Chess tactics for beginners

Alright now I'm sure this has been asked quite a few times but I'll ask it again and maybe we can get some fresh ideas here. 

Alright beginners are told to study tactics.  Others have stated that Chess is 99% tactics,while I don't totally agree with that, based on the little bit of knowledge about this game that I do have.  I do get the point and the point is quite frankly: ...TACTICS,TACTICS and even more Tactics,study,solve etc. 

I have done a number of tactics on another site,I try to set the thing to my rating or well what I think my rating is and I think I do pretty good.  I do get the occassional problem wrong though but who doesn't right.  Dan Heisman has told us that the easy problems are more beneficial then the harder problems,so taking the "easy way out" is actually a good thing here lol.  

Any way the problem comes in for me during over the board play,it's like .............it's like I go blind as a bat.  I never see anything,now that's not totally true because I do see a few things meh but alot of times though,you just can't "do" a tactic because it simply won't work.  

For example,you can see a knight fork against your opponent's King and Queen but if the forking square is guarded,then you just can't do it.  I'm just using that as an example but I'm curious if there are any ideas,thoughts and opinions on this.  

I understand patterns and all of that,I'm saying how can we better incorporate some of these tactics that we solve in books and other media,how can we incorporate these into our games more.   

Please be respectful as I'm just asking for the thoughts and opinions of others on the subject,perhaps others who are struggling with the same issue.   Thanks in advance

(As the topic says,...Chess tactics for beginners  ) 


P.S ...I apologize if this question has been asked 1001 times before lol..... 

I was taught by an extremely good player. He has played and beaten (and yes, lost to) a few extremely famous chess players, who's names I respectlessly and shamefully have forgotten, (though I CAN say what games and where, and they can be looked up). When we started playing, I knew nothing beyond "get control of as much of the middle of the board as you can in the open for the best chance of a win." 

He decided to teach me opens first. And he said these things, which have helped me a lot:

1. If your your black, castle king side asap. You can 4 moves. move 5, move your rook to the kings old position, if possible. Then startegically defend from there out. 

3. The game is about the balance and manipulation of 3 things: space (the board), material (your army), and time (Tempo)

2. "Tempo" is critical. Tempo refers to (as far as I could understand it) the idea of being "one move ahead of the opponent" all the time. Specifically, by way of example, I have moved a piece into a place that forces you to move, (because of a checkmate (or potential), or threat of loss of material or position). I now have "tempo", meaning I have you marching to MY command. If I put you in a situation that takes you two moves to get out of, and one that may cost you material or space, it GIVES me two moves to set up for the next punch, which should buy me time to set up the next attack, and so on. 

9. White starts off with tempo, black must find a way to take over tempo if possible. My friend use to say "I just set up and defend (if black) and wait till white over extends itself, then take tempo and run from there" (paraphrasing -horribly).

4. Black is about balance. Its about evening the odds. Black is happy to trade queens, making a checkmate by white harder, while white abhores the loss of its biggest gun. 

9. White is about attack. Its about taking early advantage of tempo lead, and never giving black a chance to breath. White does not want balance, white wants blacks bitter defeat. White will not trade queens, perfering to use it to wipe black off the face of the world. 

13. Do not bother throwing your queen out in the begining of the game, instead, give yourself the best chance of a successful middle game, by getting all or as many of your important pieces "into play" as possible. Castle, then open lanes for the bishops and knights, fire up the rooks. When you have everything ready to fire, take aim, and pull the trigger. 

He told me a lot more, but I was not the best student. I didn't write anything down. We just played a lot, which I owe a lot of thanks to him for, as I know it was probably torturous for him to do so. He must have felt like he was playing against a monkey pushing pieces around with a stick. I was not good. I was very slow, and trying to remember everything, and I remember we had to even take a break for a couple weeks, because he got mad at me for making the exact same mistakes as repeatedly as necessary to illistrate that I wasn't not learning. Frankly I just got burned out. We played for hours literally every day for about 8 months. He moved unfortunatly, and we never got the chance to play again, which sucked, because he left me to have to figure out end game and middle game on my own. But after he left, and I continued to play on line, I have found that more of what he said stuck than what I thought. I guess the dust had to settle in my brain after shoving all this info into it, going from NO chess expirience to playing with a near master everyday, because I have learned a lot that was extrememly helpful, (what I wrote up there) and I really wish he was still around. Hope this helps you as much as it helped me. 

