1) Yes, I experienced similar effects when I studied (solved) hundreds of easy tactics with the solutions writing down in my paper notebook. The general idea is not to guess the moves (any moves!) nor click these on the digital board.
2) After solving approx. 1M puzzles at lichess (including repetitions) by Puzzle Storm + Puzzle Racers puzzles, I found out the tactical puzzles are close to infinite. I thought at some point I finally reach the mastery of basic tactical puzzles, but lichess database surprises me every month when they expand the puzzles increasing the number (now 5,5M puzzles).
3) At most games below 2200 lichess (rapid and blitz) whenever tactics decides then it is mostly 2-3 movers or a really nasty strategical blunder that leads to the collapse of the position.
4) Mastering basic tactics is especially useful if we play the fast time control games (blitz and bullet) or we get into a serious time trouble and we have extremally limited time to make a safe move or exploit the opponent's tactical mistake.
5) It is very important to learn tactics including the moves based on powerful threats , but not moves with checks or captures. They are pretty easy to miss, especially as we learn to search for CCT model and the "threat" is the most difficult one as it too broad and complex. Captures and checks and concrete ones and they can be listed very quickly while recognizing "threats" requires a different approach (at least to me).
6) In a practical chess (below a chess title threshold) it is important to focus on training the most common tactical ideas (themes) and every month trying to explore the depth of the specific theme and connect these with other ones. Some of the themes seem easy in theory, but they can be really difficult and tricky in practice. Let's say we can combine PIN with X-RAY and the intermediate move idea (intermezzo) - it gives the specific positions that drains tons of energy unless we studies such positions to the core.
Thanks a lot for writing down this article and sharing with the community Nick! I really enjoyed it and you express the ideas in a very clear manner with the links to the reasearch and studies: super valuable stuff!
Hey Thinkerteacher, thanks for reading and commenting. 1M+ puzzles is A LOT of puzzles. Impressed sir! I really liked your comment about seeing the threats. That has been my experience, that suddenly I am better able to see the threats in the position for my opponents. I'm more aware of my weaknesses, in all time controls but especially now the longer ones. I've always been vulnerable to playing shoddy defense or making speculative moves.
In regard to the training themes, Chess Tactics for Champions has been a great book for me. I think once I finish going through that one a few times I'll probably go to 1001 Puzzles for Club Players by Frank Erwich.
Another great article Doc. Please keep them coming because your writing is clear, concise and right on point for us "Adult Improvers". A bit of clarification if you do not mind.
Clarification - In the article you mentioned "easy mode" tactics, is this in reference to the "Difficulty Setting" in Lichess Puzzles? Thanks again Doc.
Hey Jeff, thanks for comment and the compliment. I really appreciate it. The "easy mode" was just the stand in idea for doing basic, simple tactics. But also yes, Lichess "Easy" level and unrated puzzles are an option. I've chosen books for my work, but absolutely Lichess puzzles would work for this. Just got to make sure you go slow, write down all the lines, and leave time to check your work to see what you miss
"I believe amateurs can greatly improve if they regularly practice basic tactical patterns."
Absolutely this!
Wanted to add my thoughts to this:
The discussion about how to train chess, how to train chess puzzles actually and so on is actually a "chess geek" discussion (no offense meant, as I consider myself on of them).
Yet most chess players are no "chess geeks", the simply want to get better at chess.
For most chess players what and how to train actually is not actually the core improvement bottleneck, rather sticking to some kind of training over a longer period of time.
I come to this from the coach side:
A lot of kids starting out with chess, sticking to it 2 years, then frustration wih the game sets in as improvement gets harder. Regular training not possible because of limited time and money.
The recomendation for kids to play and practice on lichess.org is only followed by the most enthuastic students.
That has led me to create a little project which I have been using with my own students (www.10puzzles.com). It makes daily tactics visible to the coach and other students, and adds some gamification so the daily habit actually sticks.
If you train actual students groups, this might be useful and help you to make train your students daily.
Then its up to you to apply easy or hard daily puzzles!
Funny, I end up doing about 10 puzzles a day... not a bad number! The site is impressive. No I do not personally train anyone but if I did I'd think about what you created. Very nice. Thanks!
I had seen an international master talking on a stream and she stated that to progress seriously, the minimum you have to do is 10 chess tactics per day.
And then I started thinking:
"Thats nice, but how do you do this with kids?"
And thats where the project started.
Also what I have discovered is that the 10 Puzzles per day are a fixed objective. Once you are done its very satisfactory because you have done your work and achieved you goal. Also it establishes a very clear defined "contract" between instructors and students.
This is my expectaction and instructors always should maintain the difficulty managable.
Frustration actually is very bad for motivation. Continuos feeling of progress is extremely satisfactory.
Wonderful write up here. The importance of simple, easy, quick tactics cannot be stressed enough. I am happy to see others are starting to try this out and see how useful it really is.
