Questions tagged [tactics]
Questions relating to maneuvers that take advantage of short-term opportunities, such as forks, discovered attacks, skewers, etc.
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Is Bobby Fischer hanging a knight?
So I've been looking at the "Game of the Century" between Bobby Fischer and Donald Byrne. There's something I can't get over.
In move 18, that queen is tempting, but there's also a knight on c3 that ...
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Is there any resource where you can look up a board position and read a number of suggested moves?
Is there any resource where you could just plug in the positions of all the pieces on the board and, for example, see an annotated page where different people or computer-generated bots have analyzed ...
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How can white force a quick win here?
This is from a tactics puzzle I encountered today. The given solution was 1. Qxf6 gxf6 2. Bxf6#,” but to me 1... Ne6 seems to halt white in his tracks, even if it does give up a rook.
My moves as ...
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In this YouTube video, the author says that 10...f6 "leads to disaster"...Why?
Why is that at 10:44 of the video, 10...f6 leads to a disaster?
https://youtu.be/BrbChWI89ek
[FEN ""]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. O-O Nxe4 6. Re1 d5 7. Bxd5 Qxd5 8. Nc3 Qa5 9. ...
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Why did black resign in this game?
Watching this video, it seemed after the highlighted point in the video that black was doomed, but from my view it was just materiel? After the exchange, white would have taken a rook and the queen (...
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Chess.com's daily problem-Why doesn't 1...Nf8 win the Nh7?
Shouldn't 1...Nf8 win here too? Why not?
[FEN "r2qk2r/pp1nnp1N/4p1pQ/3pP3/4b1PP/P1B5/1PP1B3/R3KR2 b Qq - 0 1"]
1...Nf8??
user21611
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How do I understand White's +6 advantage here?
[White "White (to move)"]
[Black "Black"]
[FEN "rnq1kb1r/ppp3pp/4pn2/4N3/2QP4/2N2P2/PPP3PP/R1B1K2R w KQ - 0 13"]
In this position, White can still castle, but Black cannot (having moved the king ...
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How do GMs “play the man, not the board”?
How do GMs "play the man, not the board" as some books say? Would that work for club level players or could they use other methods? Prepared variations? Trash talk?
What are the ways one can ...
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How do you deal with you losing your concentration
How do you do deal, with losing your concentration during a chess match? Then making a bad blunder? I constantly lose concentration.
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Is my positional pawn sacrifice justified?
Today I have played a game and the following position was reached:
[fen "rn1qk2r/p4ppp/1p2bb2/1Q1pp3/8/3P2P1/PP2PPBP/RN2K1NR b - - 0 1"]
1... Nd7 2. Bxd5 a6 3. Qb3 Nc5 4. Bc6+ Ke7 5.Qa3 Rc8 6. Bg2 ...
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How are online tactic exercises ratings calculated?
There are several sites that give you a tactics rating changing while you solve or fail the exercises.
How do they calculate the problems rating?
Do they use engines to calculate the difficulty or ...
user18196
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Tactics in Firouzja's game round 3
In round 3, Firouzja and Artemiev played a very interesting Caro-Kann game, with white constantly trying to open up the position even at the cost of pawns, in order to exploit black's exposed king ...
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What is the advantage in knowing the fastest winning sequence if I can win with few more moves than fastest sequence?
I am studying from Lazlo Polgar's "Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games", there are positions with heavy material imbalance for example like a lone King against Queen, 2 Knights and King ...
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What is the most amazing chess position you have seen? [closed]
What is the most amazing chess position you have seen?
I have been wanting to ask this question for a while, but feared it would be closed. Since the "Uniquely Satisfying Puzzle" and "What is the ...
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Beginner Tactics - Why Isn't This Mate?
I was playing on chesstempo and came across the following setup:
[FEN "k1r4r/p6p/5p2/3Q4/1R5P/PPqn4/3N1P2/1K1R4 b - - 1 1"]
With black to move. I was unable to solve this tactic - it seemed to me ...
