Why puzzles often only +5, but -15?!

Puzzles have ratings. If you are 1800 and you solve a 1300 puzzle, you will get only some few points. When you solve harder puzzles you get more points.

Rating gained is both a function of the puzzle rating vs the time to solve vs the average solve time. So solving correctly faster will give more points.

I pushed to my current high of 1908 TODAY! And I used some ideas from here:

1) Try really hard to find it fast.

2) If not fast then slow down and at least get it right. Many puzzles start to have the same patterns that can be recognized fast (which is the point, I guess).

My tips for solving puzzles:

Take a break if you get angry. I get it, you want to get more points. Just relax and return later. I found out the hard way after losing 200 points in one sitting.

Scan the whole board

Look for checks and captures (Forks, skewers, pins included)

Find hidden resources (Ex. double checks?)

Every once in a while, I get a huge puzzle rating increase. Probably because I'm actually awake.

Also regarding the topic itself, the rating you lose is constant from the start. However, the amount you gain decreases the longer you take. The minimum you can gain is +5, even if you spend an hour on the puzzle. As long as you get it right.

There have been some changes related to how ratings are being handled and some members currently are seeing the updates. The overall system is supposed to be improved but my understanding is part of the change is trying to handle ratings inflation in puzzles.

If you fail an "easy" puzzle (for your rating), it assumes you underperformed.

They developed the current points system with target times in 2017. They initially gave a minimum of one point for a correct answer.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/suggestions/tactics-trainer-average-time-1

But a lot of people got upset.

So they changed it so you would get five points for a correct answer, no matter how long you took.

because chess.com programmers have no clue what their doing

the puzzle ratings on chess.com are all messed up that's what up

I do puzzles almost daily, and noticed all I ever get anymore (in the past week or two) is 5 pts.... even if I solve it in a second or two. I just mis-clicked and failed one and had 31 points taken away LOL.

What's going on with puzzles? I realize I'm around 3000 in puzzles but only ~2000 and there's zero correlation in ratings, but it's nice to have a goal and aim for it... but something has been changed recently...

There has been a backend change in the ratings of puzzles but the UI is still showing the old ratings. It's very possible the majority of the puzzle you're getting are actually much lower rated than your current rating, so that's why you aren't getting many points and lose so much on a miss.

The system was changed to more accurately reflect puzzle strength.

Well I am also only getting +5 on a win (atm 10 in a row).. It is damned annoying and not reflective of an ELO system as should be!

womp womp

i dont no

I've started running into this issue, too. I get a +5 for problems answered correctly, and then something between -17 and -27 for problems answered incorrectly. I don't know what changed, but I feel like a switch was turned on and the penalties are all of the sudden brutal.

Definitely agreed. I question the ratings of some puzzles to start, but losing 20 pts per puzzle like 8 times and then getting a streak of 8 gaining 5 each time is ridiculous. There's not even a chance to perform on high rated puzzles because they are super rare.

I customize my rating range to not play substantially weaker players when playing games, why do I have to I get presented with puzzles rated almost 1000 points lower my rating consistently? One bad morning and it's like 5 days to recover.

The code for puzzles seems to be pretty junky: somehow I got a 99 puzzle streak last month and never noticed it? Doubtful.

Let's draw puzzles from a normal distribution or something, yeah?