As an aside about the usefulness of CTS:

I am a USCF NM, and use CTS frequently before tournaments to sharpen my tactical eye. However, as has been noted, one of the problems with it is you cannot possibly calculate everything instantly (although one should definitely try). I don't see this as a big deal, though, if one uses CTS in conjunction with, say, a combinational book like "Perfect Your Chess," or Reinfeld's books (Or chesstempo). CTS is not just about improving your online blitz rating, it's about developing a "feel" for combinations. I am reminded about Kasparov explaining to a young student how he correctly found a combination 5-10 moves deep almost instantly. Garry replied, "Instinct." That's what I think CTS is helpful for developing.

On the flip side, I am not sure how good CTS would be for people new to, or weak in, tactics. I think one must already have a firm grasp of many tactical patterns.

Wow, you claim to have been 1600+ on CTS in less then few months of learning chess.
According to the rating distribution on that site hat means that you were better then approximately 75% of active tacticians on that website. And in less then few months!
Sorry, I find that very hard to believe, unless you are a genius, of course.
Btw, chesstempo.com is much better then CTS, it actually allows you to calculate some lines, no need to play by pure instict as in CTS which takes away your points way too fast if you don't move super fast.
I am in top 10% of all active people on both sites, but prefer chesstempo much more. And it also has option of standard time control, enabling you to think through the problem thouroughly as you would have in a real game. So it has separate ratings for blitz (finind tactics fast) and standard (solving correctly as many).
Blitz is much more forgiving and it still allows caluclating few lines before making a move, while on CTS one has to rely on first instict most often.

I don't know if you have read it or if you are currently reading it. It teaches tactics in a completely different way from what you are used to. It talks about things called tactical points(TP's) and strategic points (SP). Personally I thought it was interesting to look at things in another way but I'm not sure how much it really helped me.

The idea though is very simple. Any tactics consists of two TP's and one SP. TP's are tactical motifs, weaknesses... things like that. While an SP is a square by which you may attack two TP's at once. Only problem is that things are not this easy.... Take the above example which I posted. I doubt you would start thinking about these sort of things, especially if you only have 3 sec to make a move.

Greetings,

It's good that you have Weteschnik's book.

How did you find it, in terms of helpfulness? What difference did it make to how good you are at finding/seeing tactical possibilities? How much has it improved your tactical ability?

Nunn's book, apart from teaching the elements of tactics (pin, fork, etc) shows you how to assess the position tactically - as against positionally. He shows you how to look for tactical weaknesses in positions, and how to look for ways to take advantage of those.

As he is a GM and a tactical "monster", it is one of the best books available for teaching tactics and how to find tactical possibilities in a position.

Also, the problems in his book range from beginner-easy up to very challenging!

Kindest regards,

Dragan Glas

Greetings,

analyzethat
Could you give us an idea of your level? Rating?

Although pattern-recognition - practicing until the patterns jump out at you - is a necessity to improve, one must first of all be able to identify weaknesses which could be taken advantage by you. One must also be inventive.

Nunn's Learn Chess Tactics would be useful - Weteschnik's Understanding Chess Tactics might also be useful.

Kindest regards,

Dragan Glas