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In this video, GM Susan Polgar reveals the building blocks of tactical patterns and shows how to find winning combinations.
Finding tactics during games is often more difficult than finding them during puzzles as we don’t always know there’s a tactic to be found. However, there are certain ‘clues’ in chess positions, which can point towards possible tactics.
One of these is the presence of an unprotected piece. GM John Nunn coined the phrase “loose pieces drop off” (often referred to as LPDO) to remind players that an unprotected/loose piece is a serious weakness. There are many situations where we can combine threats to take advantage of loose pieces.
Another theme in this video (which is a preview of Susan Polgar’s 15 hour Secrets of Chess Tactics for Beginners) is the importance of considering our opponent’s strongest response. Many moves appear tempting because they make a major threat and some, obvious responses lose. However, we must presume our opponent will play well and find the best reply, otherwise we’re playing what Dan Heisman calls “hope chess”.
Susan shows how to put ourselves in our opponent’s position to find possible counter-attacks. If we find one, we must reject our move. However, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a winning move available. Often strong positions have many possibilities. Some work, some don’t. By finding counters for our opponent, we can narrow down our list of moves to choose from.
Then Susan reveals another move-finding technique: the what-if method. This involves looking at the position and asking “what if…” to see if it prompts any ideas. For instance, you might see that you could win material with a discovered check if you could move a pawn forward - but the pawn is currently blocked by an enemy pawn. So you think “what if that pawn wasn’t there?” and find ways to either win material or force it to move (capture a piece it was defending).
This video will help you find tactical patterns (like forks, pins and skewers) in more complicated game situations.
Enjoy the video and remember to check out the complete course here.