Chess tactics are discussed often, but what is a chess tactic? There are many ways to describe chess tactics, but perhaps the simplest is to say that a chess tactic is a move (or series of moves) that brings an advantage to a player. This advantage can be material, like winning a piece, or even an attack that results in checkmate!  Richard Teichmann's famous quote that "Chess is 99% tactics" may not be exactly true, but this sentiment shows the importance of chess tactics... 

👍 Chess.com - 38 definitions & examples

👍 Video - GM Anna Muzychuk tactics

Black to move allows White in for the attack by opening a line of attack

* More games from the online blitz tournament recently completed

👍 Strategy game - Queah        Printable board (decorated)

Watermelon Chess is a two-player abstract strategy game from China where it is known as Xi Gua Qi. It is also known as The Surround Game and Globe. ... In Chess, the goal is to capture the King, whereas, in Watermelon Chess, the goal is to capture the opponent's pieces and reduce their numbers to two.

😎 Video: How to play (1:30)       Printable board

👍 Variant - Capture Anything

🙂 Game - an entertaining miniature

“I have often expressed the opinion that it is no easy task to compose a good two-move problem…” Sam Loyd

Former world no. 3 and renown chess trainer, Arthur Yusupov, writes in his book Boost Your Chess that mate-in-two-puzzles “..are very useful for training in the calculation of variations. One is often forced to take into account a lot of candidate moves in order to reach the solution. It is very important to consider all possible replies for your opponent. This develops your skill in calculating short variations.”

* Diagram - White mates in 2 - Sam Loyd. 
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😎 Video - an acceptable chess practice ? (3:14)

GM Jan Gustafsson invited a fellow German grandmaster to games of blitz. 

In the second game Gustafsson (playing Black) has moved his rook to the open file'

🤔 Did he feel this was a good move ?

His opponent GM Niclas Huschenbeth has published this collection of tactical puzzles