Chess Tactics Trainer

If you want to improve your tactical skill in chess, its important to do curated tactic exercises.

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The CHESSFOX Chess Tactics Trainer is a set of hand-picked exercises that will help improve your tactics skill.

Outline of the CHESSFOX Tactics Trainer

What Makes The CHESSFOX Tactics Trainer Unique?

The CHESSFOX tactics trainer has a few unique advantages over other tactics training tools:

  1. All the exercises are hand-picked for their instructional value and with a strong focus on training patterns/motifs.
  2. The solutions to the puzzles are explained in simple language so that you don’t have to face the frustration of not understanding the solution.
  3. Exercises with similar tactical motifs/patterns are grouped together to help you get a deep understanding of the tactical idea. You will notice that there are roughly 15-25 exercises for each motif, ranging from easy to hard.

How to Use the CHESSFOX Free Chess Tactics Trainer

The CHESSFOX Tactics Trainer is a study tool. The focus is not on trying to solve all the puzzles correctly. Instead, the focus is on learning about tactics by working through the exercises and by studying their solutions.

  • Don’t rush through the exercises. It’s not about the quantity of exercises you do, but rather about improving the quality of your thought process. Study the solutions in as much detail as you possibly can and critically evaluate the alternative variations.
  • Repeat the exercises! Go over these exercises again and again. Repetition is how you effectively improve your pattern recognition skills.
  • I highly recommend that you pack the positions onto a real chessboard. The simple exercise of setting up the position correctly is not a waste of time. In fact, it makes your training more fun, more real, and in my opinion, more effective.

Tactics Exercises Index

Important Note: The exercises in the CHESSFOX tactics trainer are presented in SETS. Each set features a particular tactical motif or theme, with exercises ranging from easy to hard. The first couple exercises in each set are relatively easy (their purpose is to help you study the basics of the pattern). The, towards the end of each set you will also face difficult puzzles that will challenge your tactical abilities and help you improve.

Pins

In exercises 1 to 20 will focus on tactics that involve pins.

Skewers

In exercises 21 to 40 the focus is on tactics that involve skewers.

Discovered Attacks

In exercises 41 to 65 the focus is on tactics that involve discovered attacks.

X Ray

In exercises 66 to 90 the focus is on tactics that involve x ray.

Forks and Double Attacks

In exercises 91 to 105 the focus is on tactics that involve forks and/or double attacks.

Remove the Defender

In exercises 106 to 145 the focus is on tactics that involve overloading, removing or otherwise exploiting an important defender.

Trapped Pieces

In exercises 146 to 160 the focus is on tactics that involve trapped pieces (or pieces already limited in their mobility).

Deflection

Exercises 161 to 175 will focus on tactics that become possible by deflecting an obstructing piece or pawn to clear the way (the rank, file or diagonal) for your attacking piece.

Attraction

In exercises 176 to 181 the focus is on tactics that involve attracting a piece to a square where it will become a target.

Interference

Coming soon.

Clearing a square / Clearance

Coming soon.

Hit-and-run

Coming soon.

Back Rank Tactics

Coming soon.

Zwischenzug

Coming soon.

Passed Pawn

Coming soon.

Zugzwang

Coming soon.

Stalemate and other Drawing tactics

Coming soon.

Checkmate Patterns

Important checkmate patterns. Coming soon.

More Chess Combinations

Mixed tactics exercises. Coming soon.

Other Chess Tactics Trainers

Other chess tactics training servers that you can try:

Your feedback and suggestions are very welcome. Please share them in the comments below.

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