Hmm. After 25.5 hours of tactics I've attempted 3142 problems, with a current rating of 833. Average time therefore is about 30 seconds. Would it be worth me resetting progress and maybe going slower?
Discussing About Tactics... Tips, Problems, and more.
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No. Not unless you make a new account with "expert" as your chess level. Beginner will make you a 400 rated player which is lower. I recommend to keep on trying to get better. Unless you make a new account with "expert" rating (I think it is advanced) and it will start you off with 1000 or intermediate giving you 800. Both me and you need to work on going slower it seems. But I don't think that is a case to close our accounts.
I did intermediate and it started me off at like 1200 for some reason
Oct 31, 2018
0
#25
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
No. Not unless you make a new account with "expert" as your chess level. Beginner will make you a 400 rated player which is lower. I recommend to keep on trying to get better. Unless you make a new account with "expert" rating (I think it is advanced) and it will start you off with 1000 or intermediate giving you 800. Both me and you need to work on going slower it seems. But I don't think that is a case to close our accounts.
You can reset tactics without closing your account. Same as for lessons.
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
lfPatriotGames wrote:
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
drmrboss wrote:
U finished 450 tactics in 150 mins. Your average time per tactic is 20 secs.
Seriously?
What kind of results are you expecting? What are you expecting to learn within 20 secs?
I dont know the difficulty level of 900-1000 rated puzzles and your skill. However, I need 2 min to 2.5 mins in avarage to solve a tactic.
You don't know half the story! Listen up, I used to move fast but I don't now. That was different for your information. I move 40 seconds to 1 minute per puzzle now.
For me even one minute is way too fast. I know often the target time is 20 seconds, and when it takes me 3 minutes I feel like an idiot. But my goal isn't to be fast, it's to be challenged by the problems. Sometimes it takes me 5 minutes, but at least in the end I understand the solution to the problem. When I do try to solve it faster, or, if I guess, I almost always get it wrong. I think no matter what your rating or no matter the difficulty of the problem, just dont move until you really understand the solution. If it's 10 minutes, it's 10 minutes. Who cares.
That sounds like a really reasonable answer and one to follow. But I don't see why you and other people like you come to this forum. What I mean is that even my fast 1 minute is usually over the average time. What do people do? Move in ten seconds and get it right? I think only the high rated ones actually wait, and the problems I am given are lower rated problems so higher rated people don't get them. Therefore, most of the people who get the ones I do move faster. The average does not seem correct.
Maybe the average is not correct, maybe it is. I dont know why it matters. What matters is that you get problems that are about 100 points above your ability. That way you will be challenged, but still have a good chance of getting them right. I can remember only 2 times when I got a problem right in less than the target time. My average I am sure is way above what chess.com says is average. Today it took me over 8 minutes to do one problem, but it was 8 moves deep so I didn't feel too bad. It seems my biggest problem is I never know if a tactic is going to be a 1900 level one or a 2500 level one. So if the solution looks obvious I never know if it's a 1900 one with an easy answer, or a 2500 one that is much more difficult and the answer is much more tricky. So I end up spending way too much time on the easy ones.
You might be too worried about rating points, when that's not the point of tactics. The point is to get better at tactics, regardless of your rating. So the reason people like me come to a forum like this is to hopefully offer advice that might help you.
Oct 31, 2018
0
#27
I agree with ifPatriotGames. I think the point of the tactics trainer is to help us improve at spotting these tactics. For me, when I try to speed through them, I just make mistakes.
For a long while I didn't even realize that time had anything to do with the score. I remember complaining to a friend that the Tactics scoring didn't seem fair - that we seemed to lose more points for getting problems wrong than we gained for getting them right. My friend explained the whole time-thing to me and I started to worry about it and I attempted to go faster. This only led to me getting most of the problems wrong. Now, I don't think about time at all. I take as long as I need, until I see the solution or get tired of looking for it.
lfPatriotGames wrote:
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
lfPatriotGames wrote:
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
drmrboss wrote:
U finished 450 tactics in 150 mins. Your average time per tactic is 20 secs.
Seriously?
What kind of results are you expecting? What are you expecting to learn within 20 secs?
I dont know the difficulty level of 900-1000 rated puzzles and your skill. However, I need 2 min to 2.5 mins in avarage to solve a tactic.
You don't know half the story! Listen up, I used to move fast but I don't now. That was different for your information. I move 40 seconds to 1 minute per puzzle now.
