There is no chess player who has not asked himself that question. And it is not about ratings or titles, because, let us be honest about this, we all think we are better than what those two parameters suggest. The question is a serious one because it does not only determine our current strength but it should also give some idea of our own potential, how good we can be. So how to answer that question?

The tactics and calculation training is the most important type of training a chess player can undertake if he or she is serious of his or her chess improvement. The reason for this is that all chess games are decided by tactics. You cannot win if the opponent does not make a mistake – hence you have to take advantage of that mistake. While the mistake can be of various types, from the one-move blunders to a “small” positional detail 4 moves into a line, the mistake is always tactical in its essence. Something was missed and the opponent can take advantage of that miss.

Chess is mostly about tactics. That doesn’t necessarily mean complicated combinations, but simply minor operations that take place at every instance of the game. The positional ideas and concepts often have to be backed up with accurate calculation or in extreme cases they can only be enforced by precise and well-calculated variations. Therefore, the calculation is the muscle of every chess player.