Originally Posted by Pablito15
lose tactical ability that is
What happens is that the more you play the more your vision and tactical ability remains in form. When you have long breaks this is the first thing that goes, that is your ability to calculate.
What a lot of improving chess players need to understand is that chess is actually a language. Also it is not one language but two, Calculation and Positional judgement.
The calculative part is often done pictorially with the mind. This denigrates without practice. I have found that verbalising the process actually slows you down here, but helps comprehension.
Positional judgement is something most players do intuitively, but ignore to their own detriment. This requires classification of knowledge and it is something you can spend your whole chess career on. The more subtle it is the better it becomes.
cheers,