Unpublished Work © 2026. Alex Povazh. All rights reserved
TACTICS PART 1. TACTICS IN OPENINGS. PATTERN RECOGNITION. PUZZLES WITH NAMES
- Basic tactics in openings
- Pattern recognition (human chess) vs brutal force (computers). Tactical patterns. Positional patterns. In human chess positional thinking is a life raft in an ocean of tactics
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qf6?! C40 King’s Pawn Game: McConnell Defense is to test your positional chess on whites
- A beautiful example of the 11-year-old Garry Kasparov’s positional chess. Garry Kasparov vs Guy West, 1977, B40 Sicilian Defense, 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 e6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. e5 Nd5 7. Bd2 Nxc3 8. bxc3 Bf8 9. Bd3 d6 10. Qe2 Nd7 11. Nxe6 Qb6 12. Nc7+ 1-0
- Positional chess classics. Samuel Reshevsky vs Tigran Petrosian, 1953, E58 Nimzo-Indian Defense: Normal Variation, Bernstein Defense, Exchange Line
- 1986 Karpov vs Kasparov World Championship Match, game 24
- Positional eye helps to see it. Tactical abilities help to monetize it. Tactics tend to win over positional chess in beginners’ games. At the higher level the combination of tactics and positional vision is the secret of success.
- An Indian GM Nihal Sarin is known for his positional chess and is capable of giving the chess world beautiful chess of high aesthetics. • Nihal Sarin vs Dinara Saduakassova, 2020 Tata Steel Challengers, Wijk aan Zee NED, E46 Nimzo-Indian Defense: Normal Variation • Aram Hakobyan vs Nihal Sarin, 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, C50 Italian Game: Giuoco Pianissimo. Normal • Nihal Sarin vs Leon Mendonca, 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, Samarkand UZB, D02 Queen Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation. Pseudo-Catalan • Szymon Gumularz vs Nihal Sarin, 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, Samarkand UZB, D26 Queen’s Gambit Accepted: Classical Defense. Steinitz Exchange Variation
- An example of positional mistake made by hand. B29 Sicilian Defense: Nimzowitsch Variation, Exchange Variation 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nc3 Nxc3 5. dxc3 b6?? Go find the way to beat the other guy!
Tactics with a dose of positional factors B00 Owen’s Defense (…b6) 1. e4 e6 2. d4 b6 3. f4 Bb7 4. Bd3 h6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Nc3 Bb4
Find the best move exercises
A list of positional games to enjoy, classics & modern chess
Tactical patterns
GM Maya Chiburdanidze story
Identifying your tactical weaknesses on LICHESS.ORG. Puzzle dashboard
The more you call your brain, the more axons, the synaptic connections of your neurons you build
A tactical pattern’s name as a hint. • King safety • Attraction (or luring) • Clearance • Deflection • Discovered attack • Double check (++)• Fork • Hanging (undefended) piece • Interference (interrupting the communication between the opponent’s pieces) • Pin (a less valuable piece is first in the line of attack) • Removing the defender
Skewer (a valuable piece is first in the line of attack) • X-ray
Lichess.org’s “Puzzles by openings”
Basic tactics in openings
lichess.org, puzzles by openings ->
When asked whether a beginner chess player should first study tactics, Google gives answers like this: “Beginners should prioritize studying chess tactics because they decide roughly 95% of games at lower levels, making them the most essential skill for winning. Focusing on tactical drills prevents immediate, blundering losses, allowing players to reach and enjoy the middlegame. Tactical study strengthens pattern recognition, which is faster to learn than complex, abstract positional strategies”.
Forks, Pins, Skewers, and Removing defenders are considered basic tactics happening at the very beginning of a game. But even before that set of simple tactics there are primitive tactics a beginner player needs to take care about. From move one of a game tactics rule and decide games of all levels from beginner to top ranks.
Visualization skills are the ability to mentally move pieces in your head with your eyes on a chessboard or diagram without touching the pieces. The inability to do this kind of visualization is one of the reasons for the lack of understanding of the operational capabilities of the pieces on the board. You develop your visualization by practicing moving pieces on the board and solving tactical puzzles. By reading these lines you should already have basic knowledge of how chess pieces move and the coordinates of the chessboard (check previous articles!).
