Have you ever actually improved your Tactics Trainer rating?

I've been using tactics trainer since February 4th of this year.  When i say using, i mean daily.  i think i "started" with about 50 attempts under my belt and a rating of 1400.  After about a week i surpassed 1800.  Ever since then i hover between 1830-1930 with a peak of 1950. 

It's been about 3 weeks, i have logged a little over 10 hours and about 1200 attempts (i guess that's about 55 attempts per day).

I haven't used this tool long enough to know if it's one of those things you just peak at or does one slowly improve.

Q-----Have any of you used Tactics Trainer regularly for a long period of time? (say...more than 3 months)

If so....

Q-----Have you slowly improved or quickly hit a "peak" and never been able to break through?

Q-----Have you seen improvements in your actual chess play?

please state how long you have used Tactics Trainer and how many attempts you have logged.

Thanks,

-Sensuinaga

I bin at it for 14 hours, 1372 attempts - peaked at 2268, back in October - currently 1864 - probly cos I don't try so hard any more an' my machine seems to have slowed down, so when I get 'em right, I gets fewer points - also I only tend to use it now when I'm too tired to play, whereas when I started it I attacked it very enthusiastically me number seems to go up an' down in direct relation to how much sleep or alcohol I've had

 Do you feel it improved your chess?

I don't use the chess.com tactics trainer, but another one, and yes, I do feel that it helps my chess, and that it widens my tactical vision.

The only times I use the chess.com one is when I'm really tired, but still want to do atleast some tactics.

I find it's very hard for me to raise my rating on tactics trainer because of the speed element of the ratings. I have to go more slowly than the average player.

I end up either going too fast and getting the wrong answer, or going too slowly and losing points even if I get the right answer. I typically lose 15 points on each problem I miss, but only gain about 12 on the ones I get correct.

Still, I feel like it helps my chess, and I sometimes enjoy it.

I think I wish it had a mode where it would feed me problems just above my level, and not score me. Then I'd get less discouraged.

I started with TT when I started the site in September last year. Just before the beginning of the year I became a premium member, primarily for the unlimited tactics.

I have done 4246 tactics and fluctuate constantly, though I will often stay in the 1700-1850 range, with a high ot 1989. Depending on my mood at the time and the level of distractions, I will sometime drop much lower and have been in the 1400-1600 range a number of times. I have actually found that range to have problems that are actually harder for me to see/calculate correctly.

While I haven't seen major improvements, yet, I am noticing certain motifs that I miss a lot more than others and have been able to improve in those areas somewhat (i.e. miss fewer tactics that feature those particular motifs).

I absolutely believe that continued tactics training will help improve my tactical vision and translate in to my normal play.

There is an unrated mode that does just that. You can set the range and do it at your leisure. Change the range if you feel it isn't accurate anymore.

6 months huh?  4200 attempts!

That seems like an aweful lot of time and effort for something that you don't feel has improved your gameplay.  Like you said...maybe someday.

Maybe Tactics Trainer doesn't really help!

Groteskbold: the purpose of TT is to give you problems at exactly your level. If you go to slow for some of them, it means that your level is a little bit lower. 

Do you know that you have the option of doing problems in the untimed mode? There you can select the rating of the problems you want to receive.

 Well, that has only been 2 months with unlimited tactics. About 30 minutes a day on most days, some longer sessions and some days with multiple sessions. State of mind while training comes into play a lot. I find on my worse days that I just give cursory glances and calculate less. That is one of the areas that I'm working to improve, to make it so I will always calculate to the end before making the first move.

Incremental improvements. I have to retrain my thought processes and that isn't an overnight process. At the end of the year, I hope to be over 2000 consistantly (in the trainer), if not higher, and able to do lower level ones quckly and accurately 99.999% of the time. Even when I'm not really into it (e.g. distracted)

So basically.....nobody has ever increased their Tactics trainer rating over a long period of time.

That sucks.

Perhaps because nobody have found the good way to use this tool...

i currently try to increase my passed problem ratio instead of my rating. i don't care if i lose points on time. I want to find the solution. i believe that with training, i will learn patterns and so increase my speed.

i "own" some of these. i can find solution in less than 10 seconds where average time in a minute and half. i train myself with touch move. I don't begin the move sequence unless i saw the end or the clear advantage. my principal lack is to grab material when there is a forced mate or i can't find the shortest mate.

How does the premium members use the tactics trainer ?

