I lost points while solving a tactics trainer puzzle?

On problem 0054062 I solved the puzzle.  Granted with only 27.7% of the score remaining, but my rating dropped five points from 1807 to 1802!  Uh, say what?!

Geting the right solution doesn't mean you gain points, or even keep your current value, as you've discovered.  Tactics trainer places a high emphasis on speed.  There's an option to turn off the timer, but if you do it also disables all scoring, as they don't seem to see any point in scoring if there's no time crunch.

I don't mind the scoring being reduced (i.e. solving a puzzle in one minute shouldn't carry as much weight as solving in ten seconds) but I think it's ridiculous to lose points for solving correctly.  Especially in less than a minute, lol!

This is why I don't use chess.com tactics trainer.

I don't care about the rating per se.  I care about solving the puzzles and learning the tactics.  But if you reach a point where not solving them fast enough impedes your progress then it will be tough to get to the more difficult levels of puzzles...sad!

For those of us who are looking for tactics training for improving chess in OTB play rather than in on-line blitz, the TT here is frankly a poor choice for many reasons, and this is one of them. 

That said, the TT is a great little feature for the site, and for online blitz players it's quite valuable.  

I'm always amused by the stress over TT ratings that people experience.  TT is (should be used as) a learning tool.  If you're not solving the puzzles fast enough, you're not progressing enough to move on to more difficult tactics.  These are not designed to be puzzles like those posted everyday in the forums for you to peruse at your leisure.  TT puzzles are designed to help you recognize patterns that will improve your tactics and your speed at recognizing those tactics over the board.  I don't care about my rating as much as improving my abilities in those areas, which is why I like TT.  I guess with some people it is different.

TT is great!

It has taught me to panic and make a rushed (and usually erroneous) decision!

Seriously though, I do think that it is good provided you don't get too hung up on the ratings. 

TT definitely lends encouragement.  It always says "Good try!" no matter how stupid my wrong move is.  

Yes, time can be of the essense, but unless you're in a time scramble it's usually more important to develop an instinct for critical positions and then know that you need to take a bit more time on those positions.

Either way I'm not bitter.  I was just surprised is all...

I dont mind the time part, but the inability to play back through your old puzzles in mass (a la the seven circles) seriously hampers its usefulness to me.  Whats the point if you cannot come back a month later and replay them all to see if they stuck?

Agree with Kingwraith- if you're not seeing a pattern quickly, then you need more practice at it. This game is all about visual memory and recognizing patterns. That's why it makes sense to give zero or negative points for a long solving time.

Your rating should only go up if you're improving at the tactics. That means speed as well as accuracy. The fact that you might have 90 minutes in an OTB game doesn't change the fact that seeing patterns quickly will make you a much better player.

it is possible to see that pattern quickly but spend some time calulating variations...

I'm in this weird in between area.  I used to quickly make what I thought was the right move.  Often I was wrong because I didn't calculate much at all.  A lot of the time I was right, but sometimes even when I was right about the first move I didn't see an escape square so I didn't know what the follow up should be.

Now I try to calculate everything.  Which means that sometimes I see the correct move in five seconds, but spend another 30 to 60 seconds calculating to make sure.

I'm trying to get away from moving on instinct and into moving based on concrete calculations.

You should see my tactics trainer page... it's riddled with 20% scores. I figure that I'll remember a pattern better if I make the effort to solve it correctly myself, even if it takes me 5 or ten minutes.

Yeah, mine has a lot of those as well.  I really try to focus more on the pattern recognition than on the rating, etc.

But the rating is important so you can get to the stronger puzzles.

Lol, that was my first experience too. It started to be fun once I stopped caring about the rating points and simply took my own sweet time calculating everything. Of course, my rating plummeted to the ground because of the time penalty. But now it slowly seems to climb again, so I must be getting faster even though I still try to calculate all possible variations (and do a "sanity check" in the end).  Also I can recommend the tactics trainer of "Chess Tempo". It also has a timer, but contrary to its name, seems to have much more patience with those who take long thinks.   

Heh, my tactics trainer rating is still mired in the 900s.  It bottomed out at something ridiculous like 550 a few months ago while I was still incapable of combining speed and accuracy.  With a free account (three per day) it's been a slow climb.