I recorded a few videos of myself solving tactical puzzles on lichess.org and I wanted to share my findings.
Here’s the one I published to YouTube, and there are two others within this article.
I’ll be using them as examples to support what you should do when solving any chess puzzle.
Let’s get started
Table of Contents
- Chess Tactics vs Positional Decisions
- Types of Tactical Motifs
- How to identify a tactic exists
- Look for forced moves (checks)
- Look for unprotected pieces
- Is there an in between move (Zwischenzug)
- Look for checkmate ideas
- Look for xray ideas
- Best resources for solving tactical puzzles
- Lichess (it’s free)
- Chess.com (puzzle rush)
- The Woodpecker Method
Chess Tactics vs Positional Decisions
In chess there are times to sacrifice a piece and win the game and there are times when you need to make a quiet move. This is the essential difference between chess tactics and chess positional play.
In his master class, Gary Kasparov said that “Tactics are knowing what to do when there is something to do and positional play is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do.” I think this sums it up perfectly.
It’s up to you to decide in your game if you needed to make one decision or another, but studying how to identify tactics can help out tremendously. You’ll start recognizing patterns and be able to see when you should do in certain situations.
This guide may help you understand better how to make positional decisions.
Types of Tactical Motifs
Knowing when to look for a tactic is difficult if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. Sometimes, if you know your goal you have in mind, it can help you find a tactic.
If you’re losing a game, for example, then you’ll play a little riskier and be more likely to sacrifice pieces; even if you’re unsure if it will work.
The fact that your mind starts to look for these resources can help you to think about a position in a more tactical manner.
Below are some of the main tactical motifs you should be looking for as identified by The Woodpecker Method.
- Threats – These types of tactics are your traditional tactics that you’ll want to look for in most games to gain an advantage.
- Shutting in – These occur when you have your back up against the wall and you need to sacrifice a piece in order to win. In this type of tactic, failing to identify this sacrifice means you miss your chance to win.
- The Magnet – This occurs when you utilize the sacrifice of a piece, usually a queen or rook, in order to pull the king towards your other pieces with a discovered check.
- Removing the Defender – Sometimes one piece is entirely preventing a tactic. Sacrificing a piece to remove this piece will allow you to conduct your tactic.
- Opening Files, Ranks, or Diagonals – Often, a piece would love to complete a tactic such as a pin or fork, but another piece is in the way. Clearing the path for this piece with quiet moves like a pawn push can help.
- Gain of Tempo – Attacking a major piece, like a queen, in order to clear the path towards mate. Your opponent will need to give up a major piece in order to prevent checkmate.
- Fork – Attacking two pieces at the same time, often with check.
- Discovered Attack – When a piece moves and the piece behind it delivers check to the opposing king.
- Pin – When a piece cannot move because it is
- Defensive Tactics – These tactics are often used as a last resort when things aren’t going your way and you need to turn the tables.
- Counter-Threat – When your opponent makes a threat against your pieces, but you’re able to ignore it and attack something else more valuable. These tactics can allow you to turn the table against your opponent and even the game.
- Lifeline – When you’re able to move out of a pin or attack safely when at first it seems unlikely.
- Stalemate – When you’re dead lost, but find a way to secure a draw through repetition or direct stalemate.
- Pawn Promotion – When you sacrifice a piece so that a pawn can promote in the endgame.
- Zugzwang – When you force your opponent to make a move they don’t want to make.
How to identify a tactic exists
There are a few ways to see when a tactic exists, and then analyzing how to solve it.
Here are two videos where I break down how I approached seeing two puzzles for the first time. I’ve detailed my thoughts in more depth in the rest of the article.
Here’s my approach to solving a 1900 puzzle
Here is an example of how I approached solving a 2263 puzzle
Look for forced moves (checks)
The first thing to consider is if a move is forced. In both puzzles I tried to solve, there were no immediate checks.
However when I got to this move in one of the puzzles, you can see that white’s threat comes to light by immediately identifying the rook can capture g6 with check after the queen moves for c7.
When you start looking at a position, you’ll want to start with the forced moves first. If no pieces can be capture right away, then identify the checks to see what threats there are and then seek to defend against those threats.
Look for unprotected pieces
The simplest of tactics occur when a piece is hanging. The first question you have to ask yourself is, “what happens if I take the free piece.”
