Effective Training of Chess Tactics

“Chess is 99% tactics.” – G Teichman

Train tactics, tactics and more tactics.

This is one of the most common advices you will find when you ask how you can improve your chess. It is true that training your tactical skills is an essential aspect of your chess progress but there is a subtle pitfall that can do serious harm to your chess development. The purpose of this post is to warn you about a common chess training mistake that many people make when they sit down to train some tactics. The coach want to warn you against this and help you get the maximum benefit from your chess training. 

Let’s get to the point. What is the big training mistake? It’s guessing.
Guessing answers is the worst mistake you can make when solving chess tactics.
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 yet 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. You must beware of the importance of avoiding such mistakes. Then how should you train chess tactics?

CALCULATE ALL THE FORCED VARIATIONS TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY AND DON'T GUESS.

Calculating forced variations means looking at all the checks, captures and threats. But don’t guess any answers. Instead of guessing it will be better to admit if you couldn’t find the answer. What should you do if you can’t solve the tactic? If you aren’t able to find the solution on your own, it is an indication that you have not had enough exposure to this tactical pattern. In this case professional coaches would suggest that you give up, look at the answer and study the solution carefully. Try to understand why you couldn’t solve it. This is a much better way to study chess tactics. Many outstanding trainers and coaches can show you exactly how to do this and how you can develop an effective way of training chess tactics.