What is Tactics in chess to begin with?

According to Wikipedia:

Tactics refers to a sequence of moves that limits the opponent's options and may result in tangible gain.

There're two major elements in Chess: Strategy & Tactics.

Strategy is basically a long term plan or idea. It's something you turn to when you're not able to take advantage with Tactics.

Chess is 99% tactics is a well known saying in the chess community. How true is this statement though?

Well, personally I think on literal bases I'll have to disagree. I think 99% is too much & giving strategy just 1% isn't fair.

Elements like Piece Mobility, Piece Safety, King Safety, Pawn Structure are all incorporated in strategy. Chess requires good amount of ideas & long term planning as not in all positions are there immediate tactics that result in an advantage of any sort. That's why every chess player has got to know strategies.

With that being said I still believe Tactics hold the greatest proportion of chess. I'll give it a 90%.

Tactics is one of the first things you look for when considering a move and the effect it can have in a position if one can spot it can be mind-blowing. One can go from losing to winning, or roughly equal to winning. One can even go from winning to completely lost if a tactics is missed.

Tactics is amongst if not the most important thing in chess.
Improving in Chess in general requires studying & solving of Tactics puzzle. It sharpens your senses in the game and helps you become a stronger player all round.

Here are some interesting Tactics Puzzle I compiled for this article

Tactics Puzzles

#1

Here it's White to play & win

In this position the materials are equal with both sides having opposite coloured Bishops. But white has a sequence of moves that offer him winning advantage & black can't do anything good about it. Can you see it?

1.Bxh7!! Now if Rxg7 2. Rxg7+ Rxg7 3. Qd7+ wins the rook since black King can't go to f8 due to Qf7# mate.

Black couldn't really do anything about it

#2

White to play & win

Here materials are about equal & black seem to be putting pressure on white position with the Bishop on g5 pinning the Knight to the Queen but as a matter of fact, White is winning here!

1.Nxd4!! White is sacrificing the queen but with alot of winning compensation. If black goes 1... Bxd1 2. Nxc6 & after the Queen moves Nxe7 wins for white.

Going 1... cxd4 doesn't help as well because white can just go 2. Qxg4 & after 2... dxc3 3. Qxg7 is just winning for white.


I believe these 2 examples above showcases how much of an influence tactics have in various positions and in chess as a whole.

Here are some Tactics puzzle you can try out! Please do share with me your solutions in the comment below

#1

Black to play

#2

White to play

#3

White to play

_{Note: All puzzles where gotten from the Lichess.org puzzle archive. They're free & you can check it out.}

Chess is a beautiful game & tactics brings out alot of it's beauty.

So Yes, Chess is 90% Tactics 😁