Here's another thing you can do with the puzzles. Say you solved the puzzle, good for you, you're up a piece, clearly winning! Now try to convert that advantage against MAX3200. I almost never can, but it's interesting to try.
I'm going to say it...I hate chess.com's puzzles
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Its not that bad its just you cant do it without the membership it is very annoying
Mar 4, 2022
0
#44
Yeah. The last week or so I've fully hit a strange block of puzzles that are all multi move sequences that win nothing or trade off everything but your bishop and a bunch of their pawns, which I suppose you're meant to win with best play. Ratings ranging from 1066 (no the king doesn't get an arrow in the eye,) to 1400+. Oh, I pushed the right pawn +5. Oh, I pushed the wrong pawn -15. Apparently with best moves it's better long term to block with the knight rather than win the exchange. 
zzzzzzzz...
Mar 4, 2022
0
#45
puzzles start getting tricky at 3000.
3500+ ones can take days to properly solve.
3800 puzzles will crush your spirit & cause you to curse the day you learned how to play chess.
figuring one of those out feels incredible...
wouldn't have it any other way: get good, guys.
Mar 4, 2022
0
#46
Hi,
Amusing post by the way. I’ve not seen any puzzle situations as you’ve described yet myself, but to me puzzles are to train your mind to deconstruct what’s happening on the board and learn some patterns, the puzzle rating aspect is kind of useless to me honestly. You can have a high puzzle rating but significantly lower game rating because it doesn’t translate much into your playing strength as other factors play a big role in a game of chess besides finding a tactic in a position you’re told one exists. I wouldn’t put much stock into that whole puzzle rating thing and focus more on learning from the puzzles.
-Jordan
Amusing post by the way. I’ve not seen any puzzle situations as you’ve described yet myself, but to me puzzles are to train your mind to deconstruct what’s happening on the board and learn some patterns, the puzzle rating aspect is kind of useless to me honestly. You can have a high puzzle rating but significantly lower game rating because it doesn’t translate much into your playing strength as other factors play a big role in a game of chess besides finding a tactic in a position you’re told one exists. I wouldn’t put much stock into that whole puzzle rating thing and focus more on learning from the puzzles.
-Jordan
Hey!You’re in a totally normal position!How about Sacking every single piece you have until your opponent has a FRICKING MANSION MADE OUT OF CHESS PIECES
Mar 5, 2022
0
#48
jg777chess wrote:
Hi,
Amusing post by the way. I’ve not seen any puzzle situations as you’ve described yet myself, but to me puzzles are to train your mind to deconstruct what’s happening on the board and learn some patterns, the puzzle rating aspect is kind of useless to me honestly. You can have a high puzzle rating but significantly lower game rating because it doesn’t translate much into your playing strength as other factors play a big role in a game of chess besides finding a tactic in a position you’re told one exists. I wouldn’t put much stock into that whole puzzle rating thing and focus more on learning from the puzzles.
-Jordan
Amusing post by the way. I’ve not seen any puzzle situations as you’ve described yet myself, but to me puzzles are to train your mind to deconstruct what’s happening on the board and learn some patterns, the puzzle rating aspect is kind of useless to me honestly. You can have a high puzzle rating but significantly lower game rating because it doesn’t translate much into your playing strength as other factors play a big role in a game of chess besides finding a tactic in a position you’re told one exists. I wouldn’t put much stock into that whole puzzle rating thing and focus more on learning from the puzzles.
-Jordan
The puzzle rating is useful relative to the puzzle activity only but not compared to other game ratings. For example, and can see my own (hopefully) improvement at puzzles by reference to the rating, and also because of my particular rating I get more or less appropriately rated puzzles for my level. I know I'm saying obvious stuff and your point was about not comparing puzzle rating with a game rating and I agree with that. I think the puzzle feature on chess.com is quite good for what it is. Some people (I'm not saying you) like to say it's broken, but it's typically just that the solution was a little harder than what the solver was hoping for.
Jasonosaurus wrote:
Ha. What a great original post. 😄 Yeah, I’ve been frustrated sometimes too. Wow, I just won a rook! But oops, sorry: I missed a mate in three. Haha.
When this happens, this always mean that taking the rook does not win. Otherwise just report the puzzle. No puzzle has 2 solutions.
