Pattern Recognition
What do you think are the most important concepts in chess? Tactics? Openings? Line Calculation? Pattern Recognition?
The most important are... well, I'll tell you later.
First, see how fast you can figure out mate in this position:
So... how long did it take you? Amazingly, it took the famous GM John Nunn just 2 seconds! Clearly analysis is not just line calculation. So what is it? It's
Pattern Recognition
Pattern recognition is recalling relevant tactical/checkmate themes and using them. It's obvious that the above position would be hard to process as a whole, so you can split it into several parts:
Mating with the Queen with a pawn on h2/h1:
Damiano's Mate/The Rook Decoy Sacrifice:
Taimanov's Knight Check:
The Knight Fork:
When calculating lines you need to be aware of the different combinations that can occur and consider their effect on the game. Maybe you didn't see a sacrifice and lost the game. Or maybe you just found a winning combination that you read about in a book.
But how do I improve my pattern recognition?
- Play games, analyze, learn, and play more
- Study different tactical/checkmate themes and practice them
- Try them out. Chess.com may have the theme in its puzzle section. Go to "Learning" and choose the theme. Laying out a position or finding some on the internet or in books work too.
Important Note:Pattern recognition is not everything. Calculating lines is just as important. Read this article by @Vik-Hansen for more info.