There are free chess tactics website, and I have used them sparingly in the past, but decided. for me anyway, that they’re of limited use. I did get faster at spotting the types of tactics I was already aware of, but didn’t really get any better at recognizing more subtle tactics.
→ Of course, “subtle” depends a lot on the skill level of the individual spotting the tactic.
Just curious if anybody else feels the same way? Just presenting a timed tactic (usually about 7 seconds if I remember correctly) doesn’t really explain how to find a tactic, and doesn’t give a person enough time to digest the position to find a tactic they might not be aware of.
Yes, I’m aware that the tactics websites have to time the problems in order to be able to rank players. With unlimited times, anybody could plug the problem into a chess engine and have it spit out the best line.
I actually like Chessok.com’s tactical problems. Your not ranked, but the problems are untimed, giving you ample time to digest the position. Cheating isn’t a problem, since your not ranked, and you’re just shooting yourself in the foot if you use a chess engine.
I strongly prefer the timed versions. There are two parts to tactics: Calculation and pattern recognition. Both are important, but calculation can be trained by playing slow games. Pattern recognition, I think, is best improved when you are forced to rely on your instincts and not your calculation skills.
Excellent point, KyleMayhugh. Calculation and pattern recognition are indeed distinguishable skills, with distinct areas of cortex activation and neuronal firing patterns as revealed by fMRI (or so I’m told). I like Chess Tempo because it provides both timed and untimed, with separate ratings for each.
I do timed tactics problems more or less daily on chess.com, and you have to be a paid member to use that part of the site. Doing them has definitely helped my game. When I started studying chess, I was tactically blind. It’s one thing to understand a pin, fork or skewer, it’s another thing to be able to see a tactic two or more moves ahead in a position, or to even begin to know where on the board to look for it. To an extent, it has trained me how to look at a position.
I found the timed aspect of the problems incredibly frustrating at first; I could literally solve a problem correctly and still lose points because I did it too slowly. That rarely happens now. Doing problems quickly pushes me through a lot of them, and I review the correct answer on every single one I get wrong, so I am learning from my mistakes.
The down side to the timing is it promotes a “blitz” mentality. I’ve gotten in the habit of going so quickly (and missing things) that I’m considering turning off the timer and aiming to do 10 in a row correctly in my usual problem rating range.
The other thing I got from tactics trainer is the ability to spot certain mating patterns quickly. I swear by now I’ve done 200 “smothered-mate-with-knight” problems. I rarely miss those now.
And, doing problems on the computer is way more fun than doing them in a book and having to flip to the back to check the solution.
I also enjoy doing chess problems, so that’s a plus.
What are the problems like on chess.com? Mostly mate problems, or lots of problems to win material?
I’ve been using chesstempo.com, but I think there are too many mating problems, and not enough to spot opportunities to win material. In actual games, material wins are much more common that tactical mates, so I’d prefer if 75% or more of the puzzles I do were material wins, rather than being mostly mating patterns.
Try that site. Most of the problems are to win material. Caveate is that the problems are timed.
As been pointed out: timed problems is great for pattern recognition. But not so good when trying to learn new patterns.
I guess the best way to use timed tactical websites is to first learn the correct pattern first. There’s a slew of programs out there (and I need to get one), that are designed to teach a wide variety of tactical patterns and mating patterns.
At least for me, since everybody learns a bit differently, learning how to recognize a pattern, then do some similar patterns on a timed basis would help me the most.
Can anybody recommend a particular program that does that? I was thinking CT-ART 4.0 might do that, since it has literally thousands of tactical problems. If anybody is familiar with that program, let me know.
Thanks in advance.
I prefer computerized lessons nowadays. I know from experiance that going through a book in its entirety will give excellent results, and in some cases the learning is as good as having a chess coach.
BUT, computerized lessons have several advantages.
There are 3 main ways to get computerized lessons.
DVD (ok, you play it on your television also.)
–Its ok, usually chunked out in 20min videos, total length of DVD varies, but most seem to be about 3 to 6 hours. Minimal interaction.
Fritz Trainer style. Sorta a combination of DVD video and semi interactive chess program. May or may not have practice positions. Its a very good step up from a DVD.
Totally interactive. Usually doesn’t have any video, but has many chess problems for the user to solve. Depending on the software, may have a few hundred, to thousands of practice problems. CT-ART is an example. Often focuses on teaching pattern recognition in the opening and middlegame. (Haven’t used any for endgame training, so can’t comment.)
Books are much slower to go through, but I think it engages the brain in a different way than computerized lessons. Its less engaging than computerized lessons, but I tend to focus more on the lesson, so in a way I get more out of less. But like I said, with computerized lessions (especially the interactive ones), it makes up for the difference by allowing repetition in having the using solve similar problems.
A book might have a dozen similar problems for the reader to mull through, while a computer lesson could have you solve dozens and even hundreds of similar problems in a more engaging way.
So both are good. Just in different ways:
I think books and computerized lessons engage the brain in fundamentally different ways. Book lessons are more apt to go straight into long term memory, where as computer lessons are more apt have to do it by repetition to achieve the same effect.
