Tactical combinations are the weapons of chess. Tactical preparation is the most important training you can obtain to improve your game. Until you are a rated master, you should study tactics more than any other part of the game. Tactical ability is the most significant difference between the beginner and the advanced player. If you want to be a chess master you must be able to see the tactical possibilities on the chessboard at a glance. That is why we have to continually practice by getting books or going to on line chess sites, or getting DVDs or Cd's containing diagrams that show positions and ask you to find the tactics in the diagram. One of the earliest and best books along those lines is Reinfeld's "One Thousand And One Brilliant Checkmates." There are now of course hundreds of books available following along in these lines and many websites also that contain puzzles and problems that are very helpful. To find free ebooks containing thousands of examples of tactics go to the main menu of this site and click "Books."The idea of this section of this site is to present the ideas behind the tactics, showing what they are, how they arise and how to take advantage of them.
In tactical positions, one should always consider checks, captures, and threats, usually in that order. When can we consider a position to be tactical? This is a problem because when studying the diagrams we are always told that the position is pregnant with possibilities but in actual over the board play we never really know when to stop and think. Thus we give you a list of instances when your opponent is vulnerable to tactical attack:
1. Loose (unguarded) pieces - "Loose Pieces Drop Off."
2. Pieces that can easily be attacked by enemy pieces of less value.
3. One or more pieces than can be attacked via a "Discovered Attack."
4. Weak back rank.
5. "Pinned" or "Skewerable" pieces along the same rank, file, or diagonal.
6. Pieces or squares vulnerable to forks--especially Knight forks.
7. Overworked pieces.
8. Inadequately guarded pieces.
9. Falling way behind in development.
10. Pawns nearing promotion
11. King uncastled or having lost pawn protection with Queens on the board.
12. Open enemy lines for Rooks, Queens, and Bishops to King.
13. Pieces that have little mobility and might easily be trapped if attacked.
14. A large domination of one side's forces in one area of the board.
15. A Knight is able to check a King
Another thing to be aware of is that specific tactical position arise with certain openings. Being aware of what tactics will arise within the openings you are playing will keep you alert to the possibilities within that opening. For example we know that the Greek Gift Sacrifice arises with both the Colle System and the French Defense so when playing either opening we should be aware of this. But also be aware that this position does arise in other openings as well so when playing other openings don't discount the possibility of being able to play the Greek Gift Sacrifice.
FEN is a system of chess notation originally developed by David Forsythe, a Scottish newspaper man for recording positions. It was originally invented to save space in newspapers but we now use it to set up chess positions in computer programs. FEN is given with many of the diagrams in this website and also we provide FEN without diagrams in many instances. There is an on line computer that will convert FEN to a diagram and will enable you to play out the position. In addition a collection of FEN positions are provided. To go to this on line computer site click here. Using this on line computer with the FEN provided on this site and on their site is an excellent way to practice your chess and will greatly improve your ratings. If you need a FEN utility for your desktop I suggest you download Winboard. For more information about FEN click here.
Below is our list of tactics, these listings may be different than the conventional tactics listings because we are looking at them in terms of underlying ideas rather than convention. This is the largest and most complete list of chess tactics published anywhere! If you, the reader, have additional diagrams or ideas you would like to share with me and possibly have published here please email me at: click here.
Queening Tactics--Hook And Rook
Websites offering free tactical training.
Currently 23,803 tactical chess problems with a degree of difficulty ranging from trivial to ambitious are provided to be solved against the clock. Your tactical performance will be measured by the Glicko rating system.
This section features a tactics training Database in Chessbase format. Training course is made of 31 lessons, each featuring a different tactical theme. Each lesson consists of 4 difficulty levels, marked A, B, C, D, reaching from beginner(A) to master(D). The first lesson features the theme "Back rank weakness". Note that both English and German language are supported.
Chess training and instruction. They have an on site Flash training device that utilizes the diagrams from Fred Reinfeld's famous 1001 books. And you are now able to post PGN games and FEN positions!
Solve chess problem diagrams, analyze games scores with other players higher rated than you,
Study the games of the great masters and more.
http://chesstraining.sourceforge.net
Webmasters--Do you have a chess related website? Would you like to add a tactics section to your website? You may link this website to yours free of charge. Just use this URL:
http://frank124c.googlepages.com/practicaltactics