lichess.org
Donate

Chess is 99% tactics

Chess is 40% ess, 20% eeya, 20% aech, and the rest is all see.
I'd say chess is 99% tactics - and 99% strategy. Which means it's 98,01% strategy and tactics combined. (Assuming that whether a position requires calculating skills or strategic understanding is stochastically independent.)

What I'm trying to say is that being good at one of the two (strategy or tactics) but bad at the other still results in playing badly.
If you're good at calculating, but have no strategic understanding, you'll miss all of the tactics in your games except for the few that lead to immediate material gain or checkmate.
If you have a good feel for the positional aspects of the game, but can't calculate, you'll find it impossible to reach your "positional goals" during a game - and you'll also lose a lot of games due to hanging your pieces or allowing a mate in 1.

So, while solving tactics on a daily basis is certainly a good habit to get into (and I wish I could bring myself to do this...) - if you're currently having problems with improving further, you might want to concentrate more on the strategic aspects of the game.
In this connection, I'd recommend watching YouTubers like IM John Bartholomew, NM ChessNetwork or, of course, the Chess Club & Scholastic Center of St. Louis. There are of course other ways to study chess strategy (reading chess books or analyzing games with more experienced players for example), but for me following the aforementioned YouTube channels is certainly what helped me the most. ;)
My recent developments ...

TRAINING
2547 110 puzzles (65+)

OPENING
2301 18 games (83+)

Let's dream high.

Yours lovingly ,
chess lover.
trakoz, the Best Move.
Anand said that chess is 90% tactics.
This makes sense because your positional grasp can be basic and your tactics strong and you will be a strong player.
However if your positional grasp is strong but your tactics basic you will lose too much material to simple combinations.
I think the conclusion we can now safely make from this thread is:
Everyone who believes that chess is 90% tactics or above is a potential cheater(#1, #15). these guys just don't understand the pleasure of winning without having to calculate almost anything :) . They probably have forgotten that playing chess and studying chess is first of all fun
Well I don't blame them... what's the fun in only and always calculating variations without any abstract schemes or ideas
Did you even read my comment? Anand, (former world champion), said that chess is 90% tactics.
QED

This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.