Tactical Puzzles

Tactical puzzles are often difficult and you may be tempted to guess the solution. This is wrong. Don’t be lazy. You must calculate the variations to the best of your ability. Do not guess the answer, because even if your guess is correct you are still doing harm to your subconscious decision-making process.

It’s all about habits. When you guess the solutions to chess tactics puzzles, you are subconsciously developing a habit of guessing.

The problem with this habit becomes evident when you play a real game. What you will do in the heat of the game has a big impact on the result. You might even have a good position and you sense there might be tactical opportunities and you start searching deeper but you just don’t seem to find a crystal clear way forward. So what happens next? You guess a move and hope for the best.

The bad habit wins and you lose.

When things get tough, your mind tends to fall back to old habits. More often than not your “guess-move” is in fact a mistake.