tips for analysis and tactics

hey everyone,

can anyone recommend any good apps for tactics and overall self improvement in chess? (that actually help)

Also, my coach usually recommends analyzing my games often. can anyone give tips on how to analyze games efficiently, or any websites/apps?

pls note that my uscf range is abt 1500-1600, so anything that would help this rating range?

appreciate y'all

Hi @Happy_yoyo,

For tactics, I like two resources. ChessTempo is good as it organizes the tactical problems based on themes, so it trains our mind to recognize common patterns/themes in our games. I had also bought CT-ART by ChessKing a few years ago, and I have liked that too. It is based on the book Combination Motifs by Maxim Blokh. ChessTempo is free for the basic features.

For analyzing games, the short answer is that we should replay our played games move-by-move and try to understand what we did, how we did, and if there were better moves available. We should first analyze without an engine. Once we comprehensively analyze our games without an engine, we can then run an engine and see what the engines suggest. Following this process gives us insights about what common mistakes we are making, whether we are making a significant fraction of our mistakes on some specific themes/patterns or not (this can guide us on what we should be studying next) etc.

I have described the process of analyzing games very shortly. You can read the details of the whole process by studying articles written by Grandmasters. For instance, you can search online for the article - "How to Analyze Chess Games" by Natalia Pogonina.

I hope this helps. :)

@saksham said in #2:
> Hi @Happy_yoyo,
>
> For tactics, I like two resources. ChessTempo is good as it organizes the tactical problems based on themes, so it trains our mind to recognize common patterns/themes in our games. I had also bought CT-ART by ChessKing a few years ago, and I have liked that too. It is based on the book Combination Motifs by Maxim Blokh. ChessTempo is free for the basic features.
>
> For analyzing games, the short answer is that we should replay our played games move-by-move and try to understand what we did, how we did, and if there were better moves available. We should first analyze without an engine. Once we comprehensively analyze our games without an engine, we can then run an engine and see what the engines suggest. Following this process gives us insights about what common mistakes we are making, whether we are making a significant fraction of our mistakes on some specific themes/patterns or not (this can guide us on what we should be studying next) etc.
>
> I have described the process of analyzing games very shortly. You can read the details of the whole process by studying articles written by Grandmasters. For instance, you can search online for the article - "How to Analyze Chess Games" by Natalia Pogonina.
>
> I hope this helps. :)

thanks! i'll try it out

@Happy_yoyo chesstempo puzzles set to hard best way to improve tatics as they are nice and hard which helps you improve fast.

for game analyses use lichess run a server anylise then look at the opening did you come out good
midgame then endgame also click learn from mistakes helps alot

@for_cryingout_loud said in #4:
> @Happy_yoyo chesstempo puzzles set to hard best way to improve tatics as they are nice and hard which helps you improve fast.
>
> for game analyses use lichess run a server anylise then look at the opening did you come out good
> midgame then endgame also click learn from mistakes helps alot

thanks, i'll check it out. only concern: i haven't had the best experiences thru the lichess analysis tbh

@kindaspongey said in #6:
> web.archive.org/web/20140627023809/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman50.pdf

appreciate this, thanks!

I took on the practice of studying a tactics book by..

1. See if I can see it in my head
2. Can I figure it out when I set up my board
3. I work the problem with the solutions manual with my board.

Weapons of chess is a great book about strategy and tactics. It took me a long way. An addition to this would be the 1001 winning chess sacrifices and combinations.