complaint about tactics trainer

I agree with you, patzermike. But, apparently, we are going to have a new TT. Whether it it will also be designed to reward speed rather than correct solutions remains to be seen.

It is very hard with TT not to be lured into kneejerk attempts. But they have a little sadistic streak with which  they try to trap you.

So, you pays your money and you takes your chance with their mindgames.

It seems like it's near perfect just the way it is. Because any competitive chess game measures time so it makes sense tactics trainer also measures time. I like to play games without a clock, but they are just for fun, so there are no rules on when someone has to move. It's a lot easier to be a great chess player if there are no time limits. I'll bet even someone rated 1200, given no time limit, can find a 2400 rated tactic.

I agree though that a great solution sometimes loses to the best solution and doesn't seem right. A mate in 4 shouldnt be worth nothing even if a mate in 3 is the solution.

If it's a tricky puzzle where the obvious moves fails for a difficult reason then there's no way they'd solve it.

For starters let a 1200 try my puzzles in this topic:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/can-you-solved-this-1

And most 1200 people dont think more than 5 moves depth. Some of 2400+ puzzles are 8-10 moves depth. (some are just 3-4 moves shallow puzzles with unusual pattern or distractions though)

Yeah, to solve the whole sequence should be impossible for really tough puzzles.

Finding the first move is sometimes not so hard. Even if it's an insane looking sacrifice, because you know it's a puzzle it's a move you can find... but finding how to justify your sacrifice against the best defense might require GM level ability.

To be honest I like it.  

You can always target to play without timing. You always get minimum (+1) score for every correct puzzles no matter how long you think.

. (Getting +3 or +10 are only bonus only when you can solve quickly.).

In stacked puzzles, I get +1 or +3  as i think too long to solve them. And I lose -10, -12 in wrong puzzles. But if I can answer correctly about 70% of puzzles , I can always maintain my score.

Hate it. That is why I stopped doing tactics after they changed it. Like it is now is 95% speed and 5% thinking. Old one was 50-50. I don't mind speed to be taken account off, but not to the extent that is right now.

The point of the timer is to give you appropriately difficult puzzles, not to make you move faster. So if i use 10 minutes on one puzzle, then i do not need a more difficult puzzles and therefore i will only receive 1 rating point. The problem with the untimed tactic trainers is that if you are the kind of person who will try to calculate until you figure out the answer, then the tactic trainer will increase the difficulty level until you get puzzles that are so hard that you will give up. So if you are the kind of person who spends 10 minutes before you give up, you will get puzzles that takes approximately 10 minutes for you to solve. 

I agree with you that they should not punish you for finding a mate in 4 instead of mate in 3. What they should do is tell you; "great answer, but try find a better one" and then give you another chance to find the mate in 3.

With no time limit? I'll bet they would. Imagine you were looking for a very difficult one, way over your ability. You dont think you could solve it in 10 or 20 years? Of course you could. I dont see why any ordinary 1200 wouldn't be able to solve a 2400 rated tactic given enough time. But like Pushwood said, can they beat a 2700. I'd say no.

I'm with the horsey on this one. I think you are way underestimating the power of a lower rated player to screw up. It happens to me frequently on Chess Tempo where the problems the way I do them are untimed.

You think you know the answer, but you miss something critical in the position, and you get it wrong. No one is going to spend 20 years on a problem that they think they got right.

When I play timed OTB games, yes, time is important.  But the difference is that while many moves take little time (e.g. many moves in the opening, forced moves, etc.), when there is a critical tactical position, it does take more time to calculate.  And if I make 75% of my "easier to assess" moves using 25% of my time, and 25% of my "critical moves requiring extensive calculation" moves using 75% of my time, I don't get punished for the latter.  It's called time management.  And I don't know how it is in your experience, but most players make their mistakes when they try to "hurry" their critical moves that require additional calculation.

In short, it seems silly to me that the Tactics Trainer uses a "faster is better" approach, since in OTB games faster is more likely to lead to blunders.  But as far as the Tactics Trainer timing goes, I don't really care.  I'm not using Tactics Trainer to see how high I can get my rating.  

I agree. But if they DID, they'd get it right. I'm just saying it's not the difficulty of the problem, it's the time limit, that causes people to get them wrong. That was the whole point of the original comment. There is a time limit on tactics because there is a time limit on chess games so it makes sense to penalize people if they use too much time. Remove the time limit and almost everyone becomes really good.