Mar 5, 2022
0
#50
uubuuh wrote:
jg777chess wrote:
Hi,
Amusing post by the way. I’ve not seen any puzzle situations as you’ve described yet myself, but to me puzzles are to train your mind to deconstruct what’s happening on the board and learn some patterns, the puzzle rating aspect is kind of useless to me honestly. You can have a high puzzle rating but significantly lower game rating because it doesn’t translate much into your playing strength as other factors play a big role in a game of chess besides finding a tactic in a position you’re told one exists. I wouldn’t put much stock into that whole puzzle rating thing and focus more on learning from the puzzles.
-Jordan
Amusing post by the way. I’ve not seen any puzzle situations as you’ve described yet myself, but to me puzzles are to train your mind to deconstruct what’s happening on the board and learn some patterns, the puzzle rating aspect is kind of useless to me honestly. You can have a high puzzle rating but significantly lower game rating because it doesn’t translate much into your playing strength as other factors play a big role in a game of chess besides finding a tactic in a position you’re told one exists. I wouldn’t put much stock into that whole puzzle rating thing and focus more on learning from the puzzles.
-Jordan
The puzzle rating is useful relative to the puzzle activity only but not compared to other game ratings. For example, and can see my own (hopefully) improvement at puzzles by reference to the rating, and also because of my particular rating I get more or less appropriately rated puzzles for my level. I know I'm saying obvious stuff and your point was about not comparing puzzle rating with a game rating and I agree with that. I think the puzzle feature on chess.com is quite good for what it is. Some people (I'm not saying you) like to say it's broken, but it's typically just that the solution was a little harder than what the solver was hoping for.
To me, at the end of the day, I would rather gain my exposure, learn pattern recognition and make my mistakes thru puzzles than losing live rapid games.
88AlphaSierra wrote:
Warning: big baby alert. I'm going to complain. I'm going to over-exaggerate to make my point. I'm also extremely frustrated.
I feel like 9/10 chess.com puzzles are almost negative learning.
Oooo...you can fork the king and queen with your knight? Too bad, it was mate in 4. And in a bizarre sequence of moves too. Enjoy your -15 points.
Cool! You spotted mate in 3! Too bad there was another mate in 2...again, in an equally bizarre and unconventional way. Have another -13 points on the house.
See that hanging bishop? Take it! Ooops, sorry, in 3 moves you could have set up a pin that won the rook. Try not to let the -15 points sting.
Having trouble finding the move? Been staring at the screen for 10 minutes and have no idea where to begin? Sack the queen.
Not sure if you should check the king with the bishop or rook? Sack the queen.
Are you in a pawn endgame? Promote to queen...then sack it.
Are you in another king/pawn endgame? Is your king protecting your pawn and you're not sure if you should advance your king or your pawn first, even though regardless, your pawn will still be protected from the opponent's king? Good luck. You have a 50/50 chance of guessing right. But like guessing which way a USB goes into the slot, there's only a 10% you'll get it right on the first try.
Hey, you got the right move! But there are several more to go to solve the puzzle...and trust me, they're so weird, they're non-intuitive. Don't take the bait.
Wow! You actually solved that mate in 3! We have, just for you, 5 whole points! That's because it took you 1:43 to solve but you should have been able to get it in 0:27.
OK, I'm going to be completely serious here.
I feel that the majority of chess.com's puzzles are so non-intuitive, it's almost impractical. I realize that not every puzzle translates directly to how I'll play in a game, but I'll seriously look at a puzzle, immediately see a hanging piece, or an exchange where I'll end up +1, and then I'll sit there for 5 or even 10 minutes evaluating everything I can think of because I just know that there's a "gotcha" somewhere. Sometimes, after experiencing gotcha after gotcha, I'll see a hanging piece and I'll know that can't be it...I'm missing a mate in 3 or a way to win the queen. 10 minutes and -14 points later, nope...you should have just taken the hanging piece, idiot.
Yes, I'm aware I can do custom puzzles. Yes I'm aware I can adjust the rating range in custom puzzles. I'm complaining because I'm frustrated. And even though my observations above might be a little exaggerated, I there's some truth as well.
