Has any one else noticed that some days the problems come to you so clear and yet other days they appear to be hidden and harder then they should be?

I find the same thing when I play I seam to play to my opponents level. If I am playing a 1000 rated player I play at that level, yet when I play a higher rated play say a 1300 or 1400 I play much better............or am I just crazy?

No, I think you're onto to something. Mental clarity and energy are issues that really affect my play. If I've had no sleep and no exercise, my chess play is often terrible; however, if I'm rested and I've had a good workout, I have the mental clarity to play well.

 To sum up, I believe there are a number of factors in our lives that affect the strength of our chess playing. 

I've got to 1950, and then they started to give me 2100 preoblems also ad now I'm less then that, 1900...

 

 

The Tactics Trainer is great but it can be a bumpy ride. My rating goes up and down by 300 points. Lately I have been through a lot of problems with:

 

100 attempts

solved by 9%

 

That is a short-cut to have your rating killed

 

I had a short rest from the Tactics Trainer after suffering through agreat number of inmature problems (few attempts and solved by few). Today it was even worse. I gave up after 10 or so problems in a row with less than 10 attempts and solved by close to none!! 

 

That's It! No more Tactics Trainer!

 

 

did you report those bad problems? we just released some new tools to help us dig through the problems and get better ones. we are also adding in more problems that have been screened.

if you would like to volunteer to be a tactics trainer screener, please let me know!

 

 

Erik, I am not saying that the problems were bad. Just badly underated!! Since I am addicted to numbers, I care a lot about my rating.

"Volunteer" is my middle name! Just let me know how I can help!  

My problem with TT is the same with my chess game, I'm lazy.  Often I identify the general idea/theme easily but see 2 or 3 ways to implement it so I just pick one and run with it.  Sometimes it works but often it doesn't, thats ok because I can always start over (rating points don't mean much to me) but its a bad habit to take into a game with a human.