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".
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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#84
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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#86
puzzles confront you with your flaws:
some people can't handle it; others learn from it.
Jun 10, 2022
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#87
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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#89
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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#90
I recon 1 in 10 ish is annoying, the rest I enjoy being schooled when I get wrong.
Wattaguy95 wrote:
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.
Exactly. I've only done one puzzle though. They kill creativity. They are probably only good for bullet players, who need to find the direct route.
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.
ScatteredWealth wrote:
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.
Literally the only thing I got from this was that you saw a good move but failed to look for a better one.
REALLY good post there.
Jun 11, 2022
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#95
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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#97
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.
In fairness that is half the point of the puzzles. Prioritising tactical requirements of the position.