About Combinations in Chess

Many games of chess are won, drawn, or lost by a combination. Even more games are not won (or lost) because those tactics got missed by either one or even both sides. This collection has the goal to provide training material to drill patterns of basic combinations into your brain.

A combination in the game of chess is or has:

Some combinations are mating, some win material. Combinations in games, naturally, occur with different themes combined. Most of the time, they exist only as a threat and force a different move than the desired one. The names of the chapters are not 'tactics categories,' but they give you a good hint at the core idea of the puzzle so you can start looking for crushing moves even faster. They are chunked into sizes of 50-70, which makes a good daily routine. If you think that's impossible, read on. You will get there.

If you don't see the solution for a problem within two minutes - don't bother any further. Have a look at the solution and try to figure out what all the pieces are doing and what makes the solution so good. If you are still puzzled by a move, get help with engine analysis. Then simply continue. This is a quantity-over-quality course in the sense that you want to digest as many exercises as you can.

The goal is to make your mind familiar with how the pieces operate, how they work together, and how they work against each other. Just repeat these puzzles over and over and over. If you remember and can blitz out the solution: Perfect! That's the spot where you want to be. If you can't, scan for moves and try to calculate again. By the time you know this course by heart, you will see those patterns emerge in your games naturally, too. You will also automatically start to think about how you can compose them in your games and put your pieces on attractive squares.

So start filling up your mind with these combinations, and then let your subconscious mind do its work.