Reminder. To get better in chess you’ll have to play hundreds and thousands of games against human opponents as well as against lichess.org’s Stockfish ready for you 24/7. Start with playing against Stockfish level 1. Despite the set to level 1 computer’s primitive moves tactics are still the same. By analyzing the game you have just played, you’ll see your tactical blunders and those of the computer.
Pattern recognition (human chess)
vs brutal force (computers)
Chess is pattern recognition and finding out the solution (if it is there). When experienced chess players recognize a familiar positional or tactical pattern they remember from their previous games, game analysis, a study, etc., their brain triggers an idea or a strategy to solve the pattern. If you are interested in the question of how many patterns exist in general, then there is no answer. Viktor Korchnoi once said that he knew all rook vs bishop + pawn endgames, except, perhaps, one with a pawn located on the outermost file (vertical column of squares). Pattern recognition is what separates humans from computers that calculate all potential moves and resulting positions (brute force, an exhaustive search).
Wikipedia (edited): A pattern is regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. A chess pattern is a recognizable or particular or studied arrangement of pieces that delivers ideas.
Computers use the Brute Force Algorithm checking all the candidate moves in every given position. Computers evaluate positions with pawn units. One pawn is one unit. A bishop or a knight is three units, etc. Being a bishop down is around
-3 (minus three) but evaluation depends on the specifics of every given position and who’s turn to play.
Unlike the computer chess with its brute force, human chess is mostly pattern recognition and tactics. In chess we make our decisions from our memory, knowledge and intuition employing tactical patterns and positional patterns.
Tactical patterns give you an idea of forcing moves to checkmate your opponent, to gain material advantage over your opponent or to gain positional advantage by improving your piece positions fastest way possible, but you still need to know how to use positional advantage by interacting with your pieces in order to make use of the positional advantage you have gained. The pattern you recognized may not contain winning moves because your pattern was wrong, it turned out a figment of your imagination, inflamed by your intense practicing in cracking tactical puzzles.
At the very beginning of your life in chess tactical and positional vision is developed through observing third-party games people play on the internet or across your street. Having already mastered the chess basics you are supposed to begin to understand what is happening on the board, you get the opportunity to bring your acquired knowledge in tactics and positional chess to a system you can home your knowledge. Over time, as we age, we begin to lose to younger opponents in tactical skill faster than in positional skill. Garry Kasparov in one of his interviews on his decision to leave competitive chess: “At some point the brain just stops working, it switches off. I realized that it was time to leave big top chess. In addition, I wanted to devote more time to my family”.
Since we cannot calculate dozens of moves ahead with absolute precision like computers do, we make our decisions based on so-called positional factors, we call for our mental library of chess patterns. We use pattern recognition to remember the nature of the position, label it and call it in a live game. We make a ‘positional’ decision (quite possibly a wrong one) and begin to calculate options, tactics (not too deep). Having felt the ground under our feet, we make a move.
Diagrams with arrows (routes for pieces to go), opening formations and critical positions in this book are the patterns for you to see and absorb. Your brain is capable of tons of things. Remember that and trust your brain, do not hesitate to make moves based on your gut feeling. If it turns out you got it wrong, then find out why and remember your mistake, but in order to keep going in a live game OTB you need to be sure of your capacity. On the question why he is always look so sure and mean Bobby Fischer said: “You MUST be confident. It is chess”.
Currently, some companies are already testing AI decision-making thus creating the preconditions for the AI takeover of corporate management and leadership. The situation will change even more when AI is offered to make decisions in economics, politics, and jurisprudence. And this is inevitable. Gradually, step by step, AI will gain authority and will inevitably approach that line.
