I would do it timed, then if you don't get it in the time allocated don't look at the solution just try and work it out and time yourself doing so... when you think you have it see if it matches the solution.
You will get better and you should still get an accurate appraisal of your current rating.
I can't believe that with all the chess knowledge floating around this site, I can only get one opinion on this!
I would say do some of both but do more untimed.
The reason for this is by doing Tactics Trainer timed one is in essence playing
"Blitz Tactics Trainer". In a real game a player has much more than a minute
or two to come up with Tactics.
I tried doing TT timed on thissite , and got so irritated with it, that I stopped using it and bought Chessimo instead.. I found myself rushing a solution rather than trying to think it though, and making snap judgments which I am not good at. In Chessimo I can set the time allowed and then it gradually decreases the time as you learn.
I would say do some of both but do more untimed.
The reason for this is by doing Tactics Trainer timed one is in essence playing
"Blitz Tactics Trainer". In a real game a player has much more than a minute
or two to come up with Tactics.
I was thinking that somebody on here said that the TT was about the speed of a tournament game.
I tried doing TT timed on thissite , and got so irritated with it, that I stopped using it and bought Chessimo instead.. I found myself rushing a solution rather than trying to think it though, and making snap judgments which I am not good at. In Chessimo I can set the time allowed and then it gradually decreases the time as you learn.
I've never heard of Chessimo.
I don't know if that is true that TT is about the speed of a tournament game.
I do know that when I was a Diamond member I tended to rush the timed
TT perhaps as a bad habit.
Here is an idea for a training method. Use a watch and with the TT untimed
do a problem and take 1 minute, then 2 minutes, and so forth up to 15 minutes
or even 30 minutes. This will allow you to see how well you do under
varying time conditions and also create mental discipline.
I didn't know you could do it untimed but I think being timed is good. It gives you the pressure you would have like in a real game situation. Sometimes it may force you to rush through the answers and this is also similar to a game. But make sure you still think the problems through, and if you really feel like it is too difficult to solve within the time slot you can always just redo the problem. You shouldn't worry about your TT rating as you would want it to be correspondent to your level. If you aren't solving the harder problems within the time you may want to try the easier ones and build up from there. Just make sure you redo the problem if you get it wrong and first try and on the second try spend as much as time as you want.
I tried doing TT timed on thissite , and got so irritated with it, that I stopped using it and bought Chessimo instead.. I found myself rushing a solution rather than trying to think it though, and making snap judgments which I am not good at. In Chessimo I can set the time allowed and then it gradually decreases the time as you learn.
I've never heard of Chessimo.
http://www.chessimo.com/trainer/index.php?lang=en&val=en
I can't believe that with all the chess knowledge floating around this site, I can only get one opinion on this!
Why do you do this in every forum thread that you start? Patience, grasshopper.
I play with the tactics trainer every day, but I must admit, I don't like the timer. It forces me to rush much more than I would in a normal game.
Often, I've seen a move where I know I can pick up a hanging piece - but that doesn't mean that I should hurry and take the hanging piece, because there may be a better move, one that leads to mate or allows me to win more material. But with the timer going, if you don't move fast, you may as well not move. You can lose just as many points by taking too much time and getting the right answer as you lose by getting the wrong answer. (Yes, getting the right answer after the timer runs out still gives you negative points, just like if you made the wrong move.)
That being said, I didn't know you could play without the timer, and I don't plan to start playing without the timer. I just don't worry much about my rating there. It's a learning tool, nothing more.
I play with the tactics trainer every day, but I must admit, I don't like the timer. It forces me to rush much more than I would in a normal game.
Often, I've seen a move where I know I can pick up a hanging piece - but that doesn't mean that I should hurry and take the hanging piece, because there may be a better move, one that leads to mate or allows me to win more material. But with the timer going, if you don't move fast, you may as well not move. You can lose just as many points by taking too much time and getting the right answer as you lose by getting the wrong answer. (Yes, getting the right answer after the timer runs out still gives you negative points, just like if you made the wrong move.)
That being said, I didn't know you could play without the timer, and I don't plan to start playing without the timer. I just don't worry much about my rating there. It's a learning tool, nothing more.
You can do it without the timer, but it doesn't give you a rating. Also the only reason I worry about the rating is, if it's improving, it's a sign you're making progress. If it stays the same, you're most likely not.
If you could play without the timer on the iPhone app, my life would be complete.
i would just keep at it with the timer. if you think a solution to a problem works out with a particular move just try it and see what happens, and if you really cant find something within the given time really spend as much time on it as you need to try and find something before you look at the solution. make sure you learn something from it of couse
but by all means dont not use the freeking time control. what are you crazy? 0o
timed of course...to prepare urself for tournaments.
