Tactics Trainer is great, but it needs a LOT of fixing.

we have done some brainstorming about it, and some improvements will be coming; however, i mostly disagree with your points:

-Saying "Incorrect move-good try!" is very discouraging. What I find bad is the "good try!" part of it.

'good try' is friendly enough. don't be so discouraged! for one thing, from the rest of your post, i glean that you have too much of a 'competitive' take on tactics trainer. this thing is for getting better. not for improving your tactics trainer rating, or for feeling good about yourself! it's also secondarily for seeing some awesome and gratifying tactics; and can be used to test yourself. but honestly, whatever language we choose, someone could tell us it's not the best word choice. but i don't see any compelling reason to change this.

At least add a control for us to customize this!

-Forcing all moves right for a pass. This is not rational at all-it should be around 60%.

you should find all moves correct in advance before you even make the first move. failing this, you don't pass. but don't take it as such bad news!

Not agreed-the key in Tactics trainer is that you get the idea. A mouse slip for instance can't fail someone.

-Allow multiple RATED tries on each problem.

this would skew ratings, because obviously on a second try after seeing the solution, people would get the problem right. what's the point of this anyway? this option is just to increase your tactics trainer rating, which is an absolutely pointless goal. especially when it's done not even by getting tactics right!

The # of tries could be based on the rating of the problem

-The countdown graph that shows time is distracting.

yeah, i agree. so use the unrated setting that doesn't have a countdown. this is something we have thought about, and an extra mode with respect to time/no time is a possible development in the future.

I then won't be able to gauge my progress.

-Problem ratings are not rational.

um, yes they are. there are a few which somehow are out of whack, but bc of the dynamic system whereby problems are rated based on whether or not you solve them, over time they tend towards having accurate ratings. that is in fact one of the great strenths of tactics trainer.

I can't agree with you, because the low pass rate of many problems tends to skew lots of problem ratings. I would say most of the problems can be gotten by at least an 1800-rated player.

-Multiple solutions to each problem are needed. They could just give part credit for the solutions that aren't best-that's the way most trainers go by.

currently if a problem has multiple solutions, we just delete it, or cut down the number of moves back to the first point where there is more than one solution. it would be onerous to reprogram tactics trainer to have multiple solutions, so that's just not happening any time in the next 1-2 years.

Sad. Psuedo-code:

import whatever libraries you need

Set up the variables

loop this until window closed:

-randomly pick problem

-check to see the problem's rating is appropriate

-Display problem. loop the timer. Wait for move

-If move is equal to #1 choice, set Correct=1

-If move is equal to #2 choice, set Correct=2

-If move is equal to #3 choice, set Correct=3

-If move isn't equal to any of those, set Correct=0

-change move # by 1

-If Correct=1, do not change percentage correct, say Correct Move!

-If Correct=2, change percentage by x (depends on problem), say Alternative, Partial Credit

-If Correct=3, change percentage by y (depends on problem), say Alternative, Partial Credit.

-If Correct=0, say Incorrect, decrement percentage correct.

-If Move=Last Move #, load comments page, wait for Start Training.

-Change position (make opponent's move)

-Where's the Report Problem link when I need it?

-We should be able to tell Chess.com exactly what's wrong in problem reports.

a form to fill in to tell us what's wrong with a problem instead of just flagging it? maybe... although flagged problems get reviewed by someone carefully, so what kind of specific input are you going to give them that they wouldn't already figure out looking at the problem?

A form, yes that's what I want, similar to reporting ads.

-Please only use truly tactical problems.

if there is a problem which is not tactical, flag it. it'll get deleted. we certainly aim to only have tactical problems, and in my experience (344 attempts, plus unrated mode), i've never seen one that was not a tactic.

What about those long endgame problems?

-Saying 0% after getting the first move wrong is not rational because you couldn't even try some moves. Better would be to say wrong, but let you try the next move.

sure it is. you're not supposed to "try" the later moves. you are supposed to find ALL the moves right from the very beginning. and again, why do you care if it tells you 0%? so you got a problem wrong. it's ok.

What I'm suggesting is just so that you lose a move, then try another move, and then perhaps 1/3 moves wrong=no pass.

I'm considering boycotting Tactics Trainer for those reasons.