Chess study begins with tactics. There are many tactics books, both of the instructional variety (with a fair bit of text introducing tactical concepts like forks, pins, skewers, etc) and the workbook variety (page after page of problems). I have some of these, but more and more I find myself turning to the internet for tactical practice.
There are several tactics websites out there right now, but my favorite is ChessTempo.com. What they’re doing is clever, but not unique. I choose them over the other similar sites because their interface is the best, in my opinion. There are several components to the site, but the heart of it is the tactics trainer. In short, what it does is serve up problem after problem for you to solve. That’s not the clever part.
The clever part is that each user and each problem have a rating that fluctuates. Each player – problem interaction results in an outcome that affects the ratings. If you solve the problem, your rating goes up and its rating goes down (the size of the ratings jump or drop is related to the difference between the initial ratings). Each subsequent problem that you solve is selected to keep it within a reasonable range of your current rating. This way, players and problems find their appropriate levels and as you use the site you encounter problems that are suitable.
Less central to the system, but still interesting, is the way that the problems are created in the first place. I’m less clear on this part, but as far as I can tell they use a chess engine to sift through real games looking for positions just after a tactically poor move by one side and then you get to play the side that has the tactical opportunity created by this blunder.
The site has some other interesting features. Each problem can be tagged by users for the tactical themes that are represented, and you can leave comments or questions on any problem. There is also an endgame section of the site, but to solve more than 2 problems a day (after your initial 10) you would have to become a paying member of the site. The tactical problems are free.
I’ve been a little lax on my tactical practice lately and it shows. Looking over some recent games and asking the key question “why did I lose this game?” often the answer is a tactical issue. My new goal is going to be to get through 100 problems per week for a while. If that is too easy, I’ll up it, and if that’s too hard then I’ll adjust it to be more realistic.
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