How to get better at Tactics

You are playing a chess game and your opponent crushes you. You have no idea why, it seemed like magic. No they weren't using an engine, they were using tactical motifs.

Now after reading this you want to know how you too could play magical moves. Very simple, do tactical puzzles. Ok thanks for reading the blog...

BUT WAIT, if it was that simple, then everyone would be able to do it. As a kid, I struggled with tactical motiffs. The main problem? It was time consuming. Back then, you had to look at the tactics book, set up the board. And it was even more time consuming to find the answer at the end of the book. This archaic method is still praised as the best method today. I completely disagree, in order to do something you have to be motivated.

Luckily for you, as well as for me, we are in the year 2022. For the last 10 years there has been a method that avoids such a time consuming process. That is of course online tactical databased. On Lichess, they are called puzzles. And you can find the database here https://lichess.org/training

Now, doing the tactics is quite obvious, but how do you learn from them? The purpose of tactics is to be able to recognize patterns. Here will be a step by step process, that I used in order to get tactically aware.

• Doing the Puzzles

  Of course the first step is to take the jump, and start doing them. This has already been stated. And although I am being redundant, I believe that it is quite important to get the idea home. In order to get better at tactics, you must do tactics.

• Going over Puzzles done incorrectly

  Perhaps the most important part of doing puzzles is to learn from your mistakes. But how do you do so. Some people indicate that you should continue to look at the puzzle until you find the answer. Although this method is just fine, I find it to be a waste of time. We are not trying to learn how to think. We are trying to learn pattern recognition. Of course understanding the tactical motiff is important, but you are obviously going to understand that a tactic involves for example winning a piece. Here is where my method comes to play. Repetition.

• Repetition

  When you get a problem wrong, look at the answer. And repeat the answer over and over again, until you see the tactic instantly. Tactical awareness is based on pattern recognition. Therefore you must force yourself to see the tactic. Although this process might seem dull, you are going to learn the pattern.

• Keeping a Tactics diary

  This is perhaps the most important part of learning tactics. In order to make sure you remember the tactical motiff, you should keep a list of the tactics you have done wrong. Copying the URL for example and posting it in a document such as Microsoft word is a great way to maintain such a list. After some time, you should review the tactic you have done incorrectly. Once you are remembering the answer, you can remove it from your list.

• Concluding thoughts

  Although there are no examples in this article, the idea is clear. In order to learn tactical motifs, you have to repeat them, over and over and over again. Until you can almost do the puzzle instantly. When you are done with this exercise, you should then put the recently failed tactic in a list. And then repeat that list, at a later time. And you will continually do the same tactic until of course, you have learned the tactic. As long as you are learning the tactics you will eventually see them in your games. Although the process may seem tedious, I can assure you, it works.

Thanks for reading, if you have questions discuss them in the forum.