Today I reached 2400 in chess.com puzzles!

Hello there everyone!
After a few months of training, I reached 2400 in puzzles

I remember it all started when my friend reached 1600 (at this time I was 700).

Because of this he would always see tactics that I didn't and win games easily.

That's when I started practicing puzzles.

Here is what I learned for each rating range!

100 - 1000

At this point it's important to look at checks and hanging pieces. There are lot's of checkmates at this level. The patterns are backrank mates, hanging piece, fork, pin, skewer and M1.

1000 - 1200

At this level it's important to look at checks, then captures, then attacks.
There will be similar patterns, but I had to find more crafty ways of executing them. This was the level where most of the puzzles were Mate in 2-4.

1200 - 1500

Now it's important to learn things like double attack, discovered attack, double check, and the idea of attacks. Usually if an attack can't be stopped or to defend it it comprising the opponents position, it's something worth looking into. Here there will be more combinations of checks captures and attacks, checkmates start to become less frequent.

1500 - 1800

At this point I learned the importance of move orders and calculation.
At this level I had trouble evaluating captures, here's what clicked:
Evaluate all the checks a few moves deep, if there is nothing then go to the next checks.
After the captures what changes in the position? If something significant changes can we exploit it?

I found often that there were a lot of puzzles with no checks at all.
And finally, don't ignore threats. I forgot about threats because of how many checks and captures there were, but now there will be more of them.

1800 - 2000

I just kept grinding, more in depth calculation and attacks.
This was one of those levels I just had to improve overall.

2000 - 2400

At this point I started a puzzle by looking at the position and understand all the tactical resources and concerns for both sides before using that information to come up with a solution.

That's what I have learned.
Hopefully it's helpful to someone else on their journey to puzzle mastery!
If anyone has anything to add, feel free to.
Have a great day

Congrats on that great achievement! I will definetly use your notes on my journey in puzzles

Congratulations my friend!!

Thank you so much!

Congratulations! Hopefully I will get there soon

I would be depressed upon reading this if I didn’t reach 2800 two days ago :>

Same. (Actually I don’t think I quite hit 2700. Maybe like 2680...) 

My advice for 2400-2700 is to take you time on the puzzles. Rather than spending 30-60 seconds per puzzle, spend 2-3 minutes. It’ll seem bad at first, slow and ineffective, but soon your rating will start going up and puzzle time will go down. Now I hover around 2600 and solve most my puzzles under a minute. And when you start getting a couple puzzles wrong, just stay calm. 

I think above 2400 you just have to recognize what kind of tactics are in the air by looking at the position. I’d often spend 10 seconds per puzzle and was steady around 2500-2600 that way

Another tip I would have is to set a goal. A few days ago I started the morning rated 2504. I had a couple friends who were both rated 2538. So I told myself I WOULD (do or do not, there is no try) set my puzzle record and get higher rated then them by the end of the day. At the end of the day I was rated 2628.... 90 points higher than my friends and +124 from earlier that morning.

Good job! My highest in puzzles was around 2100, never thought I would make that high considering how bad I am at chess lol

Thank you for the advice!
I think the time limits are ridiculous and you should only input an answer if you are absolutely sure. Because in a serious game you don't just take 30 seconds and play something.

I reached 2400 today too

That's great!
The puzzles are getting really interesting

Im at 800

im at like 400

congrats

I believe in everyone!
Look at the checks, backranks, and other tactical themes I mentioned!
I also recommend checking Daniel Naroditsky and GothamChess as their puzzle guides were super helpful to me.

Good work!

Thank you

I was once at 2500 on lichess, but they made daily puzzles rated so now I'm at 1900.