For me even one minute is way too fast. I know often the target time is 20 seconds, and when it takes me 3 minutes I feel like an idiot. But my goal isn't to be fast, it's to be challenged by the problems. Sometimes it takes me 5 minutes, but at least in the end I understand the solution to the problem. When I do try to solve it faster, or, if I guess, I almost always get it wrong. I think no matter what your rating or no matter the difficulty of the problem, just dont move until you really understand the solution. If it's 10 minutes, it's 10 minutes. Who cares.
That sounds like a really reasonable answer and one to follow. But I don't see why you and other people like you come to this forum. What I mean is that even my fast 1 minute is usually over the average time. What do people do? Move in ten seconds and get it right? I think only the high rated ones actually wait, and the problems I am given are lower rated problems so higher rated people don't get them. Therefore, most of the people who get the ones I do move faster. The average does not seem correct.
Maybe the average is not correct, maybe it is. I dont know why it matters. What matters is that you get problems that are about 100 points above your ability. That way you will be challenged, but still have a good chance of getting them right. I can remember only 2 times when I got a problem right in less than the target time. My average I am sure is way above what chess.com says is average. Today it took me over 8 minutes to do one problem, but it was 8 moves deep so I didn't feel too bad. It seems my biggest problem is I never know if a tactic is going to be a 1900 level one or a 2500 level one. So if the solution looks obvious I never know if it's a 1900 one with an easy answer, or a 2500 one that is much more difficult and the answer is much more tricky. So I end up spending way too much time on the easy ones.
You might be too worried about rating points, when that's not the point of tactics. The point is to get better at tactics, regardless of your rating. So the reason people like me come to a forum like this is to hopefully offer advice that might help you.
Thank you for all the advice... I'll forget my rating and try to focus on getting better, no matter what the time is.
mjharris77 wrote:
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
No. Not unless you make a new account with "expert" as your chess level. Beginner will make you a 400 rated player which is lower. I recommend to keep on trying to get better. Unless you make a new account with "expert" rating (I think it is advanced) and it will start you off with 1000 or intermediate giving you 800. Both me and you need to work on going slower it seems. But I don't think that is a case to close our accounts.
You can reset tactics without closing your account. Same as for lessons.
How?
Nov 6, 2018
0
#31
Snow-Wolf-8 írta:
lfPatriotGames wrote:
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
lfPatriotGames wrote:
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
For me even one minute is way too fast. I know often the target time is 20 seconds, and when it takes me 3 minutes I feel like an idiot. But my goal isn't to be fast, it's to be challenged by the problems. Sometimes it takes me 5 minutes, but at least in the end I understand the solution to the problem. When I do try to solve it faster, or, if I guess, I almost always get it wrong. I think no matter what your rating or no matter the difficulty of the problem, just dont move until you really understand the solution. If it's 10 minutes, it's 10 minutes. Who cares.
That sounds like a really reasonable answer and one to follow. But I don't see why you and other people like you come to this forum. What I mean is that even my fast 1 minute is usually over the average time. What do people do? Move in ten seconds and get it right? I think only the high rated ones actually wait, and the problems I am given are lower rated problems so higher rated people don't get them. Therefore, most of the people who get the ones I do move faster. The average does not seem correct.
Maybe the average is not correct, maybe it is. I dont know why it matters. What matters is that you get problems that are about 100 points above your ability. That way you will be challenged, but still have a good chance of getting them right. I can remember only 2 times when I got a problem right in less than the target time. My average I am sure is way above what chess.com says is average. Today it took me over 8 minutes to do one problem, but it was 8 moves deep so I didn't feel too bad. It seems my biggest problem is I never know if a tactic is going to be a 1900 level one or a 2500 level one. So if the solution looks obvious I never know if it's a 1900 one with an easy answer, or a 2500 one that is much more difficult and the answer is much more tricky. So I end up spending way too much time on the easy ones.
You might be too worried about rating points, when that's not the point of tactics. The point is to get better at tactics, regardless of your rating. So the reason people like me come to a forum like this is to hopefully offer advice that might help you.
Thank you for all the advice... I'll forget my rating and try to focus on getting better, no matter what the time is.
Snowy,
We know each other, of course. And I am glad that You understood why players like Karen (@IfPatriotGames) and myself -- rated 1750ish OTB, 2200+/2250+ in Lessons as well as 2400+ and 2300+ in TT, respectively -- posted to Your forum.
I started TT with puzzles rated 1200ish and climbed in 3 years -- solving puzzles initially 5 per day, then far less systematically taking even 3 months long breaks -- to 2300+; but my average time per puzzle is still 2-3 minutes per exercise. It was the lowest when I was rated 1800 to 2000, because I got accustomed to puzzles on that level and solved them in 1 to 2 minutes. Now, I cannot do this with puzzles rated 2300 to 2600.
