I finally learned how to study tactics right and finally improved my rating

Is there a way to save incorrect attempts in a database at Chesstempo in order to review them? Or something similar? Cheers!

Just pay the money and use Chess.com's Tactics Trainer Jenium

Following David's advice has worked for me.  I can understand where he is coming from though.  Trying to flood the brain with new information, as opposed to a little bit at a time, is like reading fast, but comprehending little, as opposed to reading slowly, and comprehending a lot. 

You don't have to. ChessTempo does it for you.

You can also customize subsets of failed problems (ie. failed problems with tag 'double attack', or failed problems with rating <1600, etc.)

Then you can review them as a Spaced Repetition Set (meaning ChessTempo will serve you those that you fail repeateadly first, and let more time between attemps for those puzzles you have correct).

It gets back to ego.  It sounds cool to say you worked through 300 tactics puzzle a day as opposed to 3.

I'm fully aware that you CAN customize Chesstempo to feed you the incorrect problems.

I just found it's far more controllable and satisfying for me, and I'll bet would be for others, to do it with smaller, manageable (if you call 1001 tactics small!) sets than the behemoth that's Chesstempo.

I can guarantee that the vast majority of folks who use CT used it like I did, meaning they only sparsely reviewed their incorrect problems, or problems they did slowly. I got TONS out of redoing problems in TacticsTime just to get faster at them. Just being honest about what worked for me and what didn't - I had spaced repetition turned on in CT, and got zero rating improvement over a whole year despite doing 5000+ problems. 

I'll also strongly disagree with the poster above who says blitz is meaningless. It's not the be all end all, but if you can't crack 1100 in blitz, you gotta be kidding me if you say you're as good as an "A" class player in tournament chess.

I plug almost all my 5 minute blitz games into engines for postgame analysis, and I make significantly fewer tactical errors now in my 5 minute blitz at 1200 than I did in a 90 minute UCSF rated tournament game when I was 1450.  So at least for me, there is no question that my blitz rating on chess.com is underrated compared to my prior UCSF rating (about 5 yrs ago). 

I'll also add, that I definitely think it's low yield to just study like 5 problems a day to 'really memorize them.' Not that it's too slow, but you will not truly integrate them until you test them in a large battery of problems - large enough that you might get confused with similar but not identical problems that will throw you off. 

Any patzer, even a 900 level player can memorize 2-3 tactical problems of grandmaster-strength if that's all they study in a day. But throw those 2-3 problems in a bag of 100 additional 'not-so-hard' problems, and that 900 will be utterly, totally confused.

I don't consider myself having learned a tactical problem until I can get it right consistently in a set of 50-100 problems. Which is why I like Tacticstime over Chesstempo - in Tacticstime, it's broken up per 100 problems. In chesstempo, you have to manually make those sets, and it feels a bit involved and artificial to make up your own sets (not that there's anything wrong with doing it - jsut didn't work anywhere near as well for me.)

Thanks! I will give it a try.

To TS. Aside from solving chess puzzles do you also study endgames and strategy? You should also give considerable time studying strategy and endgames as it will help make you a better player.

Read book like Winning Chess Strategy and you will be a better player.

OP here - I actually went through most of Silman's Amateur's Mind, and own Reasses your Chess. 

I can see he really knows what he's talking about, and it's good stuff, but honestly, it makes someone at my level WORSE. I get distracted by the 'minor piece imbalance' when I really need to be focusing on the 3-5 move combos coming down the road.  

Even now, when I plug my 5min blitz games in an engine, I often have zero blunders, and <12 centipawn loss, so it's not like I'm missing combos left and right. But even then, it's still farrrr more about avoiding losing tactics than getting a strategic goal correct.

I honestly don't think I'm going to be ready to actually gain from that strategy books until I'm nearly 2000 rating. And I'm finding it's a LOT more clear to understand Bs vs Ns by doing 100 tactical problems illustrating them, vs Silman's theoretical differences that are devilishly hard to implement as a sub-master.

I'd be surprised if anyone <1700 is better served reading strategy compared to spending all that time doing tactics. I wish it wasn't so , but that's how important those tactics are.

What's the best way to use chesstempo then? I mean, specifically, how do you instantiate the spaced repetition feature or flagging of missed problems? Where is that option? Also, should you turn the timer off, and if so, how do you turn it off? I use it but don't know how to adjust the settings.

@OP. I disagree with what you told. Any chess player, regardless of their rating ,will benefit studying strategy/positional play/middle game themes. But of course they should read positional/strategy books approriate for their rating. I think the Silman books you read is not appropriate for you. You should have started with easier reads like Winning Chess Strategy by Seirawan.

A few years ago I joined FICS and I easily reached 1700 blitz there.  Prior to that I never solve tactics problems. But I do encounter tactical ideas from strategy books that I read. But I never solve tactics problems. What help me reached that rating is my storage of chess positions that I get from studying positional/middlegame/endgame books.

@ jamby - what's your blitz rating here? I find it hard to believe one can get 1700 with zero tactics study.

1800 above at the moment. I really did not solve any puzzle prior to my registration with FICS. Maybe if I can remember correctly, I solved 5 puzzles prior to my registration at FICS(not sure with that). But I do encounter tactical patterns on the books I study. This is where my study of tactics came from. But I never do the traditional solve tactics problems a day from tactics book/software.

I believe a combination of tactics study,endgame and positional study is  benificial. There is this complete beginner that i teachess chess. He does not know the rules of chess. We study/play once a week for one hour. He only play live games once a week with his club for one hour.But we combine studying endgames,tactics and strategy. In one year he  reached 1500 at FICS and got second place in his school. He is skipping chess now as he is busy with his academics subjects.

   Just a thought...

   For speed players, speed is essential. Even at the expense of calculating. This means much studying of patterns and, don't forget, combinations. But they must be performed without eating the clock.

   For players with an ample time window, although pattern recognition is nice, calculating becomes a major component. You can't just quickly push wood when the opponent has the luxury of taking a minute or two...Hell, maybe 3 or 4...to ponder the situation and calculate not only tactically but also positionally.

   I know that today there is more emphasis on speed chess than ever before. But I must add that there are still many of us who prefer quality over speed and thinking over memorization.

    Just my personal viewpoint. And I am very glad that we have far more options on how and when we choose to study or play chess than ever before. So, the short answer is that different chess players can find what works best for their self. But "one size" does not fit all. 

^

Correct view. At longer games to be successull improving your calculation/tactics is a must. In blitz you really don't do long calculations and do deep strategical thinking.

   Another thought...

   Really good chess players with tons of experience may play fast or slow and still play highly skilled games.

   Most of the rest of us would probably be better off playing one or the other.

   And, yes, I know that many will read what I just said and disagree. My answer to that is: bah! 

Do you have to change any default settings on CT to get it to do spaced repetition? Also, should you leave the timer on? If not, how do you disable? Thanks.

I like to add pattern/strategical knowlegde is also a major component along with tactics/calculation in long games. Before you calculate you first think/recall an idea. You get this patterns/strategic thinking from your  study with books as well as your experience. What separate stronger players, is not only they have more abunance of patterns stored in their brain,they also know what ideas/pattern to quickly dismiss from their arrays of knowledge.

@chicken : if you get a CT subscription, send me your name in a private message, and I'll be happy to help you with designing your training there