How Chess Puzzles Help Improve Our Skills

"Chess is 99% tactics" is a quote attributed to Richard Teichmann, a German grandmaster in the 1900s. Some may not agree but it's clear that tactics play a major role in chess from opening to endgame. I have been posting chess puzzles everyday and I'm also solving them in lichess.org. Currently my tactics rating is 2033.

I can attest that solving chess puzzles has increased my level of play. My blitz rating increased to 1989 from around 1500 before. Several benefits of solving puzzles are:

Tactical Pattern Recognition
Most puzzles feature recurring themes like forks, pins, discovered attacks, etc. Solving them repeatedly trains our brain to spot these patterns quickly during real games.

Calculation Skills
A core skill in chess is to see positions several moves ahead. Puzzles will train us to do so since solving puzzles requires calculating several moves ahead.

Blunder Reduction
Blunders often happen in chess. I myself lost a lot of games because I hung a piece or missed some tactical attack. Practicing puzzles will make us more aware of threats and tactics, which helps reduce blunders in our own games.

Here are some tactical positions from my games. It's satisfying to find them and immediately win games.

White to move and mate in 2
Game: https://lichess.org/elA3Wx2e

Black to move and mate in 2
Game: https://lichess.org/SntypwdO/black

The next one made it to the lichess.org puzzle list.

White to move and mate in 3
Game: https://lichess.org/training/eXBU4

Chess puzzles are not only enjoyable, they’re a great way to boost your skills. Stay tuned for more daily puzzles to sharpen your game!