why does everyone hate on the chess.com tactics!?!?!!?!? - Chess Forums

TheRiptide

Nov 22, 2016

0

#1

hello! Today i upgraded my account to the highest level, i was very wary about doing this because i was told that the tactics on chess.com were not good, but i love them! especially how it does not tell you if you are suppose to find the best move or checkmate, it makes it feel more like a real game.

if someone could fill me in on what all the griping is about that would be much appreciated.

so far i am very glad i upgraded

RichardOrm

Nov 23, 2016

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#2

I love the tactics, enough to take out the platinum membership for limitless tactics. The criteria for the solution is simple: pick out the best move, this being the one that reaches checkmate in the least moves (checkmate in 3 trumps mate in 4) or gaining the most points as the chess engine calculates it. If you miss the"best" move, then you haven't looked hard enough. If you still don't get it, click on the analyse option and play through the variants. Of course, in an actual game, it doesn't matter if you've found a 5 move mate instead of a 2 move mate, unless you are going to hit some maximum number of moves limit. Also, you may feel more comfortable taking a moderate improvement that's a certainty over a bigger one that you may be worrying about making a miscalculation.

vit_rosenbaum

Nov 23, 2016

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#3

I wouldn't say I hate chess.com tactics, but I don't use it because it seems to be designed in a way that makes you solve a lots of problems fast, which is of course very economical for the site (money from subscriptions) but not very good for the player in terms of the improvement.

This is the result of placing a time limit on problems, which evaluates only your ability to spot the winning pattern basically right-away and calculate it fast. However, in chess training it is better to solve problems where you do not immediately see the pattern and need to find it first although it might take longer - this is much better for real-game application (blitz including).

Furthermore, the tactics here seems to be designed in a way so you will see almost continuously slight and steady improvement, which will make you think that it is really helping, although in reality it's not. I am convinced of this because I am aware of several cases of players who use the trainer regularly and as a result they have high rating in the tactics trainer, although their blitz/rapid/OTB rating simply does not correspond to that. The most extreme case is one acquaintance of mine who has 2400+ rating in the tactics trainer here, but every time I chanced to play against him, he fell apart hopelessly as soon as the position became tactically rich.

Personally, I prefer to use another site (which I shall not name here publicly, as the forum admins probably wouldn't like it) which seems to be free of these two problems, so that it really helps to improve the tactical ability + it gives you appropriate feedback on how you're really doing.

lofina_eidel_ismail

Nov 23, 2016

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#4

maybe the disliked is stemmed from inflated ratings

tacticians here have hit 4000-6000(top 5)

https://www.chess.com/tactics/players

vit_rosenbaum

Nov 24, 2016

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#5

alex: precisely lofina: wow, I wasn't aware of that - but it proves my point.

ModestAndPolite

Nov 24, 2016

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#6

alexm2310 wrote:

The main complaint now is that there's only one correct solution, meaning you could play a winning move and be told it's wrong because there's a better one

That is my only complaint. And it is worse than you say. Sometimes there are moves that are just as good (win as quickly or as certainly) as the expected moves. nI the world of chess problemsany such move would be called a "cook" and the problem would be considered spoiled.

So it is not simply a matter of finding strong moves. Sometimes you you are also expected to "guess what I am thinking" .

I am reminded of wretched multiple choice questions where the question setter is not as smart as the person taking the test (or completing the questionnaire) and either supplies too few options for all the legitimate responses, or does not realise that more than one of the options is correct.

[p.s. In case anyone gets the wrong ideas, I am not sugesting that I am smarter than the problem setters]

notmtwain

Nov 24, 2016

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#7

Modest, please provide examples of problems where a second choice is just as good. I think that if any of those exist, they are few and far between.