I don't know about you lot, but without a computer and with good old fashioned book-work, I'm more likely to work out the variations in my head rather than trying what seems like the most obvious move. I think this breeds better habits.

p.s. use chesstempo.com for tactics puzzles. It's better, and free, although the explanatory analysis is always a bit thin compared to TT.

 I've been using TT for quite a while.   I had about 15,000 attempts and 150 hrs before resetting my stats recently. (see below)

I'd say if you're basing any improvements on the rating score that TT gives, then you might be chasing a moving target at the moment.  They make changes to TT every so often in an effort to adjust ratings to bring them ( I think a little closer to actual chess.com ratings), so continuity on the ratings score in TT probably isn't a fair assessment of your true performance. 

Before resetting my stats about a month ago, there were as follows...

Rating

Problems

Like many have said, my rating also fluctuated (and still does, just not as dramatically now), but it is hard to determine at times if thats due to my performance, or changes that may have been made on TT by chess.com.   While this may seem annoying to some, the rating score IMO, shouldn't really be the goal anyway.  It should be to improve your actual game!    This is why the term Training is used....lol

So let me ask your question like this and then provide an answer...  

Do you think the Tactics Trainer app. has helped improve your game (or actual Game Rating)?  
The short answer is an absolute YES!!!

I spot tactics much easier in games, simply due to seeing motives over and over in TT.   I spot my opponents tactical shots easier also, for the same reasons.   I personally believe that ANY tactics training (especially for those who don't get much), will likely improve ones game almost better than anything else you could do at this level.  

If you're finding it difficult to answer this question, then it might be that you simply are playing too much TT and not enough games...lol   (I'm guilty of this myself BTW ;-)       

Anyhow, I hope I answered all 3 questions.

BTW, I agree with Muetdhiver.   Shoot for higher pass rate's rather than actual rating.   This will force you to slow down which will actually help your calculation in games as well.   Right now, my pass rate hovers at about 65% which is probably not high enough.  My coach suggested aiming for about an 80% pass rate (which is why I reset my stats recently)  That percentage moves super slow when you have 15,000 problems behind you....lol

You can use the tactics trainer untimed. That's what I do. It doesn't give you a rating though.  

 Did you gradually get to over 2000 or did you get there within a few weeks and have fluctuated since?

I'll give my answers to the questions asked in the first post.

1. Yes. I've used emrald for about 4 years and the TT here for like 2 years. About 25,000 attempts on emrald and 10,000 here.

2. Well, you hit quickly a peak -- that is the the level of your tactical ability. Improvement comes after that, and it's a slow process.

3. Of course. Besides, the tactics trainers taught me how to play blitz. I've never imagined 3 years ago that I would be happy to play 3 0. Not to mention 1 0 :)

 Sensuinaga said:
Did you gradually get to over 2000 or did you get there within a few weeks and have fluctuated since?

When I first started about a year ago, I struggled getting to 2000, then eventually went over 2000, and eventually maxed out at 2400.  Then I would fluctuate between 2000 and 2300.  I have no clue if that was due to changes made to the rating system, or some days I just didn't do well.  Anyhow, after resetting my stats recently, It took me about a week to get back to 2000, and my rating has not fluctuated that dramatically since.  However, my pass rating is higher now that it was before, since I am taking more time to solve puzzles.   Like I said before, I am really watching the pass percentage rate now, because I think this is more important the beating the clock.   Quickness is probably important in games when time is low, but on a "trainer" I am more interested in solving the problem and working out my calculating skills.   I find that as I focus on the pass percentage rating (many times allowing my time to expire on puzzles) my rating seems to stay fairly level.  Funny how that works, but it does.  

Lets face it, as chess players, you need tactical study in some shape or form.   Its just too vital to ignore altogether.  Now, is that ALL you need to improve?  Obviously not.  There's a lot of things you have to learn to improve, so if you plateau out at a certain rating, intensifying you tactical study may not be what you need.    You know what I mean?   Maybe some other weakness in your game is holding you back.  Regardless, you still should have a healthy "daily" dose of Tactics practice.   I'd compare it to weight lifting for football players, or practicing music scales for musicians.   It's probably not required, but I suspect your game may suffer without it.   And if you're like the rest of us, you're addicted to the game and love solving problems

Regards!

I have been sitting on this for a few days but...

I don't think Tactics Trainer helps one's long term abilities to calculate moves ahead, or see checkmates. 

On the short term, one learns patterns and starts recognizing ideas (ratings jump!)...but once those are learned I haven't heard anyone here give convincing testimonial that their rating has gone up.