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"Chess is 90% tactics" - should a player focus more on tactics in order to improve?
The following quote has been attributed to many chess masters; "Chess is 90% tactics" - from Teichmann to Capablanca. It has also been said that 90% of the games are decided on tactics and tactics are ...
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ChessBase Tactics Database
I was sent a database of over 3000 mate-in-2 puzzles; however, most of them (almost 2200 of them) only have the first move provided as a solution. I am hoping that I will not have to go back and add ...
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What kind of checkmate pattern is this?
I played this game and was wondering, is this a checkmate pattern with a name?
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Is a piece hanging if it is defended by a higher value piece?
In this extreme examplethe c5 pawn is defended three times, though white can take the pawn with an advantage.
[FEN "2r1k3/2r5/2q5/2p5/8/8/PPR5/KN4B1 w - - 0 1"]
What about if the defender is a ...
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Which one is more important between endgame studies and tactics?
One strong player once told me that you can improve quickly if you focus more on endgame studies than on tactics training. His reasoning was that endgame studies use a few pieces to cover most of the ...
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Hanging square and deflection tactic leading to a back rank checkmate
[FEN "2r1r1k1/5ppp/8/8/Q7/8/5PPP/4R1K1 w - - 0 1"]
The important square of e8 square is hanging. It is hanging because if white can take that square it's checkmate. Is this a hanging square tactic?
...
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Can it be useful for a player block with a hanging piece in a back rank mate situation?
Could the following situation possibly exist?
It's White to play, and Black is about to get back rank mated. This is because the King's mobility is restricted to a single file. Then White gives a ...
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A question on psychology / strategy in Chess opening
Is it a good idea to play unusual openings (minus the d&e files), such as c4 played by Bobby Fischer in his “Game of the Century”, to confuse the opponent and stop them from playing their natural ...
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Novice - Capitalizing on players not knowing their openings?
I am a 1400-rated player currently working on my theory and understanding of openings.
I am good at learning lines, much more so than others at my rating. But I'm less sure on where/how to learn the ...
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Is it better to start without a queen or without any pawns?
I think that this question really can be answered rigorously with good analysis. It is opinion-based, but not completely since some results in this direction can be obtained, and strict and general ...
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Losing the queen and then winning the game
Many years ago, I was on a mountain with some people. I was very young then, between 15 and 17 years old, I think. Some older people came and one of them started to play chess with me.
I cannot ...
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The difference between Rad1 and Rfd1
I've always wondered, what are the main tactical and strategic differences between Rad1 and Rfd1 (or Rad8 and Rfd8 as black)? I know it's a subtlety, but my guess is there are some common principles ...
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Why did Black allow White to capture en passant two times in a row?
I read about this game on Tim Krabbe’s website and found it on chessgames.com. I am severely confused by Black’s 30th and 31st moves.
[Title "Sergey Gennadyevich Kudrin-Rudy C Douven, GMA ...
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Looping through the same lines while solving puzzles
When solving tactics sometimes I spend a lot of time (20-30 minutes) looking at the same line over and over again.
Sometimes I have a feeling that one particular line is the right one but my vision ...
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Pawn Sacrifice Justification
A few weeks ago, Magnus Carlsen (White) played against Anish Giri (Black), and this position was reached on the board on move 17 after black had played exf4:
Here is the full game:
[White "Magnus ...
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Why is it a mistake to trap this bishop?
In the below position, I played pawn from g7 to g5, trapping the white bishop. The computer didn't like that at all, and gives white a huge advantage. Instead, it wanted me to just simply develop my ...
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Difference in Tactics Ratings
I have a Chess.com tactics rating (default blitz setting where time to solve is instrumental in getting points) hovering around 1750 but for some reason I can't get beyond 1550 on the Chess Tempo's ...
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Bullet tips and tricks [closed]
Nowadays with speedy Internet and in order to play lots of opponents and to decrease the chance of cheating, people are opting for Bullet or blitz.
