Absolutely meaningless puzzle achievements - 100 000 puzzle points

There it is. Finally did it. It only took 3 791 rated puzzles and 125 hours to complete. I reached 100 000 puzzle points. It gives me no advantage, not even an accomplishment badge nor does it improve my puzzle rating that could stands at  3017. 

To quote on of the greatest cheese buyers of out time: "What a senseless waste of human life"

Extra points for the fine elderly people who know where the quote came from :-)

I know how that feels... But hey, u are closer to the puzzle addict achievement! 😅 I was also disappointed when there wasn't an achievement etc. for winning the legend league, nothing. And next to nothing for completing all the puzzle tiers, just a color change of the movable pawn. After a while of going through that repetitive second round (that started from wood again) I realized this is not worth it & switched to classic mode. Also the tiers were buggy when I played. Good if they have fixed it! If not the points start showing wrong in the end of elite, multiplying too much but still & therefore u are stuck on the same level doing the same steps multiple times... you will see for yourself if the bug still exists and if you stick with the tiers system. If it starts it will go on for multiple levels and will drive anyone nuts. Bug or no bug I say: no tears without tiers! But I understand that people want to see it trough the end of legend tier, I did although it was infuriating.

Anyway congrats on your puzzle achievements, great results regardless of anything!

Thanks. One would at least expect to get somekind of achievvement badge for completing the tier model. Not that they mean anything, but still.

Naturally that's what you expect. Also after winning the legend league. There's the empty feeling achievement - just like completing the tiers: it's invisible 😭😂 Perhaps they are busy with other things & didn't think it was necessary, but those are achievement from working hard!! Ugh. Perhaps they are working on another app, a chess retirement home for those who have completed these things. A support group to fill that empty spot from not feeling rewarded.

How did it take you 3745 puzzles to reach 100k points with 125hrs, I did 1425 puzzles and 8hrs and 25mins for 100k?

I would assume it is because I simply spend considerably more time on a each puzzle. You spend some 20 secs per puzzle, I spend some 2 minutes per puzzle in average. Perhaps my average is partly inflated by me sometimes just letting the clock run when I do something else for a while, but mainly because doing puzzles is not about speed (and especially not anymore), but rather accuracy.

Also you are doing puzzles at regular difficulty and I am doing them on the extremely hard difficulty. That means that puzzles you get are such that they typically take more time to solve (at any given puzzle elo).

whats ur rating in puzzles? Cause im basically stuck at 1700 and need some tips, I spend around a min per puzzle depending of the difficulty

My current rating is 2303. You do not spend a minute on a puzzle. I checked your last 30 puzzles and only one of the was over a minute, and I would say 90% less than 30 secs.

The only “short cut” on puzzles based on my own personal experience is that it is easier to get higher puzzle rating with extremely hard than with regular. It sounds counterintuitive, but if you look at your puzzle scores … you get +3 per puzzle when you get them right and like -13 when you get it wrong. Even though they are “easier”, some are always nastier or trickier than others of the same supposed strength. That means that you neeed to get something like 5 correct - 1 wrong to improve. With extremely hard you get about same +elo than -elo for right vs. wrong. That means if you get slightly more right than wrong, you will improve.

Try playing with extremely hard and now take your time to calculate the position. If you find a good move, try to find even better. Try to spend 2-3 minutes, but accept that you might have to spend 10 minutes sometimes. Only make a move when you are sure it is the right one or very least the best you can ever find. You will improve.

The other option could be to study tactical motiff’s like different check mating patterns as many of the puzzles are about them.

I have over 9 million puzzle points. What did I get for it? Well, I am good at tactics and have a high puzzle rating.

Well … You sure are an outlier. You have a puzzle rating that is more aligned with lets say 1400-1600 rapid than your current ratings.

I checked your stats and games a bit. With my admittedly amateur eye, few things popped up.

1. You seem to play mostly bullet and blitz. These are time controls that are extremely poor for learning and improving purposes.

2. Furthermore, your tactical skill is more suited for long time controls. You spend couple of minutes per puzzle, which I consider sensible, but that means that the skill you have trained translates poorly to bullet and blitz time controls. Spending 2-3 minutes on a move is more than there is time for whole game in bullet and in blitz not much better. If you train puzzles to be better in blitz and bullet, you should aim for 5-10 sec timeframe / puzzle.

3. I looked at your rapid games. You are clearly playing at higher level than your current rating. You have won some 25+ games in a row, perhaps not all were rated, but still. The gameplay itself is clearly much superior to the rating.

I would suggest focusing more on rapid and 15/10 or preferably 30 min time control. This allows you the time to use your tactical skills to good effect. I would not be surprised if you would hit 1200 very quickly and reach 1500 in 6 months.

I have had several coaches and none of the recommend playing bullet/blitz if your goal is to improve in chess. For fun, ok, but not for improving. One even said to me, start playing faster time controls only when you hit 2000 rapid.

I did a lot of low rated puzzles (Like U1200) and spotted the solution either immediately or intuitively. I have played some bullet and blitz the last days, but I don’t "mostly" play these time controls. My last rated Rapid games were like almost a year ago maybe. I won a lot in a row, but I wasn’t dominaning, so I wanted to improve again before playing. It turned out that my improvement came from playing, but unfortunately I developed rating anxiety. I am actually more concerned about my positional and strategical thinking and about practicing it. I am underrated and I am one of the strongest 800s on Chess.com. I play these fast time controls more for actual fun and to show my speed without having to worry about making bad moves and poor playing.

I hear you :-) I stopped playing rapid some 10 months ago because I got the rating anxiety and wanted to improve my chess skills before continuing. The longer I took a break, harder it was to continue. Secondly, there is also only so much you can do to train yourself unless you actually play the games you want to improve in. My new coach forced me back to playing and I have now played some 20+ games and it still hard to continue.

I would recommend for you to continue, you were clearly a winning player then and there is no reason to believe it has changed.

I once thought about that and I am pretty sure if my coach would tell me to play rated, I would do it.

There is simply no way in hell you can be 2200 puzzle tactics and play like you played in those games and be for example below 1200. I would eat my hat if that is the case.

You mean I played better or worse?

I mean that the combination of the puzzle rating and the gameplay in the games I viewed suggests much higher rapid rating than you have, at least 1200+

Just from statistical perspective, winning 25 games in a row at circa 800 rating is almost impossible if you are 800 rated. To make it plausible your true strength must be significantly higher than that, even accounting for a good run (of luck) it would indicate 1100–1300 strength (minimum).

I think at that time I was like ~900 - ~1100 strength maximum. Still, I would probably be 1300+ now if I would’ve played as active as I used to…

Whatever you were, it means you were in reality playing at strength of +300 to +500 to the level of your opponents in order to be able to have a streak like that (based on probabilities).

So, go out and play. It will get only harder the longer you wait. You will likely be positively surprised. My final two cents: play 30 min rapid as that gives you maximum benefit from your tactical skills. In general it is also the best format to play if you want to develop since you can actually think through the moves good and proper.