Terrible Puzzles demonstrating puzzle cheat proliferation
https://www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/1857094
This puzzle is preposterous. The statistics on it are what make it so obvious that there's a lot of people who realize that cheating in puzzles is a good way to cover their game cheating.
I stared at this puzzle for two minutes, got the position in my brain, and walked away for a few, but I still spent more than 10 minutes on this puzzle in total. I probably should have spent less but I had to spend a heck of a lot more than 22s. Not because I missed Nxg7, I saw that instantly. That's not what this puzzle is about and if you think this puzzle has to do with Nxg7, I think you cheat.
"But if Nxg7 is the correct move, why isn't it what this puzzle is about?"
Because Nxg7 is the last move I want to actually play in this position. I have a knight on e6 stopping black from castling, and my rook is on d1 also giving the black king some issues. My knight isn't going to make it out alive after Nxg7, and I'm giving up my entire attack. Yes, Nxg7 nabs a pawn. It gives up the attack. If I have anything else, I would rather play that.
Therefore, this puzzle is about trying to make everything else work. The move I spent the most time on was Rxd6 of course. Rxd6 Qxd6 Nxg7 Kf8 f4 is very interesting, but it's just one move short of actually working. I need the knight on e6 stopping Qc5+ after f4, but then they just take on e6.
There was also some Bxh6 that needed calculating but I think they can take on h6 with the rook? Bxh6 Qxe6 Qxe6 fxe6 Bxg7 solves the immediate problem with the knight on e6 hanging, Bxh6 fxe6 Qg6+ Qf7 Qxg7 does good enough as well I think. But Bxh6 Rxh6 holds up I think, horizon effect. Probably gxh6 works for black as well, but the point is this;
There are many, many ideas which need to be refuted, that could be better than just taking the pawn on g7. So there's only two ways you can solve this puzzle in 22 seconds, the target time. One, is by seeing nothing.
"My knight is hanging, I only have one square, and his pawn is hanging on g7! Oh no, my knight is hanging, I have one safe square!" Given this is a ~2500 rated puzzle, the people who are getting it, should not be doing that. That's acceptable thinking for a 1,000.
The other is by cheating and not understanding the puzzle at all.
I suppose there's a third of "having seen the position before" but that doesn't actually count. Remembering a position is not the same as solving a puzzle.
50% solve rate? 22s target time? This shows that the statistics of these puzzles has been gamed HARD. I've been seeing 2500 rated puzzles that I stare at for 10 minutes and there's just nothing, then 2900+ where I'm like "oh this is an obvious motif it's just an 8 move combination."
I get mostly puzzles which are 2400+ rated since I'm pushing for 2900 puzzle rating right now. Some of them make human sense and I can solve them quickly. Some of them are straight calculation and the only way a human gets it right it by refuting all the lines but one.
