Frenchie,

If I can make a suggestion....toward the end of the video you did alot of "trial and error" where you were just trying seemingly random moves and relying on the program to let you know if the move was correct or not. I suspect this decreases the benefit you get out of the tactical training; I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect that looking at the board and trying to find the solution in your head (as you would in a game) as well as identifying the tactical theme will provide more benefit to the long-term improvement of your game. Just a thought.

--studentofchess

Cheers for the advice student...its very true what you say and my coach says the same. As I was doing the video, I was trying to speed things along, and felt pressurised to get the right answer fast so I could continue. That plus I felt embarassment by not knowing the answer immediately.

My preference is to use a real board to study tactics because I look at things as I do in a proper game. As with most things internet, its difficult to treat them with the same level of respect - take online poker for example where people take far more risks as its easier to press a button, same in online chess its easier to push pieces around making mistakes as you invest less time...

It was a trial video for myself to see if I could do tactics on the fly, and its obvious I cant unless I stay silent for a few minutes each time, which makes the video unwatchable and embarassing for me at the same time.

I just wish i could get some of these mating themes in my games...they never crop up!

I see your point about the video not being as "interesting" for viewers if you had periods of silence while you were solving the problem....

Though one thing that made the video entertaining for me was that I started "racing" you to see if I could find the solution before you did!!

Come on mate, thats like Force India racing against Red Bull in Formula 1 (me being Force India of course )