Or, maybe this is just the point of puzzles and I've reached my intellectual limit at the upper 1800s.
As an aside, it would be nice if there was a graph that could show you where, exactly, your weak points are...based on all your puzzles over the last 30, 60, or 90 days, here are the top 6 puzzle categories that seem to be giving you the hardest time, and then you can just click on the graph and start solving those puzzles. Maybe there is and I'm missing it?
Maybe I'm missing the point of puzzles altogether?
OK, I'm done.
i completely agree
Yea I know exactly what OP means. There's been several puzzles I've gotten 'wrong' because I found a way to secure some advantage but not the 'right' advantage. Does sometimes feel like you're meant to evaluate a position exhaustively like a computer and select only the optimal solution. When I started doing these puzzles I quite liked that the puzzles don't tell you what the goal is (mate in 2, mate in 3, or just to secure a winning advantage) so it felt more like real game scenarios... But then real game scenarios are flexible and winning a rook is good but winning a knight or a bishop or creating a passed pawn is also good
Mar 6, 2022
0
#53
always count up the material first:
winning a knight when you're starting a rook down still leaves you with a lost position & so you can instantly know that there must be a better move;
along with taking all the time you need, the other key to improvement with puzzles is to immediately retry each one you get wrong until you find the proper solution & then continue comparing it to your moves until you UNDERSTAND why you lost some rating...
this is just like analyzing your games afterwards for blunders & suggested moves, or trying out endgame drills against a 3200 engine; we ought to learn from our silicon overlords to best improve ourselves. 🙂
yeah
Mar 6, 2022
0
#55
I enjoy the puzzles, it's one reason I decided to become a member. I'm returning to chess having not played for years so for me they're a great way to get back into the game and give my single brain cell a workout 😛 The only thing I'm not too keen on is the time given to solve them, some are just seconds and 2 hours later I'm still trying to work it out (slight exaggeration).
Mar 6, 2022
0
#56
I like puzzles because they introduced me to the astounding variety of positions that arise in this game, I'm thousands of puzzles in and still seeing new arrangements and decisions, which I never would see at my crappy game play level. The puzzles have taught me to look at the whole board, look for a better move, look for the opponents best move, things I plan on applying some day to longer time control games. Revisiting the OP, there's some preoccupation with the Puzzle rating mechanics which I agree can lead to some frustration so I mostly don't look at it, and if I do drop 150 points during a session I take it more as an indication of my mental state (tired, poor focus) than some actual loss of anything. When I do come across a particularly good puzzle I might spend a half hour with it in analysis, try to convert the win (as I commented earlier), and looking at the opponent's initial blunder - what should it have played, etc. I also look at the comment board for interesting puzzles in case there is discussion about it. I like to make sure I understand a puzzle before moving on. If I ever start getting much harder puzzles my approach might change, and I read technical_knockout's recent comments with interest.
Love that post.......its so true
But if you keep plugging away, your score will improve. I didn't think I'd ever stay at 2000, but recently broke 2300. There are days when I suck so bad I get 5 wrong, on other occasions I've got 6/6 correct. No logic to it. Just stick at it. Every day if you can.
What truly sucks is when it throws you a puzzle with a "pending" rating and a 0.5% pass rate, ahem thanks v much.
Omg i just wanted to try playing chass..... I never expect he this hard 1 win in 2 days :facepalm
Mar 7, 2022
0
#60
Here is an example of the types of puzzles the op is describing:
https://www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/1332795
It's a rook and king vs king endgame. Optimal play is Mate in 4 with 1.Kg5. However, you can easily checkmate in greater than 4.
Though, for some reason, the engine claims that it's a draw unless you play 1.Kg5. It's possible to make a mistake and end up with a stalemate or a draw by repetition, but I'm not sure why the engine assumes that will happen.
Ha. What a great original post. 😄 Yeah, I’ve been frustrated sometimes too. Wow, I just won a rook! But oops, sorry: I missed a mate in three. Haha. What can one do? I don’t worry too much. I’ve tried to slow down, and have tried to follow the advice that other poster’s have already given: when you think you’ve found a good move, look for a better one.
I had a good laugh too and feel the empathy.
The ironic thing is I just upgraded my membership so I can do unlimited puzzles lol