I flat out do not believe in timed tactics _training_ ... if you want a test, great, use a hard timer. You can get an accurate assessment of where you currently stand with a timed tactics testing. But testing, and learning, are very different activities.
When did you ever learn anything with someone standing over you with a stop-watch? Did you ever do your Math homework that way? Suppose your Math test is going to be timed -- you studied for it with a timer too, right? As you study, if a problem seemed difficult and required time... why after 30 seconds you'd just stop working on it and move on to the next problem... right? Of course not, it has nothing to do with learning, you can't actually learn a damn thing that way. The only thing you've learned is: gee I didn't know how to do that problem -- i'll have to put some time into studying that!
However, you do drill this way.... and you can learn by drilling. You go over the same material faster and faster... it's a way to memorize. If you are working with a set based on the same pattern... you can memorize the pattern. This is something to strive for... unfortunately the tactics trainer does not present problems thematically, so you never get a focus on a particular type of pattern to actually drill.
The Rapid Chess Improvement method is essentially turning the CT.art 3 problem set into a gigantic drill. It's a very ambitious project, there are no doubt easier more efficient ways to go about mastering that material.
Match your training to your goals, intelligently. If you think timed training helps you learn, by all means carry on... IMO it's ridiculous.
IM David Pruess has some intelligent things to say about tactics training for pattern recognition I suggest looking up his post -- I don't have a link, if somone does pass it along.
Pruess' approach is geared toward efficiently studying to recognize tactical patterns. One of his major points: Don't blow your study-time wad on doing 2 hours of tactical training when you can't actually retain anything after 15 mins.
My bottom line: know when you are doing a drill, and drill. know when you are doing a test, and test yourself. know when you are delving deeply into learning something new and challenging and give it all the time and concentration it needs and you can muster.
If you confuse these things and mix up the methods, you'll go nowhere. To the original poster I say, look at your results... you've been doing the tactics trainer, but it's really a tactics test... you aren't learning, you're testing, and you are getting the same score on the test time after time -- it's not surprising at all.
If you are unfamiliar with the test, you'll improve at first, until you get fully used to the test and develop a method that maximizes your score for your current knowledge... then you'll plateau, because you aren't actually adding any chess knowledge.
I flat out do not believe in timed tactics _training_ ... if you want a test, great, use a hard timer. You can get an accurate assessment of where you currently stand with a timed tactics testing. But testing, and learning, are very different activities.
When did you ever learn anything with someone standing over you with a stop-watch? Did you ever do your Math homework that way? Suppose your Math test is going to be timed -- you studied for it with a timer too, right? As you study, if a problem seemed difficult and required time... why after 30 seconds you'd just stop working on it and move on to the next problem... right? Of course not, it has nothing to do with learning, you can't actually learn a damn thing that way. The only thing you've learned is: gee I didn't know how to do that problem -- i'll have to put some time into studying that!
However, you do drill this way.... and you can learn by drilling. You go over the same material faster and faster... it's a way to memorize. If you are working with a set based on the same pattern... you can memorize the pattern. This is something to strive for... unfortunately the tactics trainer does not present problems thematically, so you never get a focus on a particular type of pattern to actually drill.
The Rapid Chess Improvement method is essentially turning the CT.art 3 problem set into a gigantic drill. It's a very ambitious project, there are no doubt easier more efficient ways to go about mastering that material.
Match your training to your goals, intelligently. If you think timed training helps you learn, by all means carry on... IMO it's ridiculous.
IM David Pruess has some intelligent things to say about tactics training for pattern recognition I suggest looking up his post -- I don't have a link, if somone does pass it along.
Pruess' approach is geared toward efficiently studying to recognize tactical patterns. One of his major points: Don't blow your study-time wad on doing 2 hours of tactical training when you can't actually retain anything after 15 mins.
My bottom line: know when you are doing a drill, and drill. know when you are doing a test, and test yourself. know when you are delving deeply into learning something new and challenging and give it all the time and concentration it needs and you can muster.
If you confuse these things and mix up the methods, you'll go nowhere. To the original poster I say, look at your results... you've been doing the tactics trainer, but it's really a tactics test... you aren't learning, you're testing, and you are getting the same score on the test time after time -- it's not surprising at all.
If you are unfamiliar with the test, you'll improve at first, until you get fully used to the test and develop a method that maximizes your score for your current knowledge... then you'll plateau, because you aren't actually adding any chess knowledge.
Makes sense.
Is it more helpful to do the TT timed or untimed, in your opinion? I'm doing it timed right now, and am pretty much staying around the same old crappy rating. Would it help to do it untimed, or would it just be a waste of time?