I appreciate your response thekingofshame, most of those things that you mentioned I already know and they have more to do with overall Chess strategy (which includes positional play) and less about tactics,like forks,pins,discovered attacks etc.   

Not getting your queen out early in the opening and castle etc.these are all positional aspects which will no doubt effect the tactics that come up in the game in a negative or positive way. (Depending on how well you developed your pieces etc.)

Yeah I wish I had a grandmaster to teach me or your friend,who seems like he was a really good player.  I had one person to teach me and that was myself and I was like you once upon a time,I had no idea of what to do in a Chess game outside of "develop your pieces to the center" and I didn't even know what the center was lol.  

I thought it was the 2 middle ranks (rows going horizontally),4 and 5,respectively and while that's not totally incorrect,it's not exactly correct either,the center that they are talking about is just the 4 squares in the center of the board, d4,e4,d5 and e5. (that's algebraic notation).  In any case thanks for the response and maybe we can play a game some time and help each other out...........take care 

In your example of seeing a forking possibility but the square being guarded, did you then look for the tactic of "remove the defender"? It might require a sacrfice to remove the guard. Some tactics have interplay with each other, a combination of multiple tactics in a row to make it all work out. This idea of different tactics working together was a revelation to me and once I figured that out I began to see and use tactics in my games more often.

The point Dan Heisman tries to make is that you want to do basic tactics over and over again so you can ingrain the pattern in your brain.  The reason you are not recognizing the tactics in your games is because you haven't gotten used to seeing the tactical patterns.  The key is to just keep doing them over and over.  tactics trainer is great but there are other options.  One good option is to buy a book of tactical puzzles where each group of puzzles is separated by their pattern, i.e forks, skewers, double attack etc.  One great book is Susan Polgar's Chess Tactics for Champions.  There's 50 puzzles on each pattern.  Do one pattern a day.  Take a few minutes on each puzzle.  If you can't figure it out then look at the answer and review it a few times then go on to the next.  Once you have gone through the book, pick it up and do it again and try to do it faster this time.  Do it again, and again, and again.  By the time you do this book 3 or 4 times you will start recognizing the pattern immediatly.  I can assure you if you do this your tactical vision will improve dramatically and you will start to see these patterns in your games.

to oxoxvc-

hello little troll!

I have been playing since only 2012. My score sits in the 600-800's ALL THE TIME. It's a sign that I am less interested in winning than I am in learning. I learn by trying different opening out, and practicing them until I get them right. I lose a LOT, because the outcome isn't as important as seeing WHY the outcome will be a loss. You coming and nitpicking a name is retarded. You just got online or something? trying out your AOL online disc on your 56k modem? You didn't know that a lot of names look weird? You didn't know that a lot of people make up names for reasons that you don't understand, because you don't know them, or weren't there for the inside joke when they made them? It's just a name, captain peehole (aka, oxoxvc). It doesn't mean anything. You can beat up on anyone's name if you try hard enough. Here, watch this: "xoxo-whaever... what, were you drunk when you came up with that, or did you just let your cat walk across the keyboard to pick your name?" A name is just a name. It isn't a declaration or a challange. You beating on it shows insecurity by the way. You need attention so bad that your willing to start a troll fight with random people you'll never meet, because the it doesn't matter if the attention is good or bad, you just need it. Sorry about your dad not being around, and your mom not caring about you, but yelling at people you don't know is just you puffing up like a big boy with big boy pants and peacocking around a chess board doesn't mean anything other than you were a neglected child. You'll only be able to fool other little neglected kids. To the rest of us you look like an spoiled foot stompingtantrum throwing cry baby that no one cares about. 

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.  This is the best post I've ever seen.  (whisper)  He actually made fun of the guy by ripping on his 56k modem!!!! lololololol

A troll who's constantly ignored will always go away after time. #ProvenMethods

Concerning the actual conversation:

I am so not good at chess and underaducated that I didn't catch on that when you said tactics, you meant more advanced move combinations for middle and end game, not just basic and general knowledge. So sorry about the pre-school lesson. 

