Current Puzzle Rating System

This is not intended to be yet another complaining post about how puzzles have changed recently. I don’t like the change of having very easy puzzles all of a sudden, but you can at least change this in the settings. This one is more about how points are awarded for correct solutions.

In the current logic, the time spent on solving a puzzle influences the points awarded. A quicker solution gives more points. Sounds reasonable, right?
Well, with the new system, the devs introduced a catch: You don’t know if the puzzle at hand is very difficult or very easy. So you will be conditioned to spend more time, even on easy puzzles. Sometimes, you’ll spot a potential solution on the first glance. And for a simple puzzle, it may be correct. But did you correctly consider all nuances of the position? You better check twice, because if this is a tough puzzle, the tempting move could easily be wrong.

I feel like this whole system requires some adaptions in a way that time is a less important factor. Particularly on a GM level, this is exactly the process players rely on in their games. Yes, there are incredibly strong Blitzers out there, but even players like Hikaru miss challenging 5-move-combos when time is short. Give them a little longer think, and they’ll discover it all the time.

Thoughts welcome!

When we could still see the time standard, it appeared to be very short after a cycle of updates. Now we only see the average time. It’s unknown to us users how the time scoring is being calculated but it appears the very short time standard plays a big part. In a puzzle, it does take some short period of time to “get into” the position, unlike a game where you play into that position. The very short time standard that was previously visible may have been good enough for solving time but didn’t reflect a realistic reaction time.

If the average users’ successful solving time has an ongoing role in adaptive scoring and/or affects the puzzle’s rating and time standard, these issues may sort out in the long run. For now, it’s a bit of a mystery how the scoring works and what the end state is.

They do have to be pretty tight with scoring though. Too many easy points will go against their stated goal of having a more realistic rating system. So, I would expect the scoring of puzzles rated below a player’s puzzle rating to be pretty stingy and failure being punished stiffly. In that regard, I have no complaints.

Well, something has happened. I climbed 300 point last 7 days. Looking through the puzzles, some are rated around 1000 some are around 2300. I am nowhere near playing at a level of that high.

 :)