 22 some people memorized this others have not but we all have the knowledge base to figure it out. if we can remember it once we have memorized it then its due to repetition. Use it or lose it sort of thing. 

tactics fall into this major category of basic patterns and more complex patterns we can figure out. The most critical are basic patterns and instant recognition. 2x2 you know it or dont. theres no guessing or counting on your fingers allowed. Flash cards and 1-3 seconds should be more than enough to get the answer right. if you dont then look at the answer and move on. Just like in school with flash cards.

Bain's tactics are great for this. if you slip on 1 you dont know it! an OH YA I knew that! DOESNT COUNT! work on themes one reason I really like the russian material listed above is that its grouped by theme. If you have a weakness you can target it specifically.

Some of these patterns can get rather complex though too. Like the smothered mate pattern but it pops at you once you see it. Like the greek gift sacrifice. I have played both these in 1 min games and it was just instant recognition.  

harder puzzles are calculation based so they more like long division. You want a process to follow and train your mind to follow it. look for tactical themes , undefended pieces, exposed king. geometric motifs pieces in aline etc....  

One reason that computers beat humans so often is that the tactical motif idea is turned on its head. they see odd moves that dont match a standard motif we learn. 

Flash cards are great. online tactics are great,  just 15 min a day an d you will improve a lot

PS the 1001 checkmates is by Reinfeld

also I would highly recommend Endgame tactics by perlo

Its really what i tsays , endgame tactics BUT with the bonus of teaching you endgames too!! two for the price of 1! you will also get a good laugh from some of the mistakes strong players have made. I know I laughed outloud at some of the blunders. 

Well, I am doing pretty well at endgames right now. I just finished Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and might move on to something like Levenfish's Rook Endgames next.

As far as mathematics, I figured out that 22 x 22 = 484 pretty fast, but that's easy if you know that 11 x 11 = 121. Multiply it by 4 and you have your answer. In this way, it is easy to see how chess tactics build upon one another.

However, whenever I see a puzzle in a book, I know it's there. In a game, I cannot always be sure whether a tactic exists in the situation. Of course, I recognize basic patterns like forks, pins, discoveries, etc. almost immediately, but when it comes to finding a trap, especially at the end of a combination, I am weak.

The following positions from my game against master Peter Bereolos gives a good example of tactics I see and those I don't.

In the second example, I fortunately realized what was happening before my knight really got trapped, but I only ended up with a draw from a won game. I obviously noticed the simple fork, but the variation I calculated left me up a pawn (supposedly). Right as I was about to capture the pawn, I realized it would leave my knight to be trapped. If only I had better tactical vision, such issues would not occur.

Your missing the point I think. figuring something out is NOT recognition. 
if you do not know it instantly then you are figuring it out and thats not recognition. Varifying something is different.  

The reason I recommend the Endgame tatics is that it combines two exercises into one. You train tactics AND endgames something useful for people with limited time. (its a great book HONEST! I think it won or for sure was nominated as book of the year)

I would look at categorizing tactical patterns and seeing what you are having problems with. then focus on those specifically. 

Calculation is a different issue and can be worked on by just going over complex positions and writing down everything you can think of in the position, assess it and compare it to an assessment of a GM (books of games are great for this) Pfren suggested A book called http://books.google.com/books/about/Test_Your_Positional_Play.html?id=ijRVdrnPpG4C

I looked at it a bit and it fits into this calculation/assessment category

they offer 3 moves or so but I guess you could just cover them up and do it on your own. Aagaard has some materials designed just for this too.

Given the time anyone can figure out the right tactic that goes into the position, but to recognize it as soon as u see the position takes alot of practice.
Just do LOTS AND LOTS of Puzzles.
That'll make u a tactical genius...u would never miss another tactic in ur game.
I have an iphone app of chess tactical puzzles, as well as i practice on chesstempo...
I am currently going at the rate of 800+ puzzles a day...it roughly takes 3 hours to complete 800.
I do tactical puzzles whenever i get time, on my phone!
And i can see a great lot of improvement in my games..regarding tactics.

If you really want to improve your tactical vision then do as many tactical puzzles as you can.
Just as Maths, the more we practice it the faster we improve.

I think my main problem is that at the end of calculation, terrible tactics can sometimes show up unnoticed, as I showed in the puzzle below.