“Chess is 99% tactics.” - Lasker

To go right to the puzzles...click here!

Although you can spend hours memorizing chess openings (the worst way to spend your time) or take bunches of chess classes learning the principles of chess, learning chess tactics will probably be the most important thing you do for improving your results in chess.

Learning tactics is very difficult. The best way to do it is by solving chess puzzles, which are diagrams where you must find the right move.

A diagram is one chess position that happened in a game. You must find the tactic that either leads to checkmate or wins material some how. Once you can solve these puzzles easily you will see a big jump in the number of games you win at chess.

Tactical ability is like a muscle in your brain. The more exercises you do, the better your brain gets at tactics, and the more likely your brain will find them in your own game.

We at Academic Chess are a big believer in chess puzzles.

Work on Some Chess Puzzles

Mate in 3