Like I said, My friend moved and we never talked much about middle and end game. Befor he left he said that he thought he screwed up because he felt it would have been better to teach me end game first, something I didn't agree with, but since I know near nothing about chess comparitivly, I suppose I should take his word for it.

The last few games we played, he refused to play with his queen on the board, because he was kind of frustrated with the time it was taking for me to absorb all the info he was giving me. He said he wouldn't play me with his queen again until I could beat him while he played without it. (which was pretty embarressing) - more embarrassing was that I still couldn't beat him, and he moved so now I'll never get the chance to try and get him to prove I can do it. (I think I could now, its been a year, and I practiced a lot- but now I;ll never know)

On the point of your initial question about tactics, everyone (other than me and our little troll friend, oxoxwhatever), has been very helpful to ME. I was looking at other peoples answers and they made me realize that maybe I should be studying tactics, just like you are trying to do, so thanks (Chess_Genius_1) for bringing it up, and thanks to everyone (other than our little troll friend) for answering. It helped me too!

Matt,your advice is very pratically and sound and I have read that time and time again and tactics do indeed work during our Chess games,another problem (for me personally) is that I am not noticing them,aka not looking hard enough.  

I played a few games yesterday and I'm about to play some after I finish this message here,slower games generally work better for lower rated players because we get to take our time and thus see things that we normally wouldn't see in a blitz game.

Windmill64,you're right,that is a tactic in and of itself and one that I am starting to see more and more in my games,so that's pretty cool and this is kind of a footnote to what Matt was saying.   I am starting to notice the pattern of that. .....Generally when two of my pieces is attacking two of your pieces,and one of your pieces is guarding the piece that one of my piece is attacking,if that made any sense.  I hope so lol as I almost confused myself there for a second lol 

Yeah that guy is just a troll and an IDIOT to the max,I'm not even going to waste my time ripping him a new one so to speak,honestly he's not worth all of that, Windmill,you're right,ignoring him is the best way to approach things. 

King of Shame you have nothing to be sorry about,you was just trying to give me advice that's all,there is nothing wrong with that.  I'm not so strict as to say,oh I want to learn about just what the post asked and stuffs,you were giving your input and I appreciated that.  

I didn't really mean tactics in any specific part of the game,just tactics in general,which happens at all phases of the game.

I don't agree with your friend/mentor getting frustrated with you every time you didn't understand something,that is the WRONG way to teach somebody.   I had a driving instructor who was like that,he would suck his teeth and just generally get upset every time he felt I did something wrong,so I dropped him,I stopped going back (it was a pay as you go type of thing,at least for me it was).  

I think that was the best thing I could have done,because later on I found another school and teacher and he and I had great chemistry and long story short, I now have my driver's license!  

I can teach you a few things maybe,we should play a game and see how it goes,maybe we can discuss the game afterwards.  Shoot me a request if you're interested and we'll take it from there. 

He was a great chess player, and I didn't mind the yelling (he was always right), because he didn't mind teaching me what he could, even if he was yelling all the time. 

And yeah, I'd be happy to play a few games and see what we can learn. If you ever see me on, let me know, I'll do likewise, and maybe we can figure out a good time.

#1 Play longer time controls. It is VERY VERY difficult to get over these types of issues at blitz or bullet speeds.

#2 Stop playing blitz and bullet so much. There just is not enough time for you to train your eye.

(It is not a coincidence that these 2 sound like the same thing.)

Really, playing good chess is like learning to play a musical instrument properly; slow at first, then faster. It is VERY easy to overlook tactics at fast time controls. You can look at blitz/bullet games played by high rated players that, when analyzed later, are full of overlooked tactics that much lower rated players can recognize.

And, this part I think you figured out already, don't listen to small minded morons like oxoxvc. He is full of himself as well as a brown squishy stinky substance.

Possibly related to this topic, does anyone know of any good books with simple 1-2 move tactics and mate in 1-2's aimed at beginner players?

Not sure about books. But, if you go to ChessTempo.com, you can set the puzzles to Easy and you will get these types of problems.

Oh I didn't know that, thank you! How would you change the settings to do that (Can PM me as to not distract from this topic)?

You have to create an account first then click Prefrences in the top right-hand corner. Not sure if you have to buy a subscription for this setting or not. I think not though.

It seems to work for me.