By phase
Tactics in the opening
Tactics from the first phase of the game, where the kings are often still in the middle and development matters more than material. These are the ones worth knowing by pattern rather than by calculation, because they arrive before you have settled into thinking.
How to spot it
Undeveloped pieces are the weakness the opening punishes. Look at f7 and f2, at the e-file when the king has not castled, and at any piece that has moved twice while the rest sit at home. A tactic in the opening is usually the punishment for one of those three things.
The positions
Easiest first. Every one is from a real game, and the rating under each board is what it costs the players who have tried it on lichess.
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1. White to play Play it out →Answer
9.Qh5+ g6 10.Qxg6#
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2. Black to play Play it out →Answer
16...Qg3+ 17.Bf2 Bxc3+
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3. Black to play Play it out →Answer
11...Nxd3+ 12.Bxd3 Qxh5
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4. White to play Play it out →Answer
11.Bxf7+ Kxf7 12.Qxd8
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5. White to play Play it out →Answer
19.Rh1 Bh4 20.Rxh4 Qxh4 21.Qxh4
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6. White to play Play it out →Answer
8.Nxf6+ Qxf6 9.Qxg4
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7. White to play Play it out →Answer
8.Nxf6+ Qxf6 9.Qxg4
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8. White to play Play it out →Answer
7.Nxd4 Bxd1 8.Bb5+
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9. White to play Play it out →Answer
13.Nxf5 Rxf5 14.Nf6+ Nxf6 15.Qxa4
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10. Black to play Play it out →Answer
13...Bxf2+ 14.Kxf2 Ng4+ 15.Kg1 Ne3 16.Nb3 Nxd1
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11. White to play Play it out →Answer
9.Nd5 axb5 10.Bb6
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12. White to play Play it out →Answer
8.Bf3 Bb4+ 9.Nc3
Reading about a pattern is the easy half. Motify finds the positions where you missed one, by running your own lichess and Chess.com games through Stockfish, and puts each of them behind two or three puzzles on the same idea so you meet it having just found it three times. See how Motify works.
Positions from the lichess puzzle database, released under CC0.