Questions tagged [tactics]

Questions relating to maneuvers that take advantage of short-term opportunities, such as forks, discovered attacks, skewers, etc.

Tactics are the concrete maneuvers (e.g. forking two pieces with a knight, pinning a piece to the opponent's king, or unleashing a discovered check) that chess players use and combine in order to achieve their overall goals in a game. They are the building blocks which underlie successful strategies.

Tactics represent the raw calculation side of chess, rather than the speculative, intuitive aspects of the game. That is, perhaps, unless you're Mikhail Tal, former world champion and so-called "Magician from Riga".

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How do I learn to understand the middlegame?

I am trying to train tactics as well as my general understanding of the beginning/middlegame. I spent a good bit of time understanding endgames, per chessmaster recommendations and those I can understand. As far as tactics, I have been able to…
Jeff Davis
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Most effective way to achieve a 2000+ rating in one year, starting as a 1600?

I currently play at around a 1600 level, and have stagnated in terms of rating improvements for quite some time. I have always played chess recreationally, occasionally doing tactics puzzles here and there, but I've never done any professional…
Parseltongue
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Where can I find this game with a sacrifice followed by a long series of checks leading to a discovered mate?

I am looking for a chess game and frankly, I really know very little about it. I remember seeing it somewhere on the Internet. The game goes something like this. A player (either White or Black) sacrifices their most important piece, probably the…
Aastik
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"Chess is 90% tactics" - should a player focus more on tactics in order to improve?

The following quote has been attributed to many chess masters; "Chess is 90% tactics" - from Teichmann to Capablanca. It has also been said that 90% of the games are decided on tactics and tactics are the foundation of positional play. And many…
Phemelo Khetho
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Is three knights versus knight really winning?

Take a look at the following position, reached in the #40974 Tactics Problem on chess.com [fen "4N1K1/5P2/6k1/8/6n1/8/N7/8 w - - 0 1"] The engine gives +6.22 for white in this position. I already understand that any move other than f8=N+ draws.…
Pedro A
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Examples of forced stalemate

The usual case one often sees specially in blitz play is when one side (usually the winning) mis-plays and then stalemate occurs with the losing side dodging a loss. But are there positions where stalemate is a forced (maybe planned) outcome no…
user929304
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Do you find websites like chesstempo useful for improving tactical skills?

I've been using chesstempo for quite a while solving lots of problems per day. What I noticed is that I don't feel that my tactical skills were improving. My results in tournament games were not improving either. However chesstempo's estimate of my…
Alex Petrov
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Best ways for improving "tactics"

I have been playing chess for a long time, and I have been around 1850-1900 ELO for quite some time. I have always wondered which are the best ways to improve the tactics. Does playing more and more games improve chess tactics? Playing limited…
Anshu
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Proven ways to improve calculation speed

I've been working on my tactics using on-line resources like Chess Tempo. I found my improvement (as measured by my CT rating) over the last few months to be encouraging, but I struggle to translate this into significant OTB results. I do find that…
firtydank
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Why do chess puzzles need a unique solution?

Why do chess puzzles need a unique solution? This is different from real games, where such situations do occur, but more frequently, there are multiple avenues to success. Contrary to what one might think, that makes chess puzzles easier, not…
Hauptideal
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In Chess, are there simple "mechanics" that amateurs can learn to improve their game?

In the board game Go, for instance, it is often of great importance whether or not a stone can be captured in a so-called "ladder" (an often complicated formation). One of the things that separates professionals from beginning and intermediate…
Tom Au
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Who has the advantage at this point in the game?

I was playing the following game and at this point I thought black had the advantage but upon thinking about it for a little while was not sure. At this point in the game who has the advantage and by "how much"? …and I don't mean just counting piece…
bpw1621
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How to play for a draw

In this video: Levon Aronian vs Magnus Carlsen Round 1 - 2013 Candidates Chess Tournament [FEN ""] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Bxd2+ 5.Qxd2 And now, Kevin said: "You can tell that the game is going for a draw." My question, how can you play a…
Lynob
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As a Beginner, is playing a lot of tactics chess (puzzles) a good way to improve?

I am pretty new to chess, and I play lot of chess puzzles: trying to find the best move for a given situation (which will not necessarily end-up with a checkmate). Is this a good way to learn chess or should I play more normal games?
Romain
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Tactical difference between chess and Chinese chess

Is there any difference in tactics between chess and Chinese chess? If so, which one is the most fun? What are the important things to learn from it?
Nelson
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