On tactics I almost never see the en passant option. For some reason it just never occurs to me. I always see it in a live game.
Tactic Trainer Timer needs to be removed
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Ziryab wrote:
chessplayer11 wrote:
Actually the option of a timed or untimed already exists. Just only for paying members.
I am a paying member, and I do not have the option of untimed rated problems here on chess.com. I am also a paying member at Chess Tempo where I do have that option.
I suggested a site improvement that could resolve your complaint, and you try to shoot it down with misinformation.
What are you talking about? I never said anything about untimed rated problems.
You can turn the timer on and off. And you can turn off rated or unrated games.
stephen_33 wrote:
chessplayer11 wrote:
stephen_33 wrote:
I became so frustrated with TT that I left it alone for months but now I'm using it again because,as a paying member, I'm able to set it to 'unrated' mode (note-you can't switch the clock off, it still sits there ticking away!)
You can't switch the timer off if you've disabled ratings? I know I can do it.
I'd really like to know how because I've just checked my TT settings again & you can play in either Rated(timed) mode or Unrated but the timer in the top-right-hand corner still ticks away (it just doesn't affect anything anymore apart from reminding me of my inadequacy!).
There aren't any other settings that I can see.
Edit: I'm intrigued - as a complimentary member, how can you practice TT in anything but rated mode anyway ?
Oh that? That I don't even notice. It's the bar that's flashing at the bottom that you can turn off.
And I can't do anything except in rated mode.
blake78613 wrote:
Thinking is not the point of the tactics trainer.
Clearly
chessplayer11 wrote:
Ziryab wrote:
chessplayer11 wrote:
Actually the option of a timed or untimed already exists. Just only for paying members.
I am a paying member, and I do not have the option of untimed rated problems here on chess.com. I am also a paying member at Chess Tempo where I do have that option.
I suggested a site improvement that could resolve your complaint, and you try to shoot it down with misinformation.
What are you talking about? I never said anything about untimed rated problems.
You can turn the timer on and off. And you can turn off rated or unrated games.
chessplayer11 wrote:
Knocking the timer out of the loop can only help people think more, allowing them to grow mentally with their skills in solving these problems.
So what you're saying is that my suggestion to take out the timer from calculating the rating was misinformation? 
If you're too unable to understand the post, then don't comment on it.
VanillaKnightPOC wrote:
Your assertion that the puzzles are for rank beginners is hilariously wrong, I probably should have just said that.
The only reason I could think of for your comment is that you have a very low rating and thus only got the easy puzzles.
I don't use CT, but it's because of the interface, not the content. Their puzzles are challenging enough. Plus, why would you want to be on one site for activity X and then go to another site for activity Y?
What?
People get into the habit of playing sacrifices in positions that look like they will work rather than actually calculating the sacrifice through.
This is made worse by the fact the tactics trainer is timed and thus rewards people who rely on intuition rather than calculation.
However, in situations where it looks like there might be a sac on but isn't they simply don't calculate properly and go for the sac anyway forcing these puzzles to be rated higher.
LisaV wrote:
Does anyone else experience somthing like this?
I'm frequently unsure what TT wants. I see, for instance, a simple capture of a hanging piece and think, no way a tactics puzzle of this rating would be this easy, there's got to be a combination or a mating net or something more complex going on. So I go for the complex and get the problem wrong, because TT wanted me to capture the hanging piece. lol
Then I get confused. Do I play the simple at a higher rating or do I try to guess what the motifs TT is applying at that level? Sometimes I play the silly simple b/c of my experiences described in the previous paragraph, but I get them wrong, because TT is looking for, say, a combination.
Sigh.
I'm not the best at tactics, but I'm even worse at reading TT's mind. I just don't get why a 1400 rated problem can be a simple capture while a 1200 rated problem can be a tricky 5 move combination.
Normally because a low rated 5 move combination will be literally the only thing to do.
If it's a high rated hanging piece it's because there's a lot going on (perhaps an apparent mating net) or that it looks dangerous to capture it.
LisaV wrote:
Does anyone else experience somthing like this?
