Tactics Trainer

I am asking a question here as i am not sure what the procedure is for sorting this out.

I have been using Tactics Trainer for about 5 months now and I have completed 4500 problems.

I am now finding that it is impossible for me to progress, if I get the problem 100% I score 10, if I get it about 80% it is +5, get it right but 10 secs outside the time +1 or -1.

If I fail the problem it is - 20 or 21.

All of this is of course time related, so in essence this is  a Blitz rating.

I want to get away from the time factor and just solve problems in a reasonable standard time.  I feel that constantly playing this way is fun but may be harmful for over the board play.

How do I do this please ??

That's simple; by not paying attention to the time-based scoring system. As long as you do not care about your score/rating, there is no problem at all.

Chess Tempo allows you to solve problems at Standard time is that not possible here ??

You can do tactics trainer unrated.  I think there is no clock for unrated.  Go to 'learn' -> 'Tactics Trainer' -> 'Settings' and there you can change the type to unrated.  :)

Thanks for that E

I tried that but it is unrated.

Why cant we have an option that allows standard time say 2 minutes for a problem.

I do not want to solve problems under blitz conditions all the time and I want the option to be able to measure progress with a rating other than under blitz conditions other sites provide this facility.

Time is an essential factor in chess. As for TT, all the problems there can be solved in let's say 10 minutes. Not to say that such a long solving time will allow someone to set up the position in Fritz and get the answer in this way. So, what's so important about a TT rating? The main purpose of that number is to ensure that each tactician receives problems corresponding to his level, so that normally to solve about 50% of them. It's a mistake to link progress with an arbitrary number (TT rating).

Problems, and opponents, at the appropriate level is the primary purpose of all ratings, it seems to me.

I think rating are useful for measuring progress. Amidst the ups and downs, a general climb in rating is an indicator of improvement. Measuring improvement is the secondar purpose of all ratings.

I found this old thread after seeing Sceadungen comment in a problem on how Tactics Trainer is destroying his confidence.  Have to admit I agree with Sceadungen.  A lot of these problems have me scratching my head and the frequency of these difficult problems is making me angry.  There's no way to set a desired difficulty level and I just seem to get problem after problem after problem that barely make sense to me even after I see the solution.  

I haven't felt this way when I've tried most of the tactics books I've purchased ...and even if I did, at least I had the choice to put it aside and work on an easier tactics book until I was ready for more difficulty.

Right now the percent of problems I get wrong is probably around 50 percent if not more, which is just discouraging and annoying because around 20-40 percent of the ones I get right I'm making my best guess on the first move or so.   So basically I'm over my head around 70 percent of the time and this is where Tactics Trainer is putting me and I have no choice.  Even a reset does no good because you jump like 200 rating per problem you get correct after a reset.

I also agree with his comment about the blitz-like time decay of the score.  It's really frustrating to finally work out a 5 move problem in under 2 minutes and end up with negative points.  Sure 2 minutes is a long time to think in blitz, but it's not long at all in a tactics heavy situation in standard time controls.   

Seems like a lot of posters have found chess tempo to be a superior way to practice their tactics online and I finally am starting to understand what they were talking about.   Thing is I paid for a diamond membership on a site that claimed to be a great resource for improving your chess and one of the primary features is so broken that people would rather pay additional money just to use something else.  Even if you don't fix this I feel like I have gotten my money's worth off other parts of this site (the videos lesson I didn't want when I signed up but am now appreciating greatly) but isn't it about time you fix up this embarassment of a feature?  

Sorry to be so harsh, if you look over my history most of my comments are positive and I do enjoy this site but TT has me quite unhappy at the moment.  

I also feel that we should have an option. With or without time. Reward less points without time, I don't care, but when I find the solution, give me points. I can't blitz, not even if my life depended on it. Don't like it either. But for me using the tactics trainer here is also discouraging.

What I do love however is the chessmentor! Those courses and problems are A+ !

So I've spent around an hour and a half checking out chess tempo and already find it far superior to Tactics Trainer.  And this is just the free basic membership I'm talking about.

First, in standard mode there is no time pressure.  There is a blitz option if you want time pressure.   There's also a mixed rating where there is no time pressure under 5 minutes but there is time decay after that.  

Great.  Now I can actually focus on solving a problem without having to get the negative reinforcement of losing rating despite getting a 5 move sequence all correct in a reasonable amount of time (like 2 minutes ...my patience doesn't really allow me to think much longer than that anyway).   As a beginner, I really don't want to develop the bad habit of forcing myself to pick a move before I really understand what is going on.  With my shaky tactical skills, a little extra time is just what the doctor ordered. 

Second, chess tempo seems to allocate problems with a rating that are on average 100 rating points lower.  So you get punished pretty hard for getting problems incorrect, but the problems are mostly within your ability to solve them.  Some problems are 200 points below rating, some problems are 50 points higher than your rating, but overall, around 100 points lower.  It feels good to be able to solve and understand the problems.  Far better for building confidence and not creating unnecessary frustration.   

It's exactly what I was looking for and it's a shame that this thread is 5 years old and Tactics Trainer hasn't gotten any attention.  Tactics Trainer is a paid feature on this site (5 free problems doesn't really count) and it's far inferior to the free product that chess tempo is offering.   That's without even going into some of the premium features available there like choosing specific problem sets or making use of spaced repetition.

I now sound like a shill for chess tempo and really I'm not.  I haven't signed up there for a premium membership yet and I don't know that I will as their free product is so good.  If anything I feel like chess.com is my new home (I've only been here a couple months) and I'm annoyed that the neighbors have a shiny 4K TV and we're using a crappy black and white.