I'm going to say it...I hate chess.com's puzzles
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I personally don’t think puzzles are as important as everyone says. Only do puzzles when I’m bored a couple times a month. Improvement for me comes from positional play
Jun 10, 2022
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#83
lfPatriotGames wrote:
I didn't read all of that first post, but about half way down it reminded me of the scenes in movies where someone complains of something being too difficult and the mentor (coach, whatever) says keep doing it anyway. And they keep complaining, and the mentor says keep doing it. Pretty soon the person succeeds or accomplishes what they want and can't figure out why. And the mentor says "must have been all the complaining".
Wax on, wax off… wax on, wax off… wax on, wax off….
Now show me wax on, wax off!
That was my coach.
Jun 10, 2022
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#85
puzzles confront you with your flaws:
some people can't handle it; others learn from it.
Jun 10, 2022
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#86
People put far too much stock in puzzles when it comes to actual improvement. They're a great warmup and a good way to kill time, but they're not so great for improvement because normally the theme or motiff is obvious, or they encourage tunnel vision through something similar to muscle memory (when you do an action enough times, your body remembers it and turns it into a kind of reflex, same with the brain and chess positions).
For actual improvement, you want to look at studying openings and endgames.
Jun 10, 2022
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#88
After you burn all those patterns into your memory bank, you'll be the one making all those "counter-intuitive" tactical moves against your opponent and rack up the wins to show for it!
Be encouraged. Stay the course. When frustrated, just memorize that one so you remember it when you see it again and keep going! Most people quit when it gets hard. If you keep at it, you'll be better than most and what's more rewarding is you'll enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you are better than you were for yourself.
Jun 11, 2022
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#89
I recon 1 in 10 ish is annoying, the rest I enjoy being schooled when I get wrong.
I agree. I rarely do puzzles, and my rating has skyrocketed. Misleading statements that “chess is 99% tactics” make people think they can get to 2000 by just doing puzzles. You can’t. Puzzles don’t come flying out of the air. You have to create tactical opportunities for yourself through positional play.
Jun 11, 2022
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#92
puzzles are excellent chess training:
between puzzle rush & puzzles i've had 14,141 attempts. the problem here with people weighing in with virtually no experience is that they haven't the foggiest clue of what they are talking about.
my puzzle pbs are 3600 & 72 on survival... the harder puzzles on this site (3500+) are completely different from the easier ones; much harder to logically work through & tremendously beneficial for your general chess skill in myriad ways.
the easier puzzles are still valuable for pattern-recognition purposes, but the main value of solving all puzzles comes from realizing that there is always one correct solution to be found & patiently searching for the answer;
playing your games as a string of hard-fought battles to find the right moves in every position cannot fail to improve your results.
...unless you're playing bullet or blitz, in which case the pattern inundation that puzzle rush provides is invaluable for strengthening your ability to come up with creative tactical solutions on the fly.
Yes puzzles are excellent training. But I feel like it’s exaggerated
Jun 11, 2022
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#94
i feel like your 52 puzzles don't qualify you to have an informed opinion on the merits of solving puzzles regularly.
I do puzzles on another site, chesstempo.com because I don’t have a subscription on chess.com. Your always free to jump to conclusions when you don’t have the facts though. Stop assuming, listen and get the facts first.
🙃
Feb 18, 2025
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#98
Agree 100%, I actually cancelled my paid membership I er these stupid puzzles. I suggest you all do the same. I've been stuck at 2100-2300 rating for 6 months with no progress. These are retarded and I infuriating. No point. No value. And I love when you get a puzzle correct and are rewarded 5 points but then get one puzzle wrong and -16 points. F you! I'm done with Chess com. Many of the players are just hacks too, cheating. Goodbye.
Feb 18, 2025
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#99
jmc_baseball wrote:
Agree 100%, I actually cancelled my paid membership I er these stupid puzzles. I suggest you all do the same. I've been stuck at 2100-2300 rating for 6 months with no progress. These are retarded and I infuriating. No point. No value. And I love when you get a puzzle correct and are rewarded 5 points but then get one puzzle wrong and -16 points. F you! I'm done with Chess com. Many of the players are just hacks too, cheating. Goodbye.
You have done a ton of puzzles in the last year. 9600 puzzles in 6 months. That is an average of 50 per day.
Your puzzle rating reached 2399 just ten days ago.
But it has fallen off since then. The last two puzzles you missed were one movers.
It seems likely you need a break.
I didn't read all of that first post, but about half way down it reminded me of the scenes in movies where someone complains of something being too difficult and the mentor (coach, whatever) says keep doing it anyway. And they keep complaining, and the mentor says keep doing it. Pretty soon the person succeeds or accomplishes what they want and can't figure out why. And the mentor says "must have been all the complaining".