Generally I prefer to play Larsen opening or ...
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Why does white sacrifice their queen in this exercise?
I was doing this exercise on lichess, but I don't see why the best move for white is to sacrifice their queen in exchange for a knight (after Nh3+):
[title "lichess puzzle 61517"]
[fen "4r1k1/...
user18387
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Solvable studies that computers fail to crack
Are there chess studies that require an outside of the box thinking that goes beyond the concrete calculation capabilities of today's engines (e.g. Stockfish)?
I have sometimes seen certain endgames ...
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How good of a tactical player is Magnus? [closed]
Everyone knows the amazing positional ability and endgame ability of Magnus Carlsen, but how is his tactical skills. I have heard someone say tactics are not his specialty? is this accurate
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Examples of forced stalemate
The usual case one often sees specially in blitz play is when one side (usually the winning) mis-plays and then stalemate occurs with the losing side dodging a loss. But are there positions where ...
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Lichess puzzle 87510: How much calculation would a strong player do before playing Bg4+ when white has a range of (all losing) responses?
Lichess puzzle 87510 has this position.
[FEN "r1b1k3/pp4R1/2q3RQ/4p3/5P2/bP2P3/2P1K2P/8 b - - 0 1"]
The solution is 1...Bg4+,.after which White has 6 legal moves:
1...Bg4+ 2. Rxg4 Qxh6, ...
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Chuzhakin's System Hazardous Elements and Rules
A short time ago, I ran across some short texts and a short video about Chuzhakin's system to spot tactics and avoid blunders.
What little I've seen seems really to help me. And so I'm looking for ...
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Finding a mating net in a RRN vs RRN endgame
This question relates to a game I played on LiChess (link), from which we have the following position:
[FEN "8/2rn4/2pN2k1/r1Pp2p1/p2P4/3KPP2/R7/7R w - - 4 42"]
In this position with white to move, ...
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Why queen traps happen so frequently? [closed]
I am aware that in most chess games the king is the one to be checkmated. Yet when playing many online chess games I have found the queen is the the one being checkmated. Is this simply another ...
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Why is Carlsen being praised for his tie-break play, when Caruana made several game-losing moves?
I followed the three games live on chess24.es (for live commentary from GMs) and chess.com (for actual real time computer analysis).
As per my understanding:
Game 13 was mostly balanced until 19... ...
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Decent Playing Strength Chess Engine
I'd like to make a chess program to play decent strength chess (say around 2100 ELO). What are the factors in Eval & techniques in Search that one would consider to achieve that rating?
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Why should I sacrifice Bishop?
I had a game with a friend, I obviously lost, but now I don't understand why, while reviewing my game, the CPU suggest that at this point the best move is Bishop in b5.
If the Queen decides to take ...
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How to improve my game
I am doing tactics 30 minutes a day, practicing end games for about 90 minutes and analyzing 1 GM annotated game a day.
I can understand the logic behind why the move is played, but I can't apply it ...
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How to improve my calculation and guess my opponents move
I am a 1100 rated player.In rapid and blitz games I beated 1600 players this proves that my intution is good but at classical matches I can't even handle a 1300 player.I am a positional player as I ...
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What is the thought process of a GM playing bullet? [closed]
I have read other posts (e.g. this) with descriptions of the thought process when playing long time controls, but I'm wondering what kind of information a GM processes during games with very short ...
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How to be more aware of smothered mate opportunities?
I've been playing ChessAcademy's android app for a while when I'm bored: thought it could improve my chess to be solving their tactic challenges (not sure if it's working though..).
One pattern I ...
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From where to start learning new tactics?
I know the basics and some basic tactics in chess, but I want to learn new and advanced tactics. Can anybody tell me any source for that?
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Can someone explain why should white lose his queen in the following tactics?
This is my initial position:
I exchanged my pawn to get queen at this position:
Now to complete the tactics, the engine is accepting only this move which results in a stalemate
I would have ...
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