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How to Improve at Tactics

tpr

"Learn the tactical motifs, and start with UNTIMED puzzles for each motif."

  • In a real game there is no hint about a motif or theme. There even is no hint that there is a tactic, or for whom. Tactics puzzles do not teach how to reach positions where a favorable tactic is available for you, or avoid positions where a tactic unfavorable for you is available for your opponent.
"Learn the tactical motifs, and start with UNTIMED puzzles for each motif." * In a real game there is no hint about a motif or theme. There even is no hint that there is a tactic, or for whom. Tactics puzzles do not teach how to reach positions where a favorable tactic is available for you, or avoid positions where a tactic unfavorable for you is available for your opponent.
CM ChessFlow_orgCEO

Hi tpr, thanks for the reply! I agree with you. I think I mentioned that in my step 3.

Especially as a stronger player, you can probably skip step 1 and 2 for most themes, although it could be useful to try out the rarer themes or the ones you may have got an idea of from doing puzzles but without really understanding the mechanics of them.

But as soon as you have a good handle on how the different themes work, it's best to move to doing all the themes at once so you don't have that hint.

You're right about not knowing there's a tactic in a game, I think it works the same where it's helpful to first train tactics / positional exercises in isolation, before doing training where you don't know if the position has a tactic or not. This article was just on improving at tactics though, but I will likely bring that up in a future article on my own study routine and how everything can come together.

Hi tpr, thanks for the reply! I agree with you. I think I mentioned that in my step 3. Especially as a stronger player, you can probably skip step 1 and 2 for most themes, although it could be useful to try out the rarer themes or the ones you may have got an idea of from doing puzzles but without really understanding the mechanics of them. But as soon as you have a good handle on how the different themes work, it's best to move to doing all the themes at once so you don't have that hint. You're right about not knowing there's a tactic in a game, I think it works the same where it's helpful to first train tactics / positional exercises in isolation, before doing training where you don't know if the position has a tactic or not. This article was just on improving at tactics though, but I will likely bring that up in a future article on my own study routine and how everything can come together.
lioxochi

please no AI images!!!

please no AI images!!!
Mpernest

“But there’s also no ceiling to what an adult can achieve with the right approach:”

I don’t think the research and data bear this out. Everything I’ve read indicates there’s a pretty hard ceiling on adult improvement. The vanishingly rare exceptions seem to be folks that started young, took a long break for some reason and came back as adults. In those cases they’d already maximized the early neuroplasticity and pattern encoding of childhood. Apart from chess even, adults are good af acquiring knowledge but not as good at converting it to skill. All the same reason my best friend speaks Spanish with no Americanization to his accent, and English with no Spanish accent - he was bilingual and lived in Colombia and the US alternately as a child. On the other hand my daughter speaks decent French, which she learned in her 20s, and sounds “American” to French persons. She can’t out work that accent encoding.

All of this is, of course, is my uneducated take on the subject.

“But there’s also no ceiling to what an adult can achieve with the right approach:” I don’t think the research and data bear this out. Everything I’ve read indicates there’s a pretty hard ceiling on adult improvement. The vanishingly rare exceptions seem to be folks that started young, took a long break for some reason and came back as adults. In those cases they’d already maximized the early neuroplasticity and pattern encoding of childhood. Apart from chess even, adults are good af acquiring knowledge but not as good at converting it to skill. All the same reason my best friend speaks Spanish with no Americanization to his accent, and English with no Spanish accent - he was bilingual and lived in Colombia and the US alternately as a child. On the other hand my daughter speaks decent French, which she learned in her 20s, and sounds “American” to French persons. She can’t out work that accent encoding. All of this is, of course, is my uneducated take on the subject.
CM ChessFlow_orgCEOedited

Hi Mpernest, thanks for your message. It’s a very interesting topic and one that’s always been very fascinating to me. I think there’s a lot of things we can say for sure.

  1. Kids learn differently from adults (good example with languages, ie with focused study and immersion an adult can learn a new language but the accent usually lags, whereas the accent is no problem for kids).

  2. If a chess learning speed “ceiling” exists it’s much higher for kids.

  3. Not many people have made significant rating gains in the past as an adult, with a few outliers.

My main challenge to conventional wisdom on the chess front is that the main reason for lack of adult improvement is the tools on the market for improving quickly don’t exist yet. There’s a reason on perpetual chess podcast you hear the few power improvers sharing that they started with X tool, layered on Y workflow, added AI in the loop, and then built their own flashcard set to not forget what they learned.

Optimal chess improvement for power improvers seems like a niche market... but I wonder how many casual improvers take it more seriously once the tools exist

All speculation of course. Let’s see how it goes.

Cheers,
Geordie
ChessFlow Founder and CEO

Hi Mpernest, thanks for your message. It’s a very interesting topic and one that’s always been very fascinating to me. I think there’s a lot of things we can say for sure. 1) Kids learn differently from adults (good example with languages, ie with focused study and immersion an adult can learn a new language but the accent usually lags, whereas the accent is no problem for kids). 2) If a chess learning speed “ceiling” exists it’s much higher for kids. 3) Not many people have made significant rating gains in the past as an adult, with a few outliers. My main challenge to conventional wisdom on the chess front is that the main reason for lack of adult improvement is the tools on the market for improving quickly don’t exist yet. There’s a reason on perpetual chess podcast you hear the few power improvers sharing that they started with X tool, layered on Y workflow, added AI in the loop, and then built their own flashcard set to not forget what they learned. Optimal chess improvement for power improvers seems like a niche market... but I wonder how many casual improvers take it more seriously once the tools exist All speculation of course. Let’s see how it goes. Cheers, Geordie ChessFlow Founder and CEO