Best resource for tactics training?

So whats the best way for me to train my tactics. I am willing to spend money, but only if it is WORTH it. I know there are free tactics trainers out there as well.

Some things I have looked at.

Chessimo

CT 4.0 at okchess.com

chesstempo.com (free website)

chess.emrald.net (free website)

and ofcourse chess.com membership, but since this is monthly it adds up

So any advice is appreciated. I have lazlo polgar's chess tactics book, which i work through but i like working on the computer more.

The truth is that it simply does not matter in the slightest what resource you use.

99.9% of your results will depend on your consistent focused effort.

.1% will depend on the source material.

So choose whichever one is easiest on your eyes and wrist.

Personally, I used chessimo about 10 minutes every single day for about 1.5 or 2 years.

I think both CT-ART and Chesstempo are good for improving and learning tactics.

On chess.emrald you get rated according to your speed!

Basicly: Use Chesstempo for learning and improving your tactics/calculation and chess.emrald to improve recoqnising tactical patterns.

Another thing: I like that emrald has a ranking by country. Makes the training to a competition :-)

Tactics trainer here on chess dot com is great! 

Can someone please tell me how to find "chessimo" and CT ART?  Are they websites or programs you have to buy?

They are programs you have to buy.

Google them you can either buy to download, or pay for the software hardcopy.

Thanks!  I have another question to pose - when I went to chess.emrald.net, I was told a password was required.  But I was not given an opportunity to acquire a password.  Does anyone know what's going on?

At the bottom left, there is a link to the register page.

http://chess.emrald.net/Register.php

Thanks very much!

You can consider looking at this software: Kebu Chess Tactics (http://kebuchess.com/)

For 19$ you get roughly 1000 tactic puzzles with many different themes and at different difficulty levels. The interface is very nice and using the program is actually very addictive, you get some stats every 7 puzzles and you always want to improve your last score.

The other thing that I like is that for each puzzle, you have 5 minutes, that's it that's all. Your points aren't going down if you take a bit more time to seize the position. If you do an incorrect move, you loose X points. If you use the right piece but still do an incorrect move, you loose a few points, but less than if you had taken the wrong piece. In the end you get a mark on 100 for each puzzle.

It's also good if you feel like you will need to use it offline, which was my case. You should try the demo. 

Enjoy,

Max

This is the most innovative, and it's completly free:

http://www.ideachess.com

That's not true at all. Steady work is obviously important, but good resources are almost as important as that.

I like CT-art 4.

You can work on your tactics by theme or by degre of difficulty. I like the fact that it gives hints before giving the answer when you don't find the correct move. I think it's worth the money.

Oh, and you don't need the CD to use the program, so you can buy it with friends to save some money

@philidor_position: it is not even necessary to do focused "tactics training" at all.  a person can become a tactical monster without ever touching ChessTempo or CT-Art or whatever.  (how do u think Geller and Tal did it?!)  for example, a person can train tactics in the context of analyzing master games, like Spielmann's Art of Sacrifice for example. 

any of the resources mentioned is quite adequate and sufficient.  IMO too many students of the game get hung up on or obsessed with selection of training materials, and suffer from "TMI" (too much information) as a result.

best wishes,

Patrick (2059 USCF as a self-taught adult learner)

I agree philidor there are alternate ways of learning tactics, however I wouldn't say that studying master games to learn tactics is a better alternative. I also understand that you didn't say it was "better". But, if I were to say one was better I would have to choose a tactic trainer.  My reason is that in tactic trainers you are usually presented with the most raw and basic form of a tactical idea or motif in which you are able to win material or checkmate. There is no question of the tactic that is presented, your either right or wrong and learning happens as soon as get it right or wrong. The repitition of the trainer ingrains the ideas in your head so that you begin to spot them in your real games. In master games many moves are made to avoid tactics by the opponent, and therefore unless you have a very firm grasp of tactical ideas and motifs by heart you would not know why they are making some of their moves and miss out on learning.  Also, unless you have a master level calculation skill and are able to calculate several moves ahead (I'm horrible at that), then some moves will not be understood.  I believe the more advanced student will gain more insight from studying master games. This is not to say a novice like me should never study them, but I believe I need a very firm grasp of my "times tables" (tactics) before I will maximize my understanding of master games.

chesstempo is easily the best free tactics trainer it is awesome

chesstempo is simply amazing!

Agree with @gobarr - to the extent that tactics training is equivalent to learning patterns, the best resource is the one which presents patterns at the highest consumable rate for that particular student.

So the problem with tactics trainers is that you can do 200 problems in one day but really learn only 2 or 3 patterns (because you suffer from "next problem" syndrome).

And the problem with going over master games is that you only see whatever is in that particular master game - plus if it's not pointed out directly to you then you might miss several patterns anyways.

this site is the answer

www.wtharvey.com