Sometimes a free piece is “free” but you’re actually giving up more material or losing by checkmate.
Think a little bit further to see if there is a threat. In this instance, the threat is the rook coming to d6.
It’s tough to see beforehand, but now that the knight has moved, the rook can safely move to d6.
Now we need to think about what is being threatened. If my queen moves to the only safe square of c7, then there is a discovered check on g6 and my queen is hanging.
I will be down a queen for rook and knight, which isn’t by itself overwhelming, but in this position I would rather have white’s position. There is no development for black or initiative, so white should win with proper play.
Is there an in between move (Zwischenzug)
Often a tactic fails because of the in between move (Zwischenzug)
In this example, I was able to take the knight on f6, allowing my rook to move to h2. What I need to watch out for is if the queen can complete an inbetween move with check by Qxg3.
In this case, the answer is no because after the rook on f6 is captured, the queen on g3 now will be pinned to the king on g8 after Rg2.
Look for checkmate ideas
Often you can force a win by either winning a piece or forcing a checkmate.
In this puzzle, when my rook slides over to h2, I’m threatening the queen, but indirectly threatening checkmate when the queen moves out of the way. This means the black queen must sacrifice itself for the rook on h2 and thus you’ve solved the puzzle.
Look for x-ray ideas
Part of a tactic can include looking beyond the immediate threat with an X-ray.
In this case, I see the forcing moves Bxh3 and Qxf3 must occur.
After that, I noticed the rook sliding over to h3 attacks the queen and threatens a potential checkmate on h7. There are other moves that must occr first, but this is how I uncover the idea of how to solve the puzzle.
When you’ve solved the ideas, determine the proper order to the puzzle
In this puzzle, I determined the answer, but needed to find out whether or not I take the bishop first or the knight first.
If I take the knight first, there is no forcing move of gxf6. The black bishop would actually take the bishop on g2 first, and then my rook is still under attack on f6.
To see the answer for both puzzles, be sure to check out the videos that are only found on this website (the videos are unlisted).
Best resources for solving tactical puzzles
There are some great free resources out there as well as paid resources you can use to sharpen your tactics. Here are just a few.
Lichess (it’s free)
Lichess is hands down the best puzzle platform. Honestly, the only issue with it is that there are no thematic puzzle ideas.
When solving puzzles, it’s best to improve your skills with a theme (like mate in 1 or mate in 2, or even knight fork puzzles).
This allows you to get better at the theme and idea so you’re more likely to see it over the board.
What I like about Lichess is that the puzzles are pulled from real games in the lichess database. This means that they actually occurred in games and were not constructed just for the puzzle like many studies.
It also helps you to better see that a tactic can occur at any time in the game.
What I’d like to see from lichess are themes that allow you to solve endgame specific puzzles. If you want a feature like this, sign up for my beta for the Chess Trainer Hub that will include this feature in the second stage of release.
Chess.com (puzzle rush)
Puzzle rush is unique in that you have 3 minutes, or 5 minutes, to solve as many puzzles as possible. There is also a survival mode that allows you to take as long as you’d like to solve the puzzles. This allows you to climb the ladder at your own pace.
I like the survival aspect too because if you minimize the app, you can come back later. I haven’t had it crash on me and restart the puzzle, which is nice.
The only issue with chess.com is that it’s a freemium platform and to get the most out of it, you need to pay.
Even solving the regular tactics puzzles limits you to 5 a day while lichess is free for as many puzzles as you’d like to solve.
The Woodpecker Method
This is a book (also on chessable for $37.99) by GM Axel Smith and GM Hans Tikkanen that gives you hundreds of puzzles to solve.
The goal of the Woodpecker Method is to repeatedly solve the puzzles over and over.
You first run through all 200+ easy puzzles and check your solutions.
Then, knowing the answers, you run through it again and again. This helps impart a better vision of the board to identity certain tactical themes in your game.
I tried it by solving the first 200+ puzzles and ran through a second time. I haven’t since revisited the medium puzzle (I remember there being over 700) and I certainly haven’t tried the expert ones.
My experience was positive with it, but I haven’t completed the entire book myself.
Your Turn
Was there anything I missed that helps you identify a tactic? I’d love to hear about it!
Let me know if there are other chess puzzle trainers you like as well and I’d love to check them out.