5 Lesser Known Ways to Use Tactics Trainers
How to make your tactic solving sessions more beneficial
The most common advice for the majority of chess players that are looking to improve is to “train tactics”. In the past this meant getting a tactic book and solving each position one-by-one. If you were new to tactics then hopefully the book was categorized by theme (forks, pins, skewers, etc.) so that you were able to focus on one tactical motif at a time. As a player progresses, then going through tactic books that were not separated by theme was the next step (since this mimics a game better). Nowadays in the internet age though, there are plenty of new resources that allow us to train tactics and the foremost of these is the “online tactic trainer”. There are some disadvantages of online tactic trainers compared to books but there are plenty of advantages as well. I’m not going to get into a debate between which one is better in this post here but instead, I’m going to be showing some of the lesser known ways to use online tactic trainers to help your chess improvement.
Before jumping into the list, it’s important to know that there are a variety of websites that have online tactic trainers. The most popular ones are chess.com and lichess.org but other websites such as chesstempo.com are also great as well. Each site has some differences between them and everyone is going to have their preference on which site they like to use best. With that being said, I’m going to focus on the lichess.org tactic trainer here.
#1: Focus on specific tactical motifs
One of the advantages of tactic books compared to online tactic trainers is that books are usually categorized by tactical motif whereas the most common way people use tactic trainers is to jump right into the "variety mode” (on lichess it’s called “healthy mix”).
This tactic mode is good for players who have a strong grasp of all the tactic themes (see first screenshot above) but in my opinion this mode is not ideal for players who still need to learn all of the tactic motifs first. Do you know how to take advantage of a pinned piece? How long does it take you to recognize that there is a hanging or undefended piece in the position? What square does a knight need to be on to fork a bishop on g7 and a rook on e3? (f5). And this also applies to more advanced motifs too.
These are things that you will learn best as you solve more and more tactics of a specific theme/motif. The downside of the “healthy mix” when you are learning is that you will get a random assortment of tactic themes during your solving session. You may get one pin, one fork, one skewer, one deflection, one interference, a second fork, one clearance, etc. Compare this to solving tactics within a specific theme. If you click on “pin” then all the puzzles you get will have the pin theme. A player who practices 100 forks, 100 pins and 100 skewers will understand these three specific themes much better than a player who practices 300 random tactics, even though both players are solving the same number of puzzles. It was Bruce Lee who said “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 tactical motifs once, but I fear the man who has practiced one tactical motif 10,000 times” (or something like that).
Summary: In the early stages of tactic improvement, solve puzzles by theme rather than using the variety/rated mode. Once you have a good grasp of all the tactical themes (having solved each of the themes many times) then move on into the “healthy mix” mode.
#2: Solve tactics that arise from specific openings
Do you know the most common tactical tricks, traps and patterns in your opening repertoire? A good understanding of any opening repertoire includes this knowledge and practice. Whether you have played a specific opening for a long time or if you are learning a new opening to add to your arsenal, it is important to have a familiarity with the types of tactics that occur in that opening. For example, I play the Benko Gambit a lot and need to be familiar with the common tactics in that opening.
The position above comes from the Benko Gambit 5. b6 variation. In this blitz game against a Grandmaster opponent, White just made a big blunder with playing 14. b3. I responded with 14…Rd6 immediately which skewers the queen to the rook on d1 and wins massive material. Of course I could have found this at the board on my own if I had never seen the idea before but I was familiar with this tactic pattern from previous study and training which made it much easier for me to recognize the possibility. (If you are interested in learning the Benko Gambit then my Chessable course “The Benko Blueprint” will help you out).
You can learn and practice the tactical patterns from your own openings by solving puzzles that arise from opening variations that you play. This is helpful whether you have played the same opening forever (I’m looking at you London System players) or if you’re learning a new opening for the first time.
#3: Solve tactics based on the phase of the game
Do you need to work on your openings, middlegame or endgame? No matter what phase of the game you feel you need to improve at, there’s a tactic category for that! This piece of advice is especially useful for players who are working on their endgames but does apply to the other phases of the game too. If you feel you need to work on your endgames then you may check out an endgame book, Chessable course or watch some YouTube/video courses. This will help you with the practical and theoretical parts of the endgame phase but it’s very important to remember that tactics can (and do) still occur many, many times in the endgame phase! If you are alert in the endgame then you can win a lot of games with tactic and calculation skills even if your theoretical and practical endgame skills are not the best.
Also, training pawn endgames is one of the BEST ways of improving your calculation. Pawn endgames are very clear cut. You’re either objectively winning, drawing or losing. There’s very little room for error and being competent at calculation in pawn endgames will serve you immensely during your chess career. You’ll be more confident and less scared of entering endgames if you have made this a part of your study and training. This is especially the case when you know what you’re doing and you’re playing an opponent who hasn’t studied (pawn) endgames. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had students who do know what they’re doing in pawn endgames completely outplay their opponents who seem to have no clue what is going on. Please practice pawn endgame calculation (the third option in the second column in the screenshot above). Please.
