What's wrong with me and tactics ?

I started to play chess on this site and whatever I do, my tactics rating always stay the same, it even dropped. I managed to get to 1100 once, since I cannot get back there.

However, I just jumped up 300 points rating in tactics on chesstempo from 1100 to 1400 and still am unable to get a higher rating on this site, even if I highly improved on another site.

My peak was 1200 on chesstempo and 1100 on chess.com, and I peaked at the same time. Now, my peak on chesstempo is 1400 and can't get any higher here. That's really boring. Even my standard live rating is higher than my tactics trainer one.

Why do you care what your tactics trainer rating is? Obviously, the puzzles aren't too boring for you, because if they were, your rating would have already gone up. Just play to learn, not for rating!

You fail too many basic ones.

Maybe you just don't recognise the motifs.

http://www.chesstactics.org/

don't worry about the rating.  Just keep plugging away.. The point is to get enough types of positions burned into your brain that when you see those themes come up over the board you can spot them.

But if you don't have a basic understanding of the motifs it has to be harder to recognise and apply the patterns.

tactics are muscle memory.. it's just doing it over and over.. you'll learn things you don't even realize because you're thinking about them subconsciously.  yes understanding motifs is part of it.. I don't mean ignore any sort of book or lessons on that subject.. just simply don't worry about the rating as repetition will bring improvement...

It did for me certainly, but staying at 1200 for any length of time is worrying. Even when I was new I jumped well above that pretty quickly, which is why I suggested that site.

Is this your profile: http://chesstempo.com/chess-statistics/tacticop ?

If so, it seems you are only playing Standard tactics, thus time doesn't affect your score. But on this site it does, as far as I know.  Hence, you ought to play Blitz tactics as well, to be able to make a progress in your calculation speed. I (Ardweaden) play blitz mostly, but recently I decided to do more standard tactics, as I couldn't break 1800 barrier in blitz - reason is, that with standard tactics you are learning patterns etc. to be able to quickly recognise it in blitz tactics. I believe this is the key to success.

I saw on your profile that you've only spent 4.4 hours on tactics so far --  I agree with what others have said: keep plugging away.  Sooner or later the patterns will start to burn into your memory.  As someone said, in part subconsciously... in part.  You sort of feel your way forward.

Not that you necessarily "cookbook" the tactics -- sometimes you see them all the way through.  I mean, you try to of course.  But it's not all calculation either.  It's pattern recognition.  For that, time is the key.  I think.  But I'm still a newb so ymmv.  I can say that tactics have helped me a lot.

Yeah, the thing is that I fail some basic ones like scottrf says, but am able to do way more difficult ones... That's just boring.

I don't do tactics trainer to have a better tactics rating, I do it to improve my tactics. However, the rating normally shows when you improve. Thus it doesn't fit the improvement I made on chesstempo, it's why I say something is wrong.

So... we can play blitz tactics on chess tempo?

Yes. You can choose it under 'preferences'.

Thanks

Just tried some blitz tactics and have a rating of 1300+ on chess tempo, while having ~1050 here.

However, I still fail foolish problems like: http://chesstempo.com/chess-problems/10389 when I succeed at much more complicated.

I understand that feeling. My friend MSC157, who has a TT rating over 2600, once sent me a tactic rated above 2200, if I remember correctly, but you only had to capture a hanging queen. It happens on a high level more often, as one might think.

Blitz is just a drill - quickly recognising big material gains and ways to get it. It is much more important to see a hanging rook instantly as being able to perform a complex combination. This is because first occurs way more often.

Wish you good luck at playing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucwqgRReXAY

Thanks all !

Don't move until you've seen it.

50% pass rate at 1200 means you're just guessing.

How can you defend without knowledge of tactics?

just keep studying, you either want to get better at chess or you don't

The higher your rating gets the more difficult the problems become,and more points are penalized for bad guesses.You can become familiar with these over time but it may take months of practice.