Look for Forcing Moves First: Checks, Captures, Attacks

When the better move was a capture or a check you didn't see, this is the habit to build.

Sometimes the review shows that you didn't lose anything by blundering: you just missed something good. The better move won a piece, gave a strong check, or started an attack. These missed chances are free points left on the board.

The habit: forcing moves first

On every move, before thinking about plans, look at your forcing moves in this order:

1. Every check you can give. Even ones that look silly: a check that loses a piece can still lead to mate or a fork.
2. Every capture you can make, and what you get after the recapture.
3. Every move that attacks something: a piece, a weak pawn, a mating square.

Forcing moves limit your opponent's choices, which makes them easy to calculate. That's why tactics are found this way: you aren't guessing what your opponent will do, you are forcing it.

Signs a tactic is there

• An enemy piece with no defender.
• The enemy king and queen, or king and rook, on the same line or the same knight jump.
• An enemy piece that is defending two things at once.

In the review, switch the board to Better to see the move you missed and why it was stronger. Then try to spot the same pattern in the daily puzzles.

"Tactics flow from a superior position."

— Bobby Fischer