I see many people posting on socials with these high puzzle ratings. That is all wonderful but then when you go look at their rapid and blitz stats they are barely coming out of novice into intermediate levels. Why is that? HARD tactics are NOT coming up in your games. Simple easy ones are. That is all it is. Improvers really need to jump on this train of cranking through easy puzzles on a some sort of repetition so they can start to lay that base foundation for medium to hard level tactics and calculation. I highly recommend Checkmate Patterns Manual, The Polgar Tomb, Tactics Time 1 and 2 and Chess Tactics from Scratch for people to get started if they are struggling with the rating climb.
How do you feel the Chess Tactics for Champions compares to the Steps method tactics? Presently working through the steps method level 2 and have heard many mention this book mentioned as a favorite. Great article and improvement from the 30 day period. Advice taken well and will keep focusing on improving my floor.
If you're on Step 2 my opinion is that it would be better to finish the entire Step 2 level and complete Step 2 Thinking Ahead before getting in to Chess Tactics for Champions. GM Polgar does a great job collecting puzzles that fit the theme, but they are more advanced. Especially the Pawn Promotion ones. It's a fantastic resource, but stay the course for right now. Thanks for reading and commenting!
I don’t know which is better for practice (easy tactics or challenging) but I am a fan of harder or challenging. My reasoning is as follows:
1/ Chess tactics are like Russian dolls in that harder tactics problem will usually involve a few sidelines that are like easy tactics problems. Thus you are getting a more through and realistic practice.
2/ Harder tactics problems give you that sense of “oh every move could be the difference between winning and losing” and thus push you to concentrate higher, which is a valuable skill.
That said, I wish someone did randomized-controlled trials about this. Everybody has just pet theories and nothing is really tested with RCTs.
Hey Anlam, thanks for reading and commenting! I know Aaggard said the "best" training is the one you do consistently. So if you like more challenging puzzles that's awesome! For me the gap between what I can do while solving puzzles and what I can do while playing a game was too great to ignore. Doing the frequently "easier" puzzles with full focus, writing down all the lines I see, has helped me close that gap. I would love someone to do a RCT, that would help a lot. Until then personally I do believe anyone <1800-2000 FIDE probably would benefit from the repetition but not if it saps their enjoyment or love for the game. Good luck with your chess!
A few points worth discussion
1) Yes, I experienced similar effects when I studied (solved) hundreds of easy tactics with the solutions writing down in my paper notebook. The general idea is not to guess the moves (any moves!) nor click these on the digital board.
2) After solving approx. 1M puzzles at lichess (including repetitions) by Puzzle Storm + Puzzle Racers puzzles, I found out the tactical puzzles are close to infinite. I thought at some point I finally reach the mastery of basic tactical puzzles, but lichess database surprises me every month when they expand the puzzles increasing the number (now 5,5M puzzles).
3) At most games below 2200 lichess (rapid and blitz) whenever tactics decides then it is mostly 2-3 movers or a really nasty strategical blunder that leads to the collapse of the position.
4) Mastering basic tactics is especially useful if we play the fast time control games (blitz and bullet) or we get into a serious time trouble and we have extremally limited time to make a safe move or exploit the opponent's tactical mistake.
5) It is very important to learn tactics including the moves based on powerful threats , but not moves with checks or captures. They are pretty easy to miss, especially as we learn to search for CCT model and the "threat" is the most difficult one as it too broad and complex. Captures and checks and concrete ones and they can be listed very quickly while recognizing "threats" requires a different approach (at least to me).
6) In a practical chess (below a chess title threshold) it is important to focus on training the most common tactical ideas (themes) and every month trying to explore the depth of the specific theme and connect these with other ones. Some of the themes seem easy in theory, but they can be really difficult and tricky in practice. Let's say we can combine PIN with X-RAY and the intermediate move idea (intermezzo) - it gives the specific positions that drains tons of energy unless we studies such positions to the core.
Thanks a lot for writing down this article and sharing with the community Nick! I really enjoyed it and you express the ideas in a very clear manner with the links to the reasearch and studies: super valuable stuff!
Hey Thinkerteacher, thanks for reading and commenting. 1M+ puzzles is A LOT of puzzles. Impressed sir! I really liked your comment about seeing the threats. That has been my experience, that suddenly I am better able to see the threats in the position for my opponents. I'm more aware of my weaknesses, in all time controls but especially now the longer ones. I've always been vulnerable to playing shoddy defense or making speculative moves.
In regard to the training themes, Chess Tactics for Champions has been a great book for me. I think once I finish going through that one a few times I'll probably go to 1001 Puzzles for Club Players by Frank Erwich.
As Aiden says, here's to the journey!
Another great article Doc. Please keep them coming because your writing is clear, concise and right on point for us "Adult Improvers". A bit of clarification if you do not mind.
