Tactics Training!

Leonid Stein’s Tactical Vision

It is always a good time for aspiring masters to remind themselves of the most important qualities necessary for tournament success.

Principal amongst them is just old fashioned common sense: don’t let your guard down even once.  Try to play the best move each time, and when you can’t do that just play a good move. In difficult positions never give up hope and try to frustrate your opponent on each move.

The next quality — no doubt — is to maintain and train sharp analytic skills. Often the difference between first place and second place is not what actually took place over the board, but instead what was avoided.

That is, more takes place in the side-lines of any game than in the mainline. You need to keep working at the board at every move, constantly analyzing and evaluating the pro’s and con’s of each turn.

 

Victory goes to he who is best able to take advantage of the opportunities that appear during the game.

For this the student needs to practice at home. Perferably a half hour a day or so–depending on your schedule.  What I find works best for me is the use of combinative examples from actual play.

The following positions are from actual games from Leonid Stein’s tournaments. White is to play and win in each. Good luck!

Let’s get started!

Click to download PGN