How do you see tactics?

I'm fairly new to Chess (rated about 1400 on yahoo)

Practicing with tactics trainer has made me realize im loosing alot of opportunities to use winning tactics, probably because I'm not seeing them.

How would you suggest seeing more of these combinations?

Thanks

I would first suggest reading books to help get you familiar with basic tactics such as a fork, double attack, pin, skewer, deflection, etc. Then, you'll want to practice these till you know them very well. You should practice tactics a lot.

After you have the basics down, move on to books that help you recognize combinations; which are basically a bunch of tactics coupled with a sacrifice. Once you know the basics, it is simply a matter of spotting opportunities in your own games.

Books I would recommend: Winning Chess Tactics and Winning Chess Combinations by GM Yasser Seirawan.

Well for forks pins and skewers and stuff like that I found chessmaster grandmaster edtition to be useful.

I'm in the same boat you're in so I'm definately not an expert, but I can offer some insight.

1.  Spotting tactics: invariably involves spotting some weakness in your opponents position.  This is good because the beginning stages involve the same analysis you would do for a purely positional move.  In general, you should look for - a) overworked pieces b) unprotected pieces c) weak pawns d) all possible checks and captures.

2.  Combinations: are inevitably harder to see because they always involve some deep analysis.  In general, look for combinations only when your opponent has an exposed king and one or more unprotected pieces.  Usually the point of the sac is to weaken or expose the king further, so your calculation will involve whether or not you can exploit this.

Of course, the point of doing tactics problems isn't just to figure out the tactic, it's also to pound those patterns into your brain so that you'll eventually see them "automatically".  In that sense, your level of play in puzzles will always outstrip your play in actual games - in a puzzle you "know" there is a solution - in a game you have to look both for a tactical solution and ways to improve your position.

There's some useful tips here:

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