Is “Solve puzzles” a complete course?
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5 days ago
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#3
Yes I know. So is that the recommended way beginners go about “do as many puzzles as you can to get good”? I.e. choose a specific topic in custom puzzles and focus on that for a while, gradually increasing difficulty?
5 days ago
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#4
Great question — and honestly, you're asking exactly the kind of thing that separates casual players from those who really want to improve.
Doing 50–100 puzzles a day shows serious dedication, and that effort absolutely builds tactical sharpness. But you’ve hit on something important: the “Solve Puzzles” feature on Chess.com (or even Puzzle Rush) tends to emphasize fast tactics and checkmates, often out of context, and doesn’t necessarily ensure you're covering all the core tactical themes or critical endgame patterns you’ll need as an intermediate or advancing player.
For example:
You might get thousands of mate-in-2s, but rarely see pawn endgames, opposition, Lucena/Philidor positions, or how to convert a rook + pawn endgame.
Similarly, key tactical motifs like discovered attacks, interference, deflection, zugzwang, etc., may show up inconsistently and without explanation.
The "Elite" tier may serve harder puzzles, but not necessarily a more balanced or structured curriculum.
5 days ago
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#5
Thanks for the thoughtful answer. So what is the preferred alternative in my situation? Do custom puzzles and focus on one topic at a time? Or another approach, maybe even completely outside of this website?
What I mean by that is, if you do all those puzzles, will you have covered all main tactics, endgame patterns, etc?
I’m keen to learn and I was told to do lots of puzzles so I’ve been doing 50-100 daily. I just go “Solve puzzles” and do whatever is served there. However most of these, after having done 1500 puzzles, are of the mate in 2/mate in 3 type. There seems to be nothing, or very little, on pawn or rook endgames, forks, discovered attacks etc.
I’d like to make sure that I practice those at some point.
Should I simply keep going and assume that later on in “Elite” or whatever is next tier those tactics will be covered? Or is “Solve puzzles” not the right place if you want to make sure you learn all important topics/tactics you’ll need as intermediate player?