Best ways for improving “tactics”

Question

I have been playing chess for a long time, and I have been around 1850-1900 ELO for quite some time. I have always wondered which are the best ways to improve the tactics.

• Does playing more and more games improve chess tactics?
• Playing limited games but slow games?
• Practicing board positions with sites such as chesstempo?
• Analyzing others' and self games

Please feel free suggest any point that I have not covered.

Answer 1

All of the suggested can improve your tactics skills. Anything that makes you think hard about chess positions (particularly sharp and complex ones) will. I would add "perfecting the way you calculate variations", i.e. making sure that your calculation is as effective as possible. This was well described in some book, I think it was "Think like a grandmaster" by Kotov. Two points though:

1. Chess is not only tactics, the strategy, "feeling" for positions, is equally important. And one should always come with the other. In fact they make each other better.

2. Judging from your Elo, you are a hobby player. Getting better may need hard work which does not always agree with the word "hobby", so pick the method that you enjoy and keep in mind that everyone has limits.

Answer 2

At your level, you should be thinking in terms of combinations, or chains of moves. Beginners learn the basics, pins, forks and skewers, but you are a bit past that. Instead, you might be thinking in terms of preparatory moves that set up these tactics. That takes a bit more doing, but is a mark of advanced play.

Answer 3

In addition to the above answers I would recommend using Computer Chess Programs for improving tactics. While playing with humans you sometimes get a false high when an incomplete attack results in success (usually in the form of material gained). A decent computer program will rarely fall for immature tactics, thus providing a strong incentive to be thorough with your attack preparations.

Answer 4

Best trainer I've ever seen for tactics: CT-ART. Full stop. It's relatively cheap ($20US, give or take) and walks you through thousands of tactical positions, showing you all sorts of techniques, and relentlessly drilling you in them. I'm a Mac user, and I keep parallels around mainly for this program.

To start out with it, I'd put it in test mode for 15 positions or so. If you get lost trying to figure it out, step over to practice, or even theory for a while, but you'll get the max benefit from it with test, because then it just shows you the position, tells you who is to move, and the rest is up to you; no hints until you make mistakes.