How to become more tactically aware as a beginner?

I'm still pretty new to chess.  I've been playing for 1-2 years, but I have mostly been analyzing games and studying some positional concepts.  I've found, having returned to playing a lot, that my discipline in calculation and tactical awareness is shocking.  In the pro games, they are just aware of all potential tactics all the time, but I often fall to really simple tricks etc. and miss easy ways to get a serious advantage after an opening blunder.  My tactics tend to be really inconsistent.  Sometimes I will see a tactic and other times I just won't.

I've also found that I don't calculate nearly as much as I should.  Say I come up with some basic positional and strategic moves, I then just seem to calculate maybe 1 line and then just play it instead of really looking at what they're going to play (again, because I don't really know what I'm looking for).

I know that no one starts off calculating everything and being aware of all potential tactics, and I also know that no one who knows what they are doing would just play 'hope' chess.  I was just hoping someone could help me out with how to become more disciplined I guess.  I have John Nunn's chess puzzle book which is pretty advanced, and I can manage to get quite a few puzzles from 1-3, but in game everything just goes to poo for some reason.

Hmm. I suggest solving simpler puzzles (lets say out of the group you can get at least 80% right) untimed. Go for accuracy. Write down your solution and write how much material you will be ahead at the end of the calculation.

Do this every day for a month, and you'll build some good habits.

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During a game, immediately after your opponent's move, you need to calculate short sequences of forcing moves (checks, captures, and threats) to see if you have a tactic. You just have to discipline yourself to do this (although solving tactics for accuracy will help put you in that frame of mind).

Even at very high levels, although it's more rare, the strategic dialogue distracts players into not checking all the threats and captures available. Make the first 30 seconds after the opponent's move (or however much time you need) dedicated to calculating short sequences of forcing moves. No strategic thinking. Imagine the opponent made the move and asked "is this a mistake?" Try to punish the opponent's move and you can answer that question.

Only after you find no punishment can you start up the strategic dialogue again.

If it's a tactic, try to clearly define in your mind what your threat is. "My threat is to capture their knight, and when they recapture, the pawn it was defended is now defenseless"

Or maybe you put your rook on the same file as their king and queen. Now all you need to do is move your bishop out of the way and you'll win the queen. "My threat is to skewer the king and queen."

When calculating for the opponent's moves, assume they see the threat. Here are some basic ways they can deal with it:

- Retreat the piece that's attacked
- Add a defender to the square or piece that is attacked
- Capture an attacker
- Make a counter threat that's bigger (be sure to look for all the ways they can check you)
- Move a piece in between the line of attack

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If you're trying to build up a threat and need a few moves to do it

- If they can defend in 1 move what took you 3 moves to threaten, then it wastes time
- If they can immediately chase away your piece before you have a threat (like a pawn attacking a knight) then it wastes time.

In tactic puzzles for example, there is usually no build up. Every move is a threat. You just need to find the sequence of threats they can't deal with.

My problem with tactics is almost always defensive tactics.  Although my awareness of offensive tactics are lacking, it's the defensive tactics that I always seem to miss.  It's not always obvious either.  Examples from otb games would be that I have a pawn that's well defended, but I don't realize that after they trade a couple of pieces, then there will be some kind of tactic that I missed that will win them the pawn etc., or just missing some basic tactics regarding forks or intermediate checks etc.

Play a really aggressive opening and tactical awareness will come naturally. Kings gambit is a fine example. That worked for me.

What openings would you suggest?  I'm trying to play the modern benoni, kid and french as black, and I typically play e4 as white.

For defense, much like offense, first thing to do is calculate short forcing sequences. Pretend your opponent gets to move again, what's the worst thing they could do?

Just like with offensive tactics, you have to experiment with the move order to see if a different way wins something. This is how you find e.g. intermediate checks. You pause to look for an alternative move to the previous line you calculated.

Chesstempo Blitz mode is for you, highlights pattern recognition.