AlphaZero (Computer) 1 vs 0 Stockfish (Computer), 2017
E17 Queen’s Indian Defense: Classical Variation. Polugayevsky Gambit
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 e6 3. c4 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. d5 exd5 8. Nh4 c6 9. cxd5 Nxd5 10. Nf5 Nc7 11. e4 d5 12. exd5 Nxd5 13. Nc3 Nxc3 14. Qg4 g6 15. Nh6+ Kg7 16. bxc3 Bc8 17. Qf4 Qd6 18. Qa4 g5 19. Re1 Kxh6 20. h4 f6 21. Be3 Bf5 22. Rad1 Qa3 23. Qc4 b5 24. hxg5+ fxg5 25. Qh4+ Kg6 26. Qh1 Kg7 27. Be4 Bg6 28. Bxg6 hxg6 29. Qh3 Bf6 30. Kg2 Qxa2 31. Rh1 Qg8 32. c4 Re8 33. Bd4 Bxd4 34. Rxd4 Rd8 35. Rxd8 Qxd8 36. Qe6 Nd7 37. Rd1 Nc5 38. Rxd8 Nxe6 39. Rxa8 Kf6 40. cxb5 cxb5 41. Kf3 Nd4+ 42. Ke4 Nc6 43. Rc8 Ne7 44. Rb8 Nf5 45. g4 Nh6 46. f3 Nf7 47. Ra8 Nd6+ 48. Kd5 Nc4 49. Rxa7 Ne3+ 50. Ke4 Nc4 51. Ra6+ Kg7 52. Rc6 Kf7 53. Rc5 Ke6 54. Rxg5 Kf6 55. Rc5 g5 56. Kd4. 1-0
AlphaZero (Computer) 1 vs 0 Stockfish (Computer), 2017, C11 French Defense: Steinitz Variation
1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 cxd4 7. Nb5 Bb4+ 8. Bd2 Bc5 9. b4 Be7 10. Nbxd4 Nc6 11. c3 a5 12. b5 Nxd4 13. cxd4 Nb6 14. a4 Nc4 15. Bd3 Nxd2 16. Kxd2 Bd7 17. Ke3 b6 18. g4 h5 19. Qg1 hxg4 20. Qxg4 Bf8 21. h4 Qe7 22. Rhc1 g6 23. Rc2 Kd8 24. Rac1 Qe8 25. Rc7 Rc8 26. Rxc8+ Bxc8 27. Rc6 Bb7 28. Rc2 Kd7 29. Ng5 Be7 30. Bxg6 Bxg5 31. Qxg5 fxg6 32. f5 Rg8 33. Qh6 Qf7 34. f6 Kd8 35. Kd2 Kd7 36. Rc1 Kd8 37. Qe3 Qf8 38. Qc3 Qb4 39. Qxb4 axb4 40. Rg1 b3 41. Kc3 Bc8 42. Kxb3 Bd7 43. Kb4 Be8 44. Ra1 Kc7 45. a5 Bd7 46. axb6+ Kxb6 47. Ra6+ Kb7 48. Kc5 Rd8 49. Ra2 Rc8+ 50. Kd6 Be8 51. Ke7 g5 52. hxg5. 1-0
Stockfish (Computer) 0 vs 1 AlphaZero (Computer), 2017
C65 Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. O-O Nd7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. Qe1 f6 9. Nc4 Rf7 10. a4 Bf8 11. Kh1 Nc5
12. a5 Ne6 13. Ncxe5 fxe5 14. Nxe5 Rf6 15. Ng4 Rf7 16. Ne5 Re7 17. a6 c5 18. f4 Qe8 19. axb7 Bxb7 20. Qa5 Nd4 21. Qc3 Re6 22. Be3 Rb6 23. Nc4 Rb4 24. b3 a5 25. Rxa5 Rxa5 26. Nxa5 Ba6 27. Bxd4 Rxd4 28. Nc4 Rd8 29. g3 h6 30. Qa5 Bc8 31. Qxc7 Bh3 32. Rg1 Rd7 33. Qe5 Qxe5 34. Nxe5 Ra7 35. Nc4 g5 36. Rc1 Bg7 37. Ne5 Ra8 38. Nf3 Bb2 39. Rb1 Bc3 40. Ng1 Bd7 41. Ne2 Bd2 42. Rd1 Be3 43. Kg2 Bg4 44. Re1 Bd2 45. Rf1 Ra2 46. h3 Bxe2 47. Rf2 Bxf4 48. Rxe2 Be5 49. Rf2 Kg7 50. g4 Bd4 51. Re2 Kf6 52. e5+ Bxe5 53. Kf3 Ra1 54. Rf2 Re1 55. Kg2+ Bf4 56. c3 Rc1 57. d4 Rxc3 58. dxc5 Rxc5 59. b4 Rc3 60. h4 Ke5 61. hxg5 hxg5 62. Re2+ Kf6 63. Kf2 Be5 64. Ra2 Rc4 65. Ra6+ Ke7 66. Ra5 Ke6 67. Ra6+ Bd6. 0-1
Back to chess and pattern recognition (human chess) vs brutal force (computers). Things changed when powerful computer processors arrived and deeper, wider and faster calculations became a norm. Modern computers easily eliminate human chances to build a fortress in order to draw the game long before a human player sees a chance. On the contrary the minor-piece down (around 3 pawns disadvantage) Stockfish is great in building a fortress in the middle of a board in order to drive the down-material game to a draw in training games with plus-material me vs down-material Stockfish. I beat the rook-down Stockfish, but it takes quite an effort, it takes a bunch of moves to retake and quite a tough time to beat a knight or a bishop-down Stockfish. But playing a material down computer is a very rewarding exercise. You absolutely need to do that if you really want to get better in chess. Engine is your best friend. You can develop your personal list of openings, check the games you lost and see why you lost them, find tricks and solutions, etc.
