Puzzles Work!

Всем привет!

I've been having a great time with this game and wanted to share my experience thus far on chess.com

I thought I had an idea how to play and jumped right into 10 minute rapid, but with great frustration I quickly tanked my rating:

I went from 598 to 281 over three infuriating days, yikes!

I thought 400 was a typical beginner rating, but the competition down in the 200's is pretty stiff. They know openings, quick mate tricks, and how to pounce on a blunder. I merely held ground down there for a week trying to pay attention to defending my pieces, not blundering or making useless trades, and praying I could hold out for time or a stalemate.

I couldn't take the abuse anymore, so I moved to puzzles and working through the lessons. (Side note: these are great for curing boredom while on an elliptical )

These puzzles are often tougher than my current opponents, but they naturally teach how to see the relationship between pieces. I've found that getting the solution is only a small part of the learning.
Sometimes they're pretty tricky and present several seemingly obvious solutions that are in actuality blunders, finding and eliminating all of the wrong moves in addition to getting the solution is where I am starting to understand the language of chess.

I'm currently leveled out around 1250 where they are starting to throw forks, skewers, and mate prevention at me instead of the mate in 1-3 it's been up to here. Regardless, I'm proud and they're presenting a major impact on my games!

(In addition to puzzles and the basic lessons, I have also switched to 15|10. This gives me plenty of time to consider all the options and analyze each move like I do the puzzles. I thought 10 was slow enough, but after the switch to a longer game, it feels like a continuous panic attack )

Anyway, check out the record of my past 20:

I've won 18 out of the last 20 and my rating is up to 396!
Maybe I should have saved this post for breaking 400, but I just played three, need a break, and am proud as hell!

Although puzzles have helped me immensely, I must note the people playing 15|10 are wildly separated from the 10 minute folks. They're much more calculated and tactical, but along with that, incredibly finicky and temperamental.
The first moment they blunder, especially with a rook or queen, there is a good 80% chance they're going to abandon, and about 50% of those cases are going to intentionally run the clock down to abuse their opponent for capitalizing on the blunder.

Oh well, soon I'll rise to a level where I'm getting destroyed and can bow out gracefully with a resignation. (Maybe a cheeky draw request at worst )

Have a good day all, hope you're having fun too!