How do you feel about moving the pieces while solving a puzzle

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Avatar of pdve

I don't really think it's cheating. I use it primarily when the variation gets too long to calculate in my head.

Avatar of Etherized
I feel that is okay to do it but ideally you should do it all mentally. Starting out though I noticed that setting up a board and looking at physical pieces helps me much more than looking at boards setup on the computer regardless of moving the pieces.
So it’s not bad per se but it can easily become a crutch and inhibit learning.
Avatar of Shock_Me
You are solving puzzles to improve your gameplay. Your time is important and whatever makes your learning most efficient is how you should approach it. There is no cheating as there is no opponent. BUT as Etherized says, moving the pieces in your head is also an important skill and it may be that your time is best spent doing the puzzles mentally. Or maybe not, maybe as you start out learning tactics, you need to work them out by moving pieces until you have mastered the concepts. Judge for yourself what works best and do that.
Avatar of madratter7

As you know, Yusupov suggests that you try without moving the physical pieces first. If you get stuck, then move the pieces.

Even great players like Bobby Fischer moved the pieces. He had a peg set he about wore out doing so.

Avatar of pdve
madratter7 wrote:

As you know, Yusupov suggests that you try without moving the physical pieces first. If you get stuck, then move the pieces.

Even great players like Bobby Fischer moved the pieces. He had a peg set he about wore out doing so.

madratter,

I didn't know that he said you could move the pieces if you get stuck. I solved two of the puzzles after I moved the pieces and the solution was elegant as hell.

Avatar of thegreatestgreat

You're cheating yourself of learning how to visualize the play in your mind. Which is the whole point of the puzzle imo.

Avatar of pdve

no the greatestgreat,

 

it's at least better than looking at the solution.