Puzzle Rush threw these two positions at me and I didn't what to do for them.

I like the Puzzle Rush mode.

But sometimes even when I feel like I'm doing great, the game spits out several curveballs and it all ends up costing me the attempt. It seems as though the difficulty spikes way too early. Like, come on. I'm only a 320 rated player, at least give me a chance to get at least 8 Puzzles completed.

These two specifically were the ones that ended today's attempt. I would use the Hint option, but I feel it would be better for me if someone explained how and why their solutions work.

For the former Puzzle, I moved White's Queen to C6. It puts the King in Check and protects the two Pawns threatened by Black's Queen. Apparently that was wrong(?).

For the latter Puzzle, I didn't know what to do at all. Therefore, I made the erroneous move to use Black's Queen to take the Bishop at G2. I knew it was obviously a mistake but I couldn't see any better option.

Thank you.

I've got only one more set of three for you to help me out with. Afterwards, I'll try to figure out any future attempts by myself. These three were literally the third, fourth, and fifth Puzzles in the attempt. Again, I feel that the difficulty spike is too steep...

• 275. This one was another case of taking the wrong piece. I used Black's Queen to take White's Queen on D1. But apparently that wasn't the solution. I don't see why.
• 350. This one and the next were simply confusing positions. I did the only sensible move (to me) on this one and moved White's Queen to E8. I didn't see any winning positions.
• 392. See previous reason. This position brought me to a complete loss, so I purposely made the erroneous move of moving White's Queen to E6. I lose the Queen, of course, but I don't see any winning moves in this one.

275: you have a mate in one instead - trading queens just leaves you down a piece for nothing.

350: on the right lines but Re8+ wins

392: you have a typical sort of Arabian mate starting with Rh8+ (you can figure out the second move)

I think one thing you want to do is change the way you approach them: for example in the first position right at the top, you’re starting a rook down. That means that a ‘normal’ move such as doing a check and defending pawns can never work as the resulting position will be materially losing, and instead you need an immediate knockout.

Ditto with 275 - you can reject taking the queen instantly because it just leaves you down on material after they recapture. 

generally, puzzles of that rating will be mates in 1 or 2 or big material wins, that fully resolve the position. There won’t be much finesse to them so try to avoid vague moves that don’t seem to achieve anything much.

Don't play a 5-minute or 3-minute rush, that is just nonsense for a beginner, Play survival mode (no timer). Try to find all checks and captures. Spend time. Not seconds, but minutes.

For example, the 275 puzzle has only one check, and that is mate in one. How did you not find it? My guess is that you made a random move in 3 seconds. That is not the way to solve any puzzle.

Did I put Puzzle Rush? I meant Survival mode, sorry.

Great job! lol my best is like 65 in 1 hour. rarely do survival

i respectfully disagree with you about specifically puzzle rush, NervesofButter:

newer players are lacking particularly in the pattern recognition department & i feel that drilling this area of their game will reap huge rewards over time with the large caveat:  IF they are actually trying to solve each puzzle correctly, rather than guessing on any.

survival mode in particular can be extremely helpful for tactical skill-development purposes since there is no time limit involved whatsoever (just like puzzles).

the leap occurs when one starts doing this:  stop guessing & start taking all the time you need to ensure your submissions are accurate!     🙂

just got a 52

how is this disagreeing

kracker12345:  specifically disagree that puzzle rush necessarily fosters a focus on speed over thinking, since survival has no time limit & you can always put a premium on accuracy...

agree however:  regarding newer players generally, favoring speed chess time controls such as blitz & bullet over the rapid & daily options is detrimental.

I think he assumed "puzzle rush" not puzzle survival since the name puzzle rush has "rush" meaning hurried, etc.. you know what I mean. Therefore he thought it was like 5 min pr or 3 min pr. I don't think he meant survival pr, which is basically like puzzles rated except accumulative. Correct me if I'm wrong.

@Lurking_Garbage, don't despair. You'll start to get it more and more if you persist. Those two puzzles are pretty simple when you've seen the ideas appear in a few puzzles. It's really about pattern recognition, and it does help your play improve with time. 

Check out some videos on common mating patterns. Simon has some great ones on here but think you need premium. There are of course resources on YouTube and the like.

The puzzles up to 1,000 rating (first 15 or so) are going to almost always be a very common mate, free piece, easy fork, or pawn race. Start by looking at checks with the queen, then rooks, then bishops, then knights. If none of those are mate, did any of them instantly win material? If not there's probably a hanging piece (almost always the one they just moved), or a fork. If the entire board is just pawns and you have any passed pawns the answer is probably just to pick up your furthest pawn and start pushing it. If no passed pawns you probably need to move your king directly to whichever pawn is blocking and take it.

However, just starting out you can also just do rated puzzles so the difficulty doesn't ramp up quickly, and you can even do practice mode and, for example, only do mate in 1's to start off with. This really helps groove the patterns since you only have to look at a few moves at a time.

Wait -- I'm not so sure you're disagreeing

@NervesofButter is saying that puzzle rush is not good for beginners because it values speed, and newbies need to learn how to think on a position

@technical_knockout is saying that puzzle survival mode is good because one is learning patterns

You're both right, imho!

'accurately drilling pattern recognition' was my main point of contention... if newer play 3 or 5 rush with the goal in mind of getting each puzzle right (rather than speed-guessing the solutions) then i would say that it's very beneficial & high-volume pattern recognition training.

otherwise, i completely agree with NervesofButter that options fostering deep thinking about positions are vastly superior for beginners' study purposes.

He never said guess-thinking

implied by contrasting speed & thought.