Pattern recognition is of paramount importance for a beginner player to start establishing in order to enter the world of chess. The most critical aspects of the chess knowledge normally go into a human player’s head as a pattern: my eyes see it, my brain knows it, I recognize it a pattern to be saved in my memory, my brain accepts my command and gets it in, my brain network process it and stores it in my long term memory. The memory is dynamic. It is a given. I don’t use it, I lose it. Human memory needs repetitions to remember things long term. I still wonder should I use a spaced repetition software to drive my stuff into my long term memory the most effective way. If I do this, will my head explode? Please share your suggestions in comments below. Give me a like. Buy me a coffee. Subscribe to my channel…
C40 King’s Pawn Game: McConnell Defense
is to test your positional chess on whites
You, playing with white pieces, have to figure out your way of putting a player on blacks into a real problem. Now go spend couple of hours on your analytics and draw your conclusion. Once you have done that, go and check my two-cents ideas below. Do it yourself first! Time is no problem for you! You can and you should spend hours and days for developing your analytical capacity. See you on the other side!
AI generated images
Image: Wikimedia, Levan Ramishvili from Tbilisi, Georgia, Public Domain
Things to consider. (1) The player on blacks wouldn’t fight for control of the center direct or indirect way (distantly with his knights). Black gives the white the lead in the very beginning of a game where every single move is very important. (2) The player on blacks ignores development of his kingside pieces. Black’s queen is an elephant in a china shop. It stops the g8- knight’s development on f6 (Ng8-f6), as a result it slows down development of the entire black’s kingside. These two factors should come into your mind because you have already learned some Chess Fundamentals and Opening Basics from Problem ID games in this book. So your conclusion should be this. Blacks plays strategically unsound chess. Out of the two minuses you can draw one big plus for you if you use both strategic mistakes of blacks by accelerating your (whites) activity in the center with 3. d2-d4. Once you have made your conclusion, you need to calculate your opponent’s (blacks) responses. Once you have started your calculations, there you should spot a nice surprise idea for you dark-squared c1-bishop hitting black’s f6-queen with Bc1-g5. Nice! Because it gives your opponent on blacks an opportunity to make yet another mistake… Now you have a right to toggle the lichess.org’s engine, 2600+ Stockfish, the Holy Grail to beginner ranks, to see and remember the best way of dealing with an atrocious chess of your opponent. Now you know the idea, but you need to remember forever the best move for white, as wells as other variations. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes a pattern you have learned.
A beautiful example of the 11-year-old Garry Kasparov’s positional chess
Grey arrows in diagrams are computer-suggested moves. The strongest arrow shows the strongest move
- e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 e6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. e5 Nd5 7. Bd2 Nxc3 8. bxc3 Bf8 9. Bd3 d6 10. Qe2 Nd7 11. Nxe6 Qb6 12. Nc7+ 1-0
The difference between 11-year-old Garry Kasparov and the other 99.9% of chess players on planet Earth was that Kasparov was born with the ability to learn and memorize opening moves and chess principles without any effort. In his words, all the information was coming into my head automatically without any effort. In addition to that blessing Garry Kasparov was very good on tactics, as well. You, on the other side of the world, will have to make efforts to memorize most important aspects of chess basics applying to any chess opening. The first things you should recall and implement at the very beginning of a game are piece development and your, as well as your opponent’s king safety.
