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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) Tactics in and out of context (Read 7631 times)
Jupp53
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Re: Tactics in and out of context
Reply #3 - 07/23/10 at 08:08:27
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@Fromper: Where do you take your clear cut wisdom from? Is there any empirical research about this?

It's very difficult to find a experimental design for answering this question. Chess players tend to do all mixed up.
  

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Fromper
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Re: Tactics in and out of context
Reply #2 - 07/22/10 at 16:58:34
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Definitely do both, but the emphasis should be more on tactics puzzles than looking for tactics in master games. Studying master games is good for other educational value, as well as tactics, so it's definitely something you should also be doing. And playing lots of your own games, both at slow and fast time controls.
  

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chk
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Re: Tactics in and out of context
Reply #1 - 07/22/10 at 16:29:31
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I tend to believe that the first approach helps you more and is also something you need to do from time to time in order to stay in shape.

However, this presupposes that you also play normal games, study books on other subjects, etc. i.e. doing only tactics is not enough, but when discussing tactics, working in isolation seems to me by far the best approach.. unless of course you hate doing it!
  

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sharpplay
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Tactics in and out of context
07/22/10 at 13:25:06
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I have been pondering a question to which there is probably not a definitive answer:  Is it more effective to study tactics in isolation (i.e. tactics puzzle book, CT-ART, etc) or in context (studying master games in your openings, playing solitaire chess, etc).  Obviously, you get more bang for your buck time-wise by doing ten puzzles in a chess book but I wonder if tactics become more internalized if you slowly play over master games and your "spider sense" helps you to suddenly see the combination that is coming?  I'm sure the best answer is to do both, but I wonder on a fundamental level which actually helps you more. 
  
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