Answers.Body: <p>Every position after the first few moves of the opening requires a certain minimum level of tactical attention. Even in a quiet position the first questions you should ask your self after your opponent has moved are:</p>
  <ul>
  <li>&quot;What is my opponent now threatening?&quot; and</li>
  <li>&quot;What is my opponent trying to achieve with that last move?&quot;</li>
  </ul>
  <p>These questions can have both tactical and positional answers and they can have more than one answer. Asking these questions is what Nimzowitsch called &quot;prophylaxis&quot; and it is what separates bad players from good players.</p>
  <p>Positions where there is tension, where captures on both sides are possible always require some calculation if only to decide whether it is a good idea to resolve the tension. It is particularly important to keep an eye out for tricky little zwischenzugs and by both sides. Again, both material and positional factors need to be considered in evaluating the position after the dust of exchanges has settled.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2021-09-03T15:28:06.343Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2021-09-03T15:28:06.343Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Brian Towers
Answers.Body: <p>I suggest &quot;Tune Your Chess Tactics Antenna&quot; - know when (and where!) to look for winning combination.  It aims to precisely improve knowing when to take more time for specific tactics.  Also covers thought process generally.</p>
  <p>The chapters get a good sense of what to look for</p>
  <ul>
  <li>King Position</li>
  <li>Unprotected Pieces</li>
  <li>Alignment</li>
  <li>Knight fork distance</li>
  <li>Trapped pieces</li>
  <li>Crucial Defender / Overloaded Defender</li>
  <li>Impotent Defense / defense Too far away</li>
  </ul>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2021-09-03T19:01:40.553Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2021-09-03T19:01:40.553Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Michael West
Answers.Body: <p>It is said that good players (not me! :-) have an intuitive sense of when a position is brewing with tactical possibilities. But if you want some heuristics to guide you, some factors that are often mentioned are:</p>
  <ul>
  <li>weak or exposed king;</li>
  <li>loose pieces: pieces that are not protected, even if they are not attacked, or even pieces where the attackers and defenders balance out;</li>
  <li>pieces with limited mobility (which might be trapped).</li>
  </ul>
  <p>There's a video that goes into these three factors, by IM Anna Rudolf: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUd_wBqapHY" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUd_wBqapHY</a></p>
  <p>There's also an article by Dan Heisman called <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131006111441/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman05.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The seeds of tactical destruction</a> which lists more specific factors such as overworked pieces, weak back rank, pawns near promotion, etc.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2021-09-03T15:54:52.087Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2021-09-03T15:54:52.087Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: itub
Body: <p>In even the most quiet-looking position there might be a tactical bolt of the blue, but consider a game might last 50+ moves, and your time and your concentration are limited resources. Thus it is not feasible to do like a computer and calculate each and any position many moves forward to be safe. So, to use your resources effectively,</p>
  <p><em>What are the objective criteria which suggest the position needs immediate tactical attention?</em></p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-09-02T21:19:50.460Z
Comments.Text: Always look for forcing moves to evaluate:  checks, captures, attacks/threats.
Comments.UserDisplayName: SecretAgentMan
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-09-02T22:49:56.943Z
Comments.Text: It often comes to intuition. Experienced players have a "feeling" for when a position is critical
Comments.UserDisplayName: David
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-09-03T04:14:21.480Z
Comments.Text: I am asking , how can we avoid checking on every move ? @David
Comments.UserDisplayName: AnjumSKhan
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2021-09-03T05:31:19.737Z
Comments.Text: I'm pretty sure the answer is simply that you have to check for tactics on every move, and even top grandmasters miss tactics sometimes.  Note that you don't have to start checking for tactics from scratch; you just have to check if the last move caused any tactics to show up (and if the move you're thinking of making will give your opponent any tactics).
Comments.UserDisplayName: Alexander Woo
Tags: <tactics>
Title: What are the objective criteria which suggest the position needs immediate tactical attention?
ThreadText: # What are the objective criteria which suggest the position needs immediate tactical attention?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2021-09-02)
  
  In even the most quiet-looking position there might be a tactical bolt of the blue, but consider a game might last 50+ moves, and your time and your concentration are limited resources. Thus it is not feasible to do like a computer and calculate each and any position many moves forward to be safe. So, to use your resources effectively,
  
  *What are the objective criteria which suggest the position needs immediate tactical attention?*
  
  **Tags:** tactics
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Always look for forcing moves to evaluate:  checks, captures, attacks/threats.  
  > **username_2**: It often comes to intuition. Experienced players have a "feeling" for when a position is critical  
  > **username_0**: I am asking , how can we avoid checking on every move ? @username_2  
  > **username_3**: I'm pretty sure the answer is simply that you have to check for tactics on every move, and even top grandmasters miss tactics sometimes.  Note that you don't have to start checking for tactics from scratch; you just have to check if the last move caused any tactics to show up (and if the move you're thinking of making will give your opponent any tactics).  
  
  ---
  
  ## 3 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2021-09-03. Score: 2
  
  Every position after the first few moves of the opening requires a certain minimum level of tactical attention. Even in a quiet position the first questions you should ask your self after your opponent has moved are:
  
  * "What is my opponent now threatening?" and
  * "What is my opponent trying to achieve with that last move?"
  
  These questions can have both tactical and positional answers and they can have more than one answer. Asking these questions is what Nimzowitsch called "prophylaxis" and it is what separates bad players from good players.
  
  Positions where there is tension, where captures on both sides are possible always require some calculation if only to decide whether it is a good idea to resolve the tension. It is particularly important to keep an eye out for tricky little zwischenzugs and by both sides. Again, both material and positional factors need to be considered in evaluating the position after the dust of exchanges has settled.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2021-09-03. Score: 1
  
  I suggest "Tune Your Chess Tactics Antenna" - know when (and where!) to look for winning combination. It aims to precisely improve knowing when to take more time for specific tactics. Also covers thought process generally.
  
  The chapters get a good sense of what to look for
  
  * King Position
  * Unprotected Pieces
  * Alignment
  * Knight fork distance
  * Trapped pieces
  * Crucial Defender / Overloaded Defender
  * Impotent Defense / defense Too far away
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2021-09-03. Score: 0
  
  It is said that good players (not me! :-) have an intuitive sense of when a position is brewing with tactical possibilities. But if you want some heuristics to guide you, some factors that are often mentioned are:
  
  * weak or exposed king;
  * loose pieces: pieces that are not protected, even if they are not attacked, or even pieces where the attackers and defenders balance out;
  * pieces with limited mobility (which might be trapped).
  
  There's a video that goes into these three factors, by IM Anna Rudolf: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUd_wBqapHY>
  
  There's also an article by Dan Heisman called [The seeds of tactical destruction](https://web.archive.org/web/20131006111441/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman05.pdf) which lists more specific factors such as overworked pieces, weak back rank, pawns near promotion, etc.
  
  
  ---
  
  