How to study tactics the right way?

Hi, I have the following problem. I'm playing chess for a while now and I really having trouble solving tactical puzzles. I don't know how to approach a certain chess problem. 

What I do most of the time is looking at some random moves and try to find something. Sometimes I find the right moves but it takes "ages".

Even if I'm able to solve the problem I always having trouble in OTB games to spot the tactics. 

Also it's like I can't apply what I've learnt in the exercises. The only tactical trick I encounter a lot is the smothered mate with the queen sacrifice followed by mate with the knight. I was able to win games or at least an exchange with that tactic.

But I don't see many other patterns in my games (ok because I'm a patzer) I always struggle to apply the knowledge to my games.

Do you have any advice for me? How can I study tactics in a structured way? Any books? 

Right now solving tactical exercises is really frustrating.

Thx in advance!

A good tactic book for you is World's Champion Guide to Chess by Polgar. Aside from checkmates, you should also solve tactics that win material. For pattern recognition, you solve easy problems. For calculation improvement, you solve harder problems. If after maybe 20 minutes of trying and you can't find the answer look at the solution. You can mix up of instead at looking at the solution, try solving again the problem later or the next day.

Thx for the advice. My question is how do I spot a tactic. Let's say somebody put me in front of a for me unknown position. How do I spot tactics/combinations? One advice I got was that I should always look for undefended pieces because they are the basis of some common tactical ideas. 

Are there any similiar tips? What is the thinking process?

 

Another question I have is: Do you look for tactics first and then only if you can't mate or win anything you use your strategic knowledge? Is that the approach someone should take when thinking about a position?

As a retired teacher, high school chess coach, and player of so-so ability, I decided to work on tactics this year and developed a loose curriculum for it.

The key, it seems to me from reading and listening to the masters, is to recognize tactics patterns. Dan Heisman, in Back to Basics: Tactics, notes that in a chess puzzle you are looking for a winning move but in a chess game you are looking for the best move and don't know if a tactic is available. The better you can see the patterns the better you can detect if one is available.

As a teacher, I know that your brain often needs a "hook" on which to hang information so you can more quickly learn and more quickly recall it.

So the first thing to do is to go to interactive pages like these two and memorize the NAME of each tactic, the PATTERN involved, and the general moves involved:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics--definitions-and-examples

https://chesstempo.com/tactical-motifs.html

Also, positions related to strategy should be learned as well since they are often the key to choosing the right tactic or moves leading to them:

https://chesstempo.com/positional-motifs.html

After that, working tactics problems every day is important even if it's just a couple of them on some days because that stimulates the parts of your brain involved in problem solving. I do so every day either at chess.com or chesstempo.com.

The next thing is how you approach each problem. I like Dan Heisman's book Back to Basics: Tactics because he spends some time going over the mental processes involved including why we miss obvious moves.  The basic thing is to first look for those patterns then look at all the moves of the pieces. Pick out what you consider to be the most promising moves and analyze them thoroughly so you don't have to come back and look at them again later, wasting time.

Thx for the advice and book recommendations! I think I'll buy that Neistadt book

My line of thinking is;
1) whether opponent can mate me?
2) whether I'll lose any piece?
3) whether I can mate?
4) whether I can win piece?
5) whether my position could be improved?

 

I don't follow a thinking process when spotting tactics. I believe as you get better at your pattern recogntion,  you will spot tactics naturally(kinda like intuition). It will come naturally for you at what moves to look at. You can improve your tactics pattern recogntion by solving easy chess tactics problems everyday. But you can'y rely on pattern recognition alone, you need to improve your calculating abiliy. Solving harder problems will improve your calculating ability. Even if you can't find the answer, you are improving your calculating ability.

 

Some tips:

Always look at the whole board to see piece positioning.

Before you make a move, check if there is a tactical drawback.

Always study your opponent's last move.

 

Because you are a beginner, you should solve problems by theme. It means there is a description like if it is mate in 2 or a fork. World's Champion Guide to Chess by Polgar has tactics arranged in themes.

Keep it simple:

Create/Find a target.

Train as many pieces as possible on that target.

Look for Forcing Moves: Checks, Captures, Threats.

IM Pruess says to take 3-5 minutes, and if you haven't solved it by then, no shame looking up the answer.  

For what level player solving what level puzzles? It will work for 1000 rated playing solving 1000 rated puzzle.  It doesnt work for people solving the puzzles's rate higher than their level. For me it will take around 1-2 mins  to solve around 2000 rated puzzles but when the puzzle become harder like 2500+, I usually have take more than 4-5 mins and I sometimes take more than 15 mins to solve it. 

You can come up with a very sophisticated stepwise algorithm to try to spot tactics (I have tried). However, it won't be a miracle finder... your ability to see tactics are limited by your exposure and assimilation of such patterns. That is why you can give an 1100 level player a very detailed method of looking for tactics and it get them to 1150, because it would only help avoid very crude blunders or take advantage of an opponent's crude blunders, such as hanging their king or a piece to a 1-2 move sequence (tactics they should have seen anyway and could easily solve in a tactics trainer rather than OTB game environment), but it won't help in terms of good play or getting a feel for the position.

 

You're right.  IM Pruess was probably presupposing that a player would be working on puzzles appropriate to his chess development or rating range.

My coach told me that after 2-3 minutes, if you cant solve a tactic, set it up on a real board with real pieces.  It does make quite a diffeence in what, and how you see the postion.  

Here is a suggestion.

i do serious tactics training, as I was told me it would help me the most. However, it never did, until a friend gave me m first chess book, "Chess tactics for the tournament player" by GM Lev Alburt.

although I had already learned most of the material, the discussion of tactical motifs and common patterns have helped me to look for certain things in a position, and I can safely say that my average tactical play has gone up several hundred rating points, and is still on the up-climb. Just a suggestion, get that book and study it HARD (several hours a day)

also, when you do it, try to do all the puzzles and combinations in your head, it will help your calculation and visualization skills as well

On this site, the tactics trainer generally involves attacking the King somehow (at least at my level) sometimes, it's about gaining material or even just castling

The method I've always enjoyed most is "guessing the move" when watching games of top players. It's a great training tool which keeps you on your toes.

I had the same problem when I first started solving Chess tactics,.  The reason why you're probably having trouble solving the puzzles is because you probably don't know many tactical patterns as of yet. So for starters you should get yourself a decent book on Chess tactics,a very basic book so you can learn the themes properly, John Bain's "Chess tactics for students" is a great place to start,that should be a pretty good foundation for you.  

Repetition would be the next step,you'll have to drill the puzzles over and over until you can solve them in about 10-15 seconds,the goal here is to develop what's known as "Pattern recognition".   In other words you want to be able to spot the solution of the puzzle at a glance,if you can know the solution well enough,you should be able to spot it in a real game as well,as I said,this is known as "Pattern recognition".