Of course, I take my time and as Karen (@IfPatriotGames), I feel frustrated when I spend too much time on a 1900 puzzle, or even miss it. I have been good at tactics since the age of 18... but I still progressed. Now, mainly 2300+ puzzles challenge me. My purpose is to get better and get them right. I think, the other day, I got the same 8 move, pretty deep combination as Karen (@IfPatriotGames), but I missed it. Nevertheless, I got already at least one 2600+/GM level combination right.
Nov 6, 2018
0
#32
lund0682 írta:
I agree with ifPatriotGames. I think the point of the tactics trainer is to help us improve at spotting these tactics. For me, when I try to speed through them, I just make mistakes.
For a long while I didn't even realize that time had anything to do with the score. I remember complaining to a friend that the Tactics scoring didn't seem fair - that we seemed to lose more points for getting problems wrong than we gained for getting them right. My friend explained the whole time-thing to me and I started to worry about it and I attempted to go faster. This only led to me getting most of the problems wrong. Now, I don't think about time at all. I take as long as I need, until I see the solution or get tired of looking for it.
In the latter case, go with the candidate move You have seen and the line You calculated. Three situations might occur:
1.) You had another candidate move in mind, calculated the line and saw nothing concrete. AND IT TURNS OUT, IT IS THE RIGHT MOVE. Big time frustration -- happens to me rather frequently.
2.) The candidate move is right but You missed a better move 2-3-4 moves down the line.
3.) A third move is the solution -- one that did not even cross Your mind.
Nov 6, 2018
0
#33
Why do You, Guys, have the impression that Your TT rating stagnates?
Because IT REALLY DOES. Often the penalties for (blitzing and) completely missing an exercise are -13 / -14 points. Well, You need 3 or 4 correctly solved puzzles (on average rating levels) to counterbalance one miss. For harder puzzles (2300+) the bonuses are bigger (7-8 points even if You solve slower than the average), so it is easier to counterbalance a miss. When I was rated 1200 or 1600-1800, I formulated the goal to get every puzzle right even if it takes me ten minutes and yields a single point. At the end of the day I would have +5 points and 35 points weekly. That's a progress!
szaszzo66 wrote:
Snow-Wolf-8 írta:
lfPatriotGames wrote:
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
lfPatriotGames wrote:
Snow-Wolf-8 wrote:
For me even one minute is way too fast. I know often the target time is 20 seconds, and when it takes me 3 minutes I feel like an idiot. But my goal isn't to be fast, it's to be challenged by the problems. Sometimes it takes me 5 minutes, but at least in the end I understand the solution to the problem. When I do try to solve it faster, or, if I guess, I almost always get it wrong. I think no matter what your rating or no matter the difficulty of the problem, just dont move until you really understand the solution. If it's 10 minutes, it's 10 minutes. Who cares.
That sounds like a really reasonable answer and one to follow. But I don't see why you and other people like you come to this forum. What I mean is that even my fast 1 minute is usually over the average time. What do people do? Move in ten seconds and get it right? I think only the high rated ones actually wait, and the problems I am given are lower rated problems so higher rated people don't get them. Therefore, most of the people who get the ones I do move faster. The average does not seem correct.
Maybe the average is not correct, maybe it is. I dont know why it matters. What matters is that you get problems that are about 100 points above your ability. That way you will be challenged, but still have a good chance of getting them right. I can remember only 2 times when I got a problem right in less than the target time. My average I am sure is way above what chess.com says is average. Today it took me over 8 minutes to do one problem, but it was 8 moves deep so I didn't feel too bad. It seems my biggest problem is I never know if a tactic is going to be a 1900 level one or a 2500 level one. So if the solution looks obvious I never know if it's a 1900 one with an easy answer, or a 2500 one that is much more difficult and the answer is much more tricky. So I end up spending way too much time on the easy ones.
You might be too worried about rating points, when that's not the point of tactics. The point is to get better at tactics, regardless of your rating. So the reason people like me come to a forum like this is to hopefully offer advice that might help you.
Thank you for all the advice... I'll forget my rating and try to focus on getting better, no matter what the time is.
Snowy,
We know each other, of course. And I am glad that You understood why players like Karen (@IfPatriotGames) and myself -- rated 1750ish OTB, 2200+/2250+ in Lessons as well as 2400+ and 2300+ in TT, respectively -- posted to Your forum.
I started TT with puzzles rated 1200ish and climbed in 3 years -- solving puzzles initially 5 per day, then far less systematically taking even 3 months long breaks -- to 2300+; but my average time per puzzle is still 2-3 minutes per exercise. It was the lowest when I was rated 1800 to 2000, because I got accustomed to puzzles on that level and solved them in 1 to 2 minutes. Now, I cannot do this with puzzles rated 2300 to 2600.