I'm frequently unsure what TT wants. I see, for instance, a simple capture of a hanging piece and think, no way a tactics puzzle of this rating would be this easy, there's got to be a combination or a mating net or something more complex going on. So I go for the complex and get the problem wrong, because TT wanted me to capture the hanging piece. lol
Then I get confused. Do I play the simple at a higher rating or do I try to guess what the motifs TT is applying at that level? Sometimes I play the silly simple b/c of my experiences described in the previous paragraph, but I get them wrong, because TT is looking for, say, a combination.
Sigh.
I'm not the best at tactics, but I'm even worse at reading TT's mind. I just don't get why a 1400 rated problem can be a simple capture while a 1200 rated problem can be a tricky 5 move combination.
Yes, yes, and yes. All the dang time.
(It also doesn't help that I'm slow and suck at this game, but thems the breaks.)
VanillaKnightPOC wrote:
People get into the habit of playing sacrifices in positions that look like they will work rather than actually calculating the sacrifice through.
This is made worse by the fact the tactics trainer is timed and thus rewards people who rely on intuition (and laziness) rather than calculation.
However, in situations where it looks like there might be a sac on but isn't they simply don't calculate properly and go for the sac anyway forcing these puzzles to be rated higher.
Actually TT rewards people who rely on both intuition (pattern matching) AND calculation, not OR.
At the higher end it does, but not at the level we're talking about.
chessplayer11 wrote:
So what you're saying is that my suggestion to take out the timer from calculating the rating was misinformation?
If you're too unable to understand the post, then don't comment on it.
No, the misinformation came when you argued with my first response. That response supported your initial suggestion. I'm done supporting your idea. You don't seem to have a grasp of how things work here, nor how they work elsewhere.
I use the TT occasionally. It works for me. It could be better, of course. But, that's not likely to happen when you ask to eliminate what works for most so that you can have what might suit weak tacticians.
baddogno wrote:
Yeah I've been a little annoyed with the TT lately myself. My rating had crept up into the 1700's with a high of 1850 and I'm nowhere near that good at tactics. Problem is that there's what I call "pity mode" where the computer feeds you a problem that you missed earlier. Heck, even I can get those right! There is even what I call "dumb sh#t mode" where the computer gives you the same problem twice in a row (a problem that I've apparently missed many times before). This rating creep results in problems that are just over my head. Coach Heisman about a month ago advised another member who had been stuck in the 1800's for a long time that he needed to work more on simpler patterns. I have Bain"s book on Chess Tactics for Students and it's good, but I wanted problems just a little more complex. My solution? I deleted my 21,000 problem history and started over. I do this every 2or 3 days now and I am a much happier TT user. Once I start pushing toward 1500, I simply reset it. Now the timer is almost irrelevant because I can recognize most of the patterns at the 12, 13, or 1400 level. Musicamole had a few threads on the benefits of doing this about a year ago and I admit to thinking it was a dumb idea at the time (What? You want me to give up my hard earned points?). Not saying it's for everyone, but it might be worth a try.
This is why some tougher problems are low rated and fast timed. It is a flaw in the programming that should be corrected somehow. Perhaps only allowing each account (Not reset via TT) to only affect a certain problem once or twice. I have had to reset my TT account before and reset it quite a few times in the same day to understand the mechanics better. I ran across the same problem at least 10 times in 1 day doing this. I effectively knocked of 150 points from the problem at least and lowered the average time by a second or two. Now imagine if others do this as well. (Via account resetting or making multiple accounts etc) What we get is some decent level problems being pushed way down with shorter time limits. Making it much tougher for lower rated tacticians to improve and learn things more at their level.
I'd like to have an untimed version which would simulate CC in effect. The time component is not overly relevant for players who concentrate on CC and not Live Chess. And yes I know you can redo the problems with all the time in the world since the "re-runs" aren't rated. Even getting a flat 5 or 10 minutes a problem would be better for me at least.
The tactics trainer works fine the way it is. I did not play chess for a long time and my tactics were/are rusty, and the TT helps me more than anything to get back into shape. Think faster. Move faster. Calculate if you must, follow your instincts if you can. Pattern recognition will guide you through the mess until it is like any other automatic behavior you developped. Good luck
Just out of curiosity I ran my tactics rating all the way down to 200. The puzzles down there are really, really easy. It only took a few days to get back to 1300 (25 puzzles a day). Kind of a fun experiment.