Simple Chess: Tactics (Top 5 Training Methods)

Today is Thursday and that means another Simple Chess post. I've decided to name my section of the CCCSA blog: Simple Chess.When teaching material of any kind, I like to make things as simple as possible. As an adult trying to improve at chess, the simpler the better.

Since the start of 2017 (okay not really that long but long enough), I have been solving tactics for 30 minutes a day on Chess.com's Tactics Trainer. This has been a great training method for tactics (frustrating, but great). I use the rated method during this 30 minutes and the goal is to be as accurate as possible. That means I could solve 1 puzzle or I could solve 100 puzzles in those 30 minutes. There has only been one day that I got 100% accuracy. The other days I played too fast and just didn't analyze correctly, hence the frustrating part mentioned earlier. I have noticed the same weakness in my own games which is:

Playing without fully calculating all the lines. The same is especially true for all positions that have multiple in-between moves or different move orders.  

This got me thinking about what this post should be about. Of course any strong player is going to tell you that to improve one needs to get better at tactics. This is great advice but how to get better is the key element that seems to always be missing. Should you solve 100+ tactics a day? Do you need to solve every position in your head? Can you move the pieces around to learn? Should you be getting the puzzles correct or learning from the puzzles? Well, to keep it simple here are the top five methods that I have used. These methods have greatly improved my tactical abilities.

 

Tactics Training Method #1

• Get better at seeing simple tactics and simple mating patterns. For this I recommend the following books:
• Chess Tactics for Students by John Bain
• I put all of the positions into Chessbase so that I could quickly go over them even when I just have my laptop. I created a separate database for each chapter. Then I also created a database where I combined all the other databases. This way I could focus on a specific theme or I could just go through all of them if I want. In fact, I will still spend once a month going through all the different motifs at one time. It becomes not so much about knowing the solution as it does about being able to spot the pattern (this is the ultimate goal). 
• Chess by Laszlo Polgar
• I would do 50 Mate in One puzzles a day. For the Mate in Two puzzles I started off with the same ambitious goal, but that has dropped down to about 6 or 12 a day. There are 5,334 puzzles so this is a book I am still working through. Even though mating a king in a tournament game is not as likely as winning a piece or a pawn, this really helps to develop your calculation and visualization skills. 
• Chess Tactics for the Tournament Player by GM Sam Palatnik and GM Lev Alburt 
• I worked through this book only after I became confident in my knowledge gained from Volumes 1 and 2 of the Comprehensive Chess Course (you can read why I recommend these books in this blog) and the two books mentioned above. For this book, I worked from the book itself, never setting any pieces up. I followed every main line and analysis in my head. This was extremely difficult because I didn't just think that I got it. I forced myself to see every position clearly in my head before moving on.  

 

Tactics Training Method #2

• Once seeing the simple tactics becomes easy, then it is time to move on to more advanced materials. Seeing the simple tactics doesn't just mean in books, it means in your own games as well. If you are no longer missing a simple knight fork or discovered check in your games then you are ready to move on. If you are still missing simple tactics then don't move on. Some of my recommendations here would be:
• Improve Your Chess Tactics by Yakov Neishtadt
• I recommend actually setting up a board or using Chessbase to play over the instructional material. For the exercises I would set a chess clock up for 10-20 minutes and try to solve each exercise at the end of the chapters. Write down your own solutions, then compare to the author's solutions. If you are wrong, DO NOT be upset. Just play over the analysis (every single line) and try to figure out why you didn't see the correct moves. Was it move order error? Did you just not see the solution at all? Did you not see the resourceful defense by the opponent? These are the questions you need to ask about your tactics during study and during a post-game analysis. Finding out why you missed something is more important that figuring out what you missed. Fixing the why in your chess will give you better rewards than just trying to solve more tactics. 
• Forcing Chess Moves by Charles Hertan
• I recommend the same study method as Improve Your Chess Tactics. 

 

The goal of studying tactics should be to learn, not beat yourself up if you don't find the correct solution (you are probably going to do enough of that after your games). This was the hardest lesson for me to get. Studying is just that, studying. Perfection is not as important as understanding.

 

Tactics Training Method #3

Since time management is also a practical skill that most adult players need help with this method is perfect. It allows you to combine tactics training with time management. Thus fully maximizing your study time.

1. Get 4 chess positions that you want to solve (I use Chess Training Pocket Book by GM Lev Alburt as the positions are already 4 to page). You can also use positions from my Tactics Training Method #5 in an effort to combine multiple training methods. 
2. Set your chess clock to 20 minutes (You may adjust this more or less depending on your abilities, I just wouldn't make it too long unless you are adding more positions). 
3. Set the first position up, start your clock and try to find the best move(s). 
4. Write your calculated lines down (don't ever move the pieces during this training session). 
5. Stop the clock and compare your analysis with the solution.
1. If correct, set up the next position and repeat steps 3 through 5. 
2. If incorrect, go over the answer until you understand it and try to understand why you missed it. Then deduct a time penalty from your remaining time (I deduct 5 minutes for every position I get wrong even if I got the answer correct but I didn't analyze a defense that the author provides). Then repeat steps 3 through 5 until you finish all the positions.
6. Repeat on a weekly basis. This training method will greatly improve your chess intuition, visualization, calculation, and time management. These are all skills that will improve your chess faster than knowing more opening knowledge.  

 

 

Tactics Training Method 4:

This training method was already discussed earlier in this blog but here it is again. I prefer this method because it allows you to track your progress over time (shown in the pictures below). The trainer adjusts the skill level of the problem on your rating:

• Spend at least 30 minutes a day solving tactical problems on Chess.com's Tactics Trainer (or you can use any of the other sites that have tactics training). 
• Set a chess clock for 30 minutes, start the first position, and start your time. 
• Don't focus on speed, focus on accuracy during this training method.

My overall performance since January 1, 2017 with just 30 minutes per day.

Daily Breakdown For Problems Correct vs. Incorrect as Well as Rating Ranges

My Top 5 Tactic Categories

My Bottom 5 Tactic Categories

 

 

Tactics Training Method #5

• Once you get your information breakdown from the 4th training method you can then use the tactics trainer to focus on specific categories. 
• Go into tactics trainer and select "Custom (Unrated)"
• Now you can select your rating range for the problems. Set the rating low to get better at pattern recognition. Set the rating higher to work on calculation skills. For example if I wanted to get better at pattern recognition I would set the max rating at 1000. If I wanted to work on my calculation I would set my minimum rating at my current tactics rating and my max rating 400 points higher. 
• You can include all problems or just the problems you failed previously.
• You are able to select specific themes.
• I usually select the bottom 5 themes as shown before. This allows you to tighten up on any areas you are weaker in. 

Improve Your Tactics 

Good luck in your quest to become better at chess tactics. I hope you found this information valuable and that you can implement at least one of my methods in your training plan. I look forward to seeing you over the board soon!

-David