Hey, guys.  Just thought I'd start a little conversation about one of my favorite study tools in chess - puzzles!

Perhaps you advanced players can share some experiences with us, such as;

- How puzzle solving effected your playing strength

- The effect tactical puzzles/strategic puzzles/etc. have on playing strength in general.  How effective are they, in reality?

- How many puzzles have you solved (estimately)?

- Your favorite puzzle sites?

I know, personally, puzzle solving (predominantly tactics puzzles) has increased my playing strength about 300 points over the course of 20 days (of course, the increase may be a byproduct of my 6-8 hours a day spent studying chess - addiction is a sad thing ).  I've added up the number of puzzles I've solved precisely, and the total is 591 so far!  My goal is to get to 1000 before the end of the month; that's rougly 41 problems a day, but I can do it! :)

Some of my favorite tactics and/or puzzles sites are:

Chesstempo.com - huge amount of puzzles, and if you register an account there (free) they give you stat tracking tools, so you can measure your performance/increase as you go along!  They also keep track of the amount of puzzles you've solved, percentage correct, and have ID numbers for each puzzle so you can go back to the ones you've missed.  They also have a cool little rating system, which is another way to track your improvement.

Chessmagnetschool.com - This one was recommended to me personally by FM Eric Schiller!  It is literally an online chess school!  There is a huge amount of puzzles there, as well as hundreds of lessons, which are classified by playing strength (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced).  This all takes place in a java-based classroom environment.  It has graphs/stat tools/performance measuring tools, top of the line stuff.  Best part is, there's a 30 day free trial - I highly recommend it!

Let's hear what you guys have to say! :)

Highly reccomend chess magnet school as well.I use it with a bunch of elementry school age kids to help them learn the game.not to mention now im  a  coach there so my account is free!!!

I ususally spend about an hour a day working on chess.sadly most of my improvement only shows OTB.or in live games where I can't play currently due to internet connection speeds.however since starting last year just an hour a day made a nice little 600pt improvement.

after that my main learning tools have been Jeremy Silmans reasses your chess workbook and reubin fines 1001 sacs and combos.

I have used both Chess Magnet School and Chess Tempo and they are excellent.

According to highly regarded author and coach Jacob Aagaard the method of Botvinnik was hard work in analysing games, both his own and others. Apparently he taught Kasparov to do the same.

Puzzles and Structured exercises like CMS also add to chess vision. This vision is vitally important. Aagaard says you can only calculate what you see and ideas come easier if you know and understand a lot of chess.

So analysis, including puzzles and structured exercises speeds progress.