Of course, I take my time and as Karen (@IfPatriotGames), I feel frustrated when I spend too much time on a 1900 puzzle, or even miss it. I have been good at tactics since the age of 18... but I still progressed. Now, mainly 2300+ puzzles challenge me. My purpose is to get better and get them right. I think, the other day, I got the same 8 move, pretty deep combination as Karen (@IfPatriotGames), but I missed it. Nevertheless, I got already at least one 2600+/GM level combination right.
Sometimes I do tactics right before something and it stresses me out. I need to find the right time to do them. The hard thing about tactics is sometimes you have to choose between two things that seem good. This, obviously takes time. I need time to take time. So I think I should start at least 5 tactics everyday at a certain time I am okay with.
Nov 6, 2018
0
#35
Yes, do not rush... and make 5 tactics at least at 60% success rate Your first goal.
If I could add one more thing. I understand the importance of the clock in chess, because there has to be some time limit for the game. But I dont use a clock at home when I play with family or friends. Often we will just play 10 or 12 moves and then start over, or set up a position with random pieces and play from there, or leave a game in progress and come back in a few days. But always with no clock because it's distracting and not necessary. So while some people need to put a big emphasis on time because they play competitively, I dont need a clock at all. So I am used to taking a long time to do tactics. I know my tactic rating is too high compared to my real ability but to me it's like doing a good jigsaw puzzle. It's not about time, it's about how much you like doing it.
Nov 6, 2018
0
#37
lfPatriotGames írta:
If I could add one more thing. I understand the importance of the clock in chess, because there has to be some time limit for the game. But I dont use a clock at home when I play with family or friends. Often we will just play 10 or 12 moves and then start over, or set up a position with random pieces and play from there, or leave a game in progress and come back in a few days. But always with no clock because it's distracting and not necessary. So while some people need to put a big emphasis on time because they play competitively, I dont need a clock at all. So I am used to taking a long time to do tactics. I know my tactic rating is too high compared to my real ability but to me it's like doing a good jigsaw puzzle. It's not about time, it's about how much you like doing it.
Three points:
1.) I agree: the clock is mostly superfluous when training at home.
2.) I agree: tactics puzzles can be a source of great enjoyment; discovering the aesthetic beauty of chess.
3.) Karen (@IfPatriotGames): I think You underestimate the benefits You may derive from solving puzzles in terms of improving Your OTB skills and abilities.
lfPatriotGames wrote:
If I could add one more thing. I understand the importance of the clock in chess, because there has to be some time limit for the game. But I dont use a clock at home when I play with family or friends. Often we will just play 10 or 12 moves and then start over, or set up a position with random pieces and play from there, or leave a game in progress and come back in a few days. But always with no clock because it's distracting and not necessary. So while some people need to put a big emphasis on time because they play competitively, I dont need a clock at all. So I am used to taking a long time to do tactics. I know my tactic rating is too high compared to my real ability but to me it's like doing a good jigsaw puzzle. It's not about time, it's about how much you like doing it.
I don't do time games with my brother or father either. It is nice just to relax with no time. This is why I rarely do live as well. I usually do daily so I can actually think for a while.
Hiya guys! For those who are still following, I wanted to say that by resting my tactics and going slower I have broke 1200 and might even get to 1300 soon. Thanks for all your tips! 
SnowyTheWolf wrote:
Hiya guys! For those who are still following, I wanted to say that by resting my tactics and going slower I have broke 1200 and might even get to 1300 soon. Thanks for all your tips!
that's nice
For me, I just keep thinking until I find the correct move sequence if I don't find one then it is ok I just make a move that 'looks' correct and If I get it wrong then I get the 'hint'. I usually try to get tactics fast because it will increase my rating and also help in blitz and puzzle rush.
I've done about 3000 tactics puzzles over the course of a year on this site, got about half correct and a rating currently about 900. My main issue is that the rating makes no sense. My rapid rating is about 1150 and daily about 1250. So I'm aware I'm not a good player. Yet the rating might still go up or down by 10 points per problem even after 3000.
Yeah. My problem with it is that when I do focus on getting them right, I get like 5 right and 2 wrong, and my rating is near the same as before. I feel like it goes down much farther than up.
Like I said, the rating makes little sense on this site. It definitely seems to go down more than it goes up. Saying that, you seem to get about the same points if you get it right after 10 seconds as after 2 minutes, so it pays to go slower.
Very true. I agree with that.