Clarification - In the article you mentioned "easy mode" tactics, is this in reference to the "Difficulty Setting" in Lichess Puzzles? Thanks again Doc.
Hey Jeff, thanks for comment and the compliment. I really appreciate it. The "easy mode" was just the stand in idea for doing basic, simple tactics. But also yes, Lichess "Easy" level and unrated puzzles are an option. I've chosen books for my work, but absolutely Lichess puzzles would work for this. Just got to make sure you go slow, write down all the lines, and leave time to check your work to see what you miss
This makes a lot of sense. I think Dina Belenkaya once said something similar: practice every day one move tactics, whatever your strength.
"I believe amateurs can greatly improve if they regularly practice basic tactical patterns."
Absolutely this!
Wanted to add my thoughts to this:
The discussion about how to train chess, how to train chess puzzles actually and so on is actually a "chess geek" discussion (no offense meant, as I consider myself on of them).
Yet most chess players are no "chess geeks", the simply want to get better at chess.
For most chess players what and how to train actually is not actually the core improvement bottleneck, rather sticking to some kind of training over a longer period of time.
I come to this from the coach side:
A lot of kids starting out with chess, sticking to it 2 years, then frustration wih the game sets in as improvement gets harder. Regular training not possible because of limited time and money.
The recomendation for kids to play and practice on lichess.org is only followed by the most enthuastic students.
That has led me to create a little project which I have been using with my own students (www.10puzzles.com). It makes daily tactics visible to the coach and other students, and adds some gamification so the daily habit actually sticks.
If you train actual students groups, this might be useful and help you to make train your students daily.
Then its up to you to apply easy or hard daily puzzles!
Funny, I end up doing about 10 puzzles a day... not a bad number! The site is impressive. No I do not personally train anyone but if I did I'd think about what you created. Very nice. Thanks!
I had seen an international master talking on a stream and she stated that to progress seriously, the minimum you have to do is 10 chess tactics per day.
And then I started thinking:
"Thats nice, but how do you do this with kids?"
And thats where the project started.
Also what I have discovered is that the 10 Puzzles per day are a fixed objective. Once you are done its very satisfactory because you have done your work and achieved you goal. Also it establishes a very clear defined "contract" between instructors and students.
This is my expectaction and instructors always should maintain the difficulty managable.
Frustration actually is very bad for motivation. Continuos feeling of progress is extremely satisfactory.
Wonderful write up here. The importance of simple, easy, quick tactics cannot be stressed enough. I am happy to see others are starting to try this out and see how useful it really is.
I see many people posting on socials with these high puzzle ratings. That is all wonderful but then when you go look at their rapid and blitz stats they are barely coming out of novice into intermediate levels. Why is that? HARD tactics are NOT coming up in your games. Simple easy ones are. That is all it is. Improvers really need to jump on this train of cranking through easy puzzles on a some sort of repetition so they can start to lay that base foundation for medium to hard level tactics and calculation. I highly recommend Checkmate Patterns Manual, The Polgar Tomb, Tactics Time 1 and 2 and Chess Tactics from Scratch for people to get started if they are struggling with the rating climb.
How do you feel the Chess Tactics for Champions compares to the Steps method tactics? Presently working through the steps method level 2 and have heard many mention this book mentioned as a favorite. Great article and improvement from the 30 day period. Advice taken well and will keep focusing on improving my floor.
If you're on Step 2 my opinion is that it would be better to finish the entire Step 2 level and complete Step 2 Thinking Ahead before getting in to Chess Tactics for Champions. GM Polgar does a great job collecting puzzles that fit the theme, but they are more advanced. Especially the Pawn Promotion ones. It's a fantastic resource, but stay the course for right now. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Perfect. Thank you
I don’t know which is better for practice (easy tactics or challenging) but I am a fan of harder or challenging. My reasoning is as follows:
1/ Chess tactics are like Russian dolls in that harder tactics problem will usually involve a few sidelines that are like easy tactics problems. Thus you are getting a more through and realistic practice.
2/ Harder tactics problems give you that sense of “oh every move could be the difference between winning and losing” and thus push you to concentrate higher, which is a valuable skill.
That said, I wish someone did randomized-controlled trials about this. Everybody has just pet theories and nothing is really tested with RCTs.
Hey Anlam, thanks for reading and commenting! I know Aaggard said the "best" training is the one you do consistently. So if you like more challenging puzzles that's awesome! For me the gap between what I can do while solving puzzles and what I can do while playing a game was too great to ignore. Doing the frequently "easier" puzzles with full focus, writing down all the lines I see, has helped me close that gap. I would love someone to do a RCT, that would help a lot. Until then personally I do believe anyone <1800-2000 FIDE probably would benefit from the repetition but not if it saps their enjoyment or love for the game. Good luck with your chess!