I think my problem is visualization.  I can't seem to hold positions in my head for analysis after calculating which causes me to make weird and unsound judgments.  Take my most recent game for example,

I assume everyone begins visualizing worse than that... I know I did.

It's great that you analyzed it like this. it will help you remember these  ideas in the future... that might sound dumb, but just knowing for example you can block the e file check with Be3 or Be2 will save you time and energy in future situations like this.

How did you learn to visualize better though?  Was there anything else besides playing and solving puzzles?  I can normally see pretty basic combinations, but it's finding combinations and ideas in a position a few moves away that just destroys me.

That  John Nunn's chess book is advance that even GMs will have hard time on majority of its problem. Get a tactic book suited for you. I suggest you get Chess Tactics for Champion by Polgar.

You will improve your visualization by solving different types of puzzles and playing games. With tactical pattern recognition that you aquired from playing games and solving puzzles, you can spot a tactic manny moves ahead.

Externally what I did was solve tactical puzzles. I would spend 30-40 minutes on a single problem before I gave up, and I wrote down my answers as I went. That way it was easier to explore variations because I could see what I'd calculated before (I would write down variations too).

Internally, because this was really hard, I had to find ways to make it easier. Later I found out I was using what Tisdall calls the stepping stone method in his book. When the position starts to become unclear, stop calculating, and basically memorize it. Go around the board and remind yourself where every piece is until you can see the position pretty clearly. Then when you try to advance beyond that position, if you lose track, you can go back to your memorized position and start again. You can repeat this process many times if you have the time and energy for it. This is a way to extend your calculation.

If you can only see 1 or 2 moves before it gets unclear, that's fine. Remind yourself of where the new pieces are. Make the piece's new position relevant in some way. For example a queen on e7, trace it's attack path with your eyes down the e file. Tell yourself it's covering the 7th rank. Tell yourself "now it protects the knight that was undefended" or "it's closer to protecting the black king." Things like that.

When a pawn has moved or captured, remind yourself which files have been opened or closed. This can be tricky. I actually include this when I review the whole board. I look at: pawn structure, the minor pieces, the rooks and queen, the king, and when I do pawn structure I also remind myself which files are opened and closed for each player.

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Anyway, I'm a big believer in you practice the skills you want to improve. There's no magic trick. To be better at visualization, do a little bit of it every day. You don't have to use tactical puzzles of course, you could for example play over games trying to use the notation as far as you can before moving the pieces. I liked puzzles because the solutions were concrete and it felt good when I found the solution.

If you don't like full games, maybe try an endgame book. Endgame positions are a lot easier to follow without using a board because there are so few pieces.

Just buy van perlo endgame tactics and play the notation on your head.i can now visualise 10+ moves on my head before moving a piece because of that book.There are certain novelty you have to invent or discover yourself in order to not to fall victims of visualisation. its easy peazy.

It's a common myth that GMs calculate much farther than we do but it's false. GMs simply have more experience and thus better intuition on the right moves to make.

When you read this "stuff" take it with a grain of salt.  Just throwing out a phrase like "I calculate 10 moves ahead" is incredibly misguided.  Your calculation will depend on 2 things:

Your ability

The position

Some positions will require 1 move, some more.  I know it sounds good to say that stuff, but its generally over exaggerated.

If you look at the best tacticians in the world, for example Magnus Carlsen , you will see that they have played lots and lots of longchess games.  Play a lot correspondence and longchess, and then you will have more time to see things and too calculate.  Of course tactics trainer helps too. You will see a lot of ideas.

If you dont find the tactic, its because you havnt looked long enough. If  you fail in a tactic, you havnt calculated all the necessary lines deep enough.

Yes gchess33, that is why Kotov talks in his books about how important is to calculate, tell me, can you calculate 20 moves deep just like him?

GM can calculate more than beginners would do, and while experience and intuition help sometimes most of the times they will think deeply before making their move.