#4: Flip the board (defensive calculation)
Look at the two positions above. They are both “Black to move”. However, the first screenshot is looking at the position from black’s point of view and the second one is looking at the position from white’s POV. I would bet a lot of money that the second position is harder for players to solve due to this change in perspective. In the first position you’re trying to find YOUR best move while in the second position you’re trying to find YOUR OPPONENT’S best move. This is a skill that is VITAL to chess improvement: being able to find and anticipate the best moves for your opponent. Many students who come to me have a big gap in their calculation abilities in regards to this. They might have good tactic ability for themselves (spotting their own tactics well) but there is usually a pretty big blind spot in regards to coming up with their opponent’s best moves or solving tactics for their opponent.
Why does thinking about our opponent so much matter? This is because chess is a two-way game. You’re trying to beat your opponent the same way they’re trying to beat you. If you can anticipate what their best moves are and either prevent them (prophylaxis) or avoid them (not making a blunder ourselves) then that will give you an edge in the game. The tricky part about this is that training these skills is not very common in chess. In the large majority of situations, tactic trainers focus on having you find the best sequence of moves in order to win material or checkmate your opponent. This is great for offensive calculation but not so helpful for defensive calculation. One way to practice defensive calculation is to flip the board when you are solving tactics (as seen in the two screenshots above). This will help you to change your perspective and focus on looking for the best moves for your opponent rather than for yourself.
Another way to practice this is to back up the tactic trainer puzzle one move and then flip the board:
In the first position above it is Black to move. But before you solve the tactic, look at the second position and ask yourself: “If I play Rg4, does my opponent have a tactic?” This is a key question to ask ourselves during games that we play. IF I play (move xyz) THEN does my opponent have a good continuation (especially any good forcing moves)?” This is what a blunder check is. And when you incorporate this “back up and flip” process into solving tactics, you will already know that the recent move wasn’t good since it leads to a tactic. It’s up to you to figure out why that move isn’t good but from the other perspective. Here 1. Rg4?? is a bad move because it allows 1…Nxh3+ 2. Kh1 Qxg4 and Black wins material.
In normal tactic trainer puzzles this type of questioning is much less important because you already know that there is a tactic in the position. Many players just go with their gut and play the first good looking move without asking themselves what the opponent might play in response. If the move they play is correct then the computer spits out a move in response and the process repeats. Solving puzzles this way is not near as helpful because you are going one move at a time rather than trying to calculation a sequence of moves. In a real game, if you just guess and play a “good-looking” move but it doesn’t end up working then you may just lose the game on the spot if you’re not calculating ahead.
Finally, If you want to go even deeper and more advanced into the defensive calculation side of things, add this in: “If I know that Rg4 is bad, then what might be a better move instead?” or “What is the opponent threatening from the original position before Rg4?” It ends up that Black is already threatening 1…Nxh3+ at the start and the best move for White is 1. Kh1 to sidestep the pin on the g-file. You will need to use the computer engine to check your answer to these kinds of questions when you’re doing this on your own in the tactic trainer puzzles. Also, not every position will have one best move that should have been played instead. Sometimes there are a lot of better move options that wouldn’t have walked into a tactic but other times you will be in a lost position no matter what you play. If you feel a bit lazy and don’t want to do this manual work yourself then I created a Chessable course “Survive and Thrive: How to Blunder Less and Defense Better” that utilized this “back up and flip” method in all of the puzzles along with questions like “what is the threat?”, “is move xyz safe to play or is it a blunder?” and “what would be a better move instead?”
#5: Practice your conversion skills
Converting a winning position is one of the most difficult things to do in chess. It was the second world champion Emanuel Lasker who said “The hardest game to win is a won game” and this quote is so true. Getting an advantage during a game is one thing but turning that advantage into a win is never easy to do, especially against a very resilient opponent. Can you win a position where you’re ahead a queen? A rook? A piece? The exchange? One or more pawns? Many players win material in their games and then expect the game to win itself. They follow the plan of “trade pieces when you’re ahead” but nothing else. However, their opponent stays alert, fights with a lot of effort, makes the game tricky and many times the player who was ahead material with the advantage ends up playing lazily, making mistakes and then losing the game when they know they should have won. Practicing converting advantages is a very important thing to do in your tactic training sessions. How to do this?
Step 1: Figure out how big of an advantage you want to work on converting. I recommend that the lower your rating, the more you prioritize “crushing” advantages and the higher your rating the more you prioritize “advantage”.
Step 2: Solve the tactic (whether you use the back-up-and-flip method or not)
Step 3: Click on the “target” icon below the move list to the right of the board
Step 4: Play out the post-tactic position against the computer
I recommend that the smaller your advantage is then the lower-rated you should tune the computer to play against. If you’re only +1 at the end of the puzzle then you really don’t want to play against 3000+ rated Stockfish whereas if you’re +8 you should (hopefully) be able to beat Stockfish and Magnus Carlsen with that big of an advantage (still easier said than done!). The more that a player practices this advantage conversion in their training then the better they’ll be at it in their real games.
Hopefully this list of things will help you out in your own tactic training sessions! Let me know in the comments which of these methods you found the most helpful. Finally, if you enjoyed this post then feel free to subscribe to the blog below and share it with your friends :-)
Quite a strong list of training methods, thanks!
Came for the One Punch Man thumbnail, stayed for the great content. Nice posts!