Chess patterns are themes and ideas that are repeated in many chess games. Strong players recognize patterns very quickly. Indeed, this is one of the reasons that they can evaluate and find good moves in a short amount of time. Patterns include tactical tricks (forks, skewers, pins) and checkmating patterns (see also wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkmate_pattern).
Chess patterns are themes and ideas that are repeated in many chess games. Strong players recognize patterns very quickly. Indeed, this is one of the reasons that they can evaluate and find good moves in a short amount of time. Patterns include tactical tricks (forks, skewers, pins) and checkmating patterns (see also Wikipedia). Some other patterns are common endgame motifs, for example the Lucena position.
Here are a few books (among many that are available) concerning checkmate patterns:
- 1000 checkmate combinations by Viktor Henkin. This book was originally written Russian and translated into English.
- 1001 deadly checkmates by John Nunn.
- Mastering checkmates by Neil McDonald.
One common way to improve tactical pattern recognition is to get a book on tactics and use a chess clock and give yourself a set amount of time to solve the puzzles.
