Great!
I like it too.
After 4000 problems my calculation skill has gone up from 1.5 to about 3! I read somewhere that if you can calculate to 3 moves ahead you can go up in rating to almost 2000. Not sure if that is true though.
The Tactics Trainer is great
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Tactics Training is a great tool. I am not sure how accurate the ratings assigned to the problems are. Also alternative (but not as precise) moves receive a full penalty. There are plenty of ways to practice tactics as long as you find one that is fun and you will use. Chess Mentor also is great for this type of training as is CT Art (though I think it really is useful for above 1600) as well as books.
Looking ahead and visualizing the position are key. Generally it is referred to as ply (computer talk) with each players move being .5 ply How far ahead you see is not as important as seeing ahead correctly. Some positions are more forcing than others so seeing 3 ply's ahead is easier while others are more varied in the responses so understanding the position as well as knowing most of the main lines 1.5-2 ply's ahead is key Though all people at some time miss fine defensive resorts. I am new on this site and so far am a free member doing my three tactics a day but use CT Art regulary
Feb 11, 2009
0
#4
Welcome to the site. I hope you enjoy all you find here. suggestions to you:
take the video tour of the site,
visit batgirls' blog postings and browse in those - as well as her homepage. she has posted opening traps, tactics, and a lot of other things, including fantastic games from many years ago.
try out 'game of the week' analysed thoroughly - comment on each move - by a USCF Expert player - patzer24,
Check out the daily puzzles - you can work all of them, clear back to the site origination circa May 2007.
and user streptomicin started posting some spectacular and startling puzzles for us all to enjoy. (members, search and type his handle into the search bar and search on it. then go to his profile and check out his content (postings).
if you prefer databases to work with - click on members, enter chesskia and search his contributions out. (click on resources, downloads, and look in tactics for his postings = you will need chessbase reader (free download) to open his files but there are a lot of games there, with notations.
there are a lot of others whose work is interesting and contributes to the net chess experience here, and I do not want any of them to think I'm faulting or 'shorting' them by failing to mention. there is just so much available that memory fails me sometimes.
there are nearly 22,000 tactics available to users now. you may never complete all of them at only 3 per day. recommend if you like it (and have the time) consider a paid membership with increased tactics trainer usage available to you then.
there are often 200 more approved every day (not by me alone, but there are over 30 Tactics Moderators) and although we aren't all able to work a lot every day, if each of us attempts to average ten approved tactics per day - that would create 300 new ones a day on average - for everybody to attempt...... in ten days, some 3000 new tactics approved for your enjoyment.
we have about 10,000 more or less pending approval right now, and management can load up more anytime they get ready.
Since you wouldn't know this unless it is defined somewhere, a few of the tactics moderators prefer to review the high-rated - low-solved rate tactics and ascertain validity - or modification needed or delete as a defective or confusing tactic (one that does not have a single fairly clear line leading to a winning position) that should not be here or have been approved at all.....
RetGuvvie98 wrote:
....video tour of the site...
...visit batgirls' blog postings and browse in those...
...try out 'game of the week'...
...Check out the daily puzzles...
...streptomicin.... go to his profile and check out his content (postings).
.... click on members, enter chesskia and search his contributions out....
...a lot of others whose work is interesting and contributes to the net chess experience....
...there are nearly 22,000 tactics available to users now...
...there are often 200 more approved every day ....
....if each of us attempts to average ten approved tactics per day.....
...about 10,000 more or less pending approval....
...Since you wouldn't know this bla bla bla....
Do you guys really have nothing better to do than this?
Get a life for crying out loud!
I find it is quite buggy, often not downloading all the pieces properly. There should be an option to start the puzzle so that if it doesn't download correctly you can exit without affecting your rating. I've lost probably 200 points due to bad downloads.
StumpyPete wrote:
I find it is quite buggy, often not downloading all the pieces properly. There should be an option to start the puzzle so that if it doesn't download correctly you can exit without affecting your rating. I've lost probably 200 points due to bad downloads.
You're probably not near to a good server or something. That's what I've been told since I can't play a live game without disconnection... In other words it's your problem, don't make it ours ok?
StumpyPete, you can’t use Tactics trainer in Opera (never works) or new IE8 (sometimes not work), but it works almost 100% on Firefox. I don’t remember for sure, but IE7 it worked.
On N800 and N810 browsers it works good enough and SO ;) when on the road you have something interesting to do! Pocket Tactic Trainer.
The Tactics Trainer is so great. It's the thing that made me start paying for my membership. My tactics rating has gone from ~800 to ~1400 in a month or so, and I actually played what I would consider my first good game of chess yesterday, including a knight/rook mate that started with a rook sacrifice, a move I never ever would have pulled off if I had not been doing the Tactics Trainer every day.