Saturday, August 25, 2007

Tactics! Tactics! Tactics!

One of my biggest challenges right now is chess tactics. Being able to recognize tactical blunders before they happen, and being able to capitalize on tactical attacks ahead of time. From what I can see from reading up on things, being less prone to blunders (both tactical and obvious ones) seems to be a big key from getting a consistent 1400-1600 rating. I found a really good tactics training site located here and I have placed it on my links menu. If this is something you would like to work on too, it seems to be a good online resource to do so. If you know of some others, definitely post a comment!

3 comments:

Slatts said...

Cool website! I will definately find that useful! At the moment I am going through an old book about 50 yrs old) of my father's called "1001 winning chess sacrifices and combinations", which has, you guessed it, 1001 chess positions and invites you to find the combinations that would lead to victory. I'm about 1/3 through the book and find it very helpful for training my tactical eye. You can buy it used off of amazon for like 4 bucks. The reviewer who gave it its lowest rating (3 stars) still said, "Solving these diagrams can, and in most cases will, greatly improve the tactics of any player, and may help the more advanced player keep his or her tactical eye sharp."

He just seemed to not like the author's use of the now-archaic descriptive notation (as opposed to the algebraic).

jrobi said...

Sounds like a very affordable investment! Definitely going to check that one out.

Anonymous said...

If you want to improve your tactical skills, the best way would be to study the end game, I suppose. In the end game it's easier to learn how different pieces work together and launches a successful attack.

RexLaetus