Now back to our blessing of modern times, the chess Engine. Engine is your best friend, the best partner for developing your tactical skills, the opening guru you should learn ways to understand as it always keeps silent never wasting time for chatting… and all of it is completely free, anytime available, always at its best ability. When you get tired of your silent guru, there is chessable.com for you to learn openings the other way. But your chess engine is always ready to have you back and enjoy checking lines and variations any time you want it.
Positional chess classics
Samuel Reshevsky vs Tigran Petrosian, 1953
E58 Nimzo-Indian Defense: Normal Variation, Bernstein Defense, Exchange Line
Anatoly Karpov probably experienced the same feeling in that famous 24th game, the last game of the 1986 Karpov vs Kasparov World Championship Match.
Positional eye helps to see it. Tactical abilities help to monetize it. Tactics tend to win over positional chess in beginners’ games. At the higher level the combination of tactics and positional vision is the secret of success
An Indian GM Nihal Sarin is known for his positional chess and is capable of giving the chess world beautiful chess of high aesthetics.
Nihal Sarin vs Dinara Saduakassova, 2020 Tata Steel Challengers, Wijk aan Zee NED, E46 Nimzo-Indian Defense: Normal Variation 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd2 d5 6. Nf3 c5 7. a3 Bxc3 8. Bxc3 Ne4 9. Rc1 Nxc3 10. Rxc3 cxd4 11. Nxd4 Nc6 12. cxd5 Qxd5 13. Nxc6 bxc6 14. Qc2 h6 15. f3 a5 16. Bc4 Qe5 17. f4 Qf6 18. O-O Ba6 19. Rf2 Rfd8 20. h3 Rd6 21. Ba2 Rc8 22. f5 exf5 23. Qxf5 Rc7 24. Qxf6 Rxf6 25. Rxf6 gxf6 26. Kf2 Kg7 27. Bb1 c5 28. Be4 Rc8 29. Kf3 Bb5 30. g4 Bd7 31. Kf4 Be6 32. Bf5 Bxf5 33. Kxf5 Rb8 34. b3 Re8 35. Kf4 Rb8 36. h4 Kg6 37. h5+ Kg7 38. Ke4 Rb7 39. Kd5 Re7 40. Kxc5 Re4 41. b4 axb4 42. axb4 Re5+ 43. Kc6 Re6+ 44. Kb7 f5 45. gxf5 Re5 46. Kc6 Rxf5 47. b5
Aram Hakobyan vs Nihal Sarin, 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, C50 Italian Game: Giuoco Pianissimo. Normal 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d3 Nf6 5. a4 a5 6. Be3 Bb4+ 7. c3 Be7 8. Qb3 O-O 9. h3 d6 10. O-O h6 11. Nbd2 Nh5 12. Qd1 Nf6 13. Qb3 Nh5 14. d4 Bg5 15. Nxg5 hxg5 16. Nf3 Nf4 17. dxe5 dxe5 18. Bc5 Qf6 19. Bxf8 Nxg2 20. Nh2 Bxh3 21. Bc5 Nh4 22. Be2 g4 23. Rfd1 Qg6 24. Nf1 Qxe4 25. Ne3 Nf3+ 26. Bxf3 gxf3 27. Qc4 Qh7 28. Rd5 Re8 29. Rad1 Qh5 30. Qe4 f5 31. Qc4 Kh7 32. Rd7 Qg5+ 33. Kh2 Qh6 34. Kg1 Re6 35. Nf1 Bxf1 36. Qxe6 Qxe6 37. Bf8 Kg8 38. Bxg7 Be2 0-1
Nihal Sarin vs Leon Mendonca, 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, Samarkand UZB, D02 Queen Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation. Pseudo-Catalan 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. g3 c5 4. Bg2 cxd4 5. O-O h6 6. Bf4 g5 7. Bxb8 Rxb8 8. Qxd4 Bg7 9. Qxa7 Qc7 10. Na3 Bd7 11. c3 O-O 12. Qe3 e6 13. Ne5 Ba4 14. f4 Nd7 15. Nxd7 Qxd7 16. fxg5 d4 17. Qf4 hxg5 18. Qxg5 dxc3 19. bxc3 Rbc8 20. Rab1 Rxc3 21. Nb5 Rc4 22. e3 Bc2 23. Rbc1 Qd2 24. Rce1 Rb4 25. Bf3 f6 26. Qc5 Bd3 27. Rd1 Rxb5 28. Rxd2 Rxc5 29. Rxd3 Ra8 30. Rf2 Ra7 31. Bd1 b5 32. Bb3 Kf7 33. Kg2 Bh6 34. h4 Ke7 35. e4 Rac7 36. Rdf3 Bg7 37. Rf4 Re5 38. Rg4 Kf7 39. Rf5 Rcc5 40. Rgg5 Rxf5 41. Rxf5 Bf8 42. g4 Kg7 43. Rxc5 Bxc5 44. e5 f5 45. Bxe6 fxg4 46. Bxg4 Bd4 47. e6 Kf6 48. Kf3 Bc5 49. Ke4 b4 50. h5 Bf8 51. Kd5 Ke7 52. Kc5 Kd8+ 53. Kd5 Ke7 54. Ke5 Bh6 55. Kf5 Be3 56. Kg6 Bd4 57. h6 Bc3 58. Kh7 Kf8 59. e7+ Kxe7 60. Kg8 1-0
