2300 Puzzles!

Thanks for the quick response.

Did you find that the puzzles training translate into your games?

I only ask because tactics is the weakest area of my game. It cracks me up doing a game analysis and missing a simple tactic vs consolidating a winning position that albeit is a win but tactics scores style points.

That's a good question.

Let me tell you how tactics train you the way I see it.

The tactics are very repetitive. You can see the same position up to 3 times a day, but never the exact same position. This teaches you to memorize positions and what to do in them. But the weird part is that we don't notice these positions when we move back to the game. Instead we go by bad habits. 

I believe that puzzles in chess being done repeatedly over a short period will not effect your play immediately. However, it will improve your play about a month in the future, if you take it easy on chess altogether.

That gives our slow brains to remember and be able to discover how to get to certain positions and what to do with them.

I am not playing much now because of this experiment but when October comes I am going to anchor down on slower games that I am not used to. I am hoping for good results, but it's only an experiment.

Thanks man!

I really appreciate your personal incite.

I was struggling thru things as well and in conclusion, I retired from speed chess. Migrating back to rapid chess but still stripping bad habits developed from speed chess, and very few games played in the last month just to focus on tactics.

My board vision and awareness has definitely improved. My mental focus is improving as well.

You’re right about the repetition and pattern recognition being elements of improvement. 

What do you think of a mindset going into a chess game?

Mindset is one of the most important thing. Why else would GM stand for "Great Mindset" To be a GM you need Great Mindset, otherwise you will be killed on the road.

I believe in the "Road to GM" a road that one must enter to become a GM. That's the reason for my profile picture. I feel that not enough people on this chess site have the mindset of becoming GM. The Great Mindset is the Road to GM. Mindset includes the need for confidence and perseverance. Roads are long and tough and discipline is also a key character.

If you go into a game with the confidence that you can win (let's say it's 200 rating ahead of you) then my guess is that you will play better than if you went into the game thinking "Oh no, a 2300 player! I am doomed" That mindset will tell your brain you aren't good enough when in reality, you are.

How much time is spent on each problem?

2-15 mins ( mostly 3-8 minutes).

And also I took puzzles only 5 free per day, I cant mess up a lot.

I just looked at your Puzzle stats, seems you are a dedicated player in that department! 26,000 puzzles! Nice job! I am only sitting on 4K puzzles completed.

Looks like you are doing better than me. I am nowhere near 2000 in any other disciplines and you are 2000+ in Blitz and Rapid. You should easily reach 3500 if you press like I have in the last month. If I (1400-1500 player) can make it to 3000 in puzzles, you can do 3500.

After I reached 2900 it took 6 days to reach 3000

I finally crossed 2400. It was a weird and tough experience because I tried doing the 25 allowable per day with my gold membership and that was a horrible experience. It was mentally exhausting and time consuming. 

Because of the mental fatigue, I would do no more than a dozen and shot for accuracy albeit it took me longer than usual to solve the puzzles but it prevented tilting.

For some funny reason, the 1700-1900 puzzles gave me the most difficulty lol.

I do play the engine set at 1800-2100 and starting to see the tactical opportunities now.

Hey, you are going to see a lot of craziness in puzzles in the future. Just look at the ones rated 2600. They are like the easiest things in the world

My goodness, I can’t imagine. Well it’s official, I am a veteran. I’ve come this far and may as well follow thru with the effort.

nice