Szymon Gumularz vs Nihal Sarin, 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, Samarkand UZB, D26 Queen’s Gambit Accepted: Classical Defense. Steinitz Exchange Variation 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Bxc4 c5 6. O-O cxd4 7. exd4 Be7 8. Nc3 O-O 9. Re1 a6 10. Bf4 b5 11. Bb3 Bb7 12. Rc1 Bb4 13. Bg5 Nbd7 14. a3 Bxc3 15. Rxc3 Rc8 16. Rce3 Qc7 17. Ne5 Nxe5 18. dxe5 Qc6 19. Rf3 Ne4 20. Bh4 h6 21. Rf4 Nc3 22. Qf3 Ne2+ 0-1
An example of positional mistake made by hand
Computer can aid a beginner player in multiple ways like sparring, converting material advantage to a win, monetizing positional advantage, piece coordination practice… and positional chess! Tuned to the full strength Stockfish makes no tactical blunders for you to spot and practice.
A tactical eye would spot the tactical pattern without a problem. White’s queen is an overloaded defender with the job to defend two pieces at the same time. If black’s c6-knight jumps c6-e5 asking questions from the two queen-defended white’s pieces (the d3-bishop and the f3-knight) then in case of trading on e5 (white’s f3-knight takes on e5) black’s dark-squared bishop retakes on e5 centralized controlling the longest dark-colored diagonal, which is psychologically always unpleasant for an opponent. To a tactical eye, the knight’s move c6-e5 is almost obvious, because it will force the opponent to also calculate tactical options (in which the player on whites considers himself strong).
A positional player would consider the fact that two white’s bishops are aiming at black’s Castle at the moment. Black needs to simplify this situation. Removing the white’s light-squared d3-bishop would be good to black, but barricading the longest dark-colored diagonal on which sits the other white’s bishop is much better: 1… Nc6-e5! Whites have to trade on e5, otherwise it is 1…Ne5 2. Bc2 Nxf3+ 3. gxf3 Ng4 -3.1. So, 1… Nc6-e5! 2. Nxe5 Bxe5 -0.7.
Positional or tactical decision making? Old chess might say it is pure positional decision. Modern chess would say it is pure tactics.
* * *
Going positional helped the player on whites in this game to draw the opponent’s attention to the looming apparent positional advantage of whites, which forced blacks to take action. Absolutely wrong approach on the part of both whites and blacks. Whites should have played 18. Nc4-b6. And blacks should not have relied on the false appearance of whites’ positional advantage, but should have looked for tactical options.
Tactics with a dose of positional factors B00 Owen’s Defense (…b6) 1. e4 e6 2. d4 b6 3. f4 Bb7 4. Bd3 h6 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Nc3 Bb4
Find the best move exercises
A list of positional games to enjoy, classics & modern chess
Tactical patterns
GM Maya Chiburdanidze story
Identifying your tactical weaknesses on LICHESS.ORG. Puzzle dashboard
The more you call your brain, the more axons, the synaptic connections of your neurons you build
A tactical pattern’s name as a hint. • King safety • Attraction (or luring) • Clearance • Deflection • Discovered attack • Double check (++)• Fork • Hanging (undefended) piece • Interference (interrupting the communication between the opponent’s pieces) • Pin (a less valuable piece is first in the line of attack) • Removing the defender
Skewer (a valuable piece is first in the line of attack) • X-ray
Lichess.org’s “Puzzles by openings”