Puzzle algorithm change?

You haven't done hardly any puzzles since the Extra Hard algorithm was changed.

You should try 20-30 and see how they feel.

I don't see how that post on X provided any valuable insights. Leaving out the fluff it merely states the current issues in puzzles - which exist for months by now - are no bug, but part of an ongoing update, which will take even more time until it is finished completely.

This does not change a tiny bit that the whole puzzle system is currently broken.

Martin_Stahl wrote:

"There are some additional updates being done to complete the changes. There was information released about it, on social media (X), which has also been shared in a number of the topics."

Martin, we all understand that you feel obligated to defend Chess.com no matter what. But when there are ways to communicate with customers built into Chess.com itself - we're using one now - posting something over on X (or any social platform), where you know that a sizable number of Chess.com users won't have accounts and can't see it, doesn't count as even trying to communicate. If Chess.com wants to communicate with its customers, communicate here on Chess.com, where you know they can see it. Make sure it goes to every customer who has actively used Puzzles in the last week, or month, or whatever. That's communication.

As far as the promise of "additional changes" that will magically fix everything ... we've been promised nothing but that since this whole mess started. I think I said in my first post on the topic that while the sensible and customer-responsive thing to do would have been to simply restore the old code immediately, what we were hearing sounded like software developers determined to shove something customers didn't like down their throats anyway. (Something that, as a former software developer and software customer, I've seen many times.) I'm not happy to have been proven correct.

Steve

It hasn't been months, at least not for most members. The changes to the algorithm and the addition of the Difficulty setting was just released a few weeks ago.

The post explained briefly why the changes were being made and that some additional changes were coming.

Are there any new information if tactic ratings will be reseted or not after the update?

Ok, so i reset my ratings, and put it on extra hard. First one was 3000 level, then 3500, then 2600, its all over the shop. Not to mention the 3500 one was very easy.

One of the main goals, when all the changes are implemented, is to

 - Provide a more meaningful rating which correlates more closely to player’s Blitz and Rapid ratings.

I don't think the puzzle ratings should be connected to one's Blitz and Rapid ratings. I play puzzles every day, but I simply don't play Blitz (or Rapid) a lot.

I had 7 days in a row with no errors on "normal", so I decided to challenge myself on "hard". I feel that my puzzle level should be set to my puzzle performance.

Staff think the current rating being 1000+ higher than game ratings Isn't ideal. Whether the changes being made will resolve that ultimately, is another question.

Looks like they changed it back to the old system a few days ago (writing this on Aug 12, 2025). But yeah, my puzzle rating was going way up as I was getting like 30 in a row correct. But each successful puzzle netted only 5 points, but if you got just one step wrong you would lose like 15 or so. And those 5 pointers were pretty easy. Wish they would let us know when making these changes. But I now see that there is a "New" feature that lets one change their puzzle ratings from "Standard" to "Hard" or "Extra Hard".

I noticed the difficulty setting at the 10th of July, so it has been at least a month now. And I know you are aware, that for many users (like me) the puzzles are "broken" since May or perhaps even longer. Not broken for chesscom of course, as you pointed out, but for the numerous users complaining on here in the forums.

Yes some members had versions of the selection algorithm priority but the roll out to the rest of the site was just last month. There have been added changes and some bug fixes since and more changes should be available soon.

I don’t think the rating selection is working as I’m still getting easy and more difficult puzzles regardless of my selection.

Making the setting change and refreshing does nothing. For instance, I set my rating difficult to Hard instead of standard, but the rating of the puzzles was wildly different, and I still am only netting five points, regardless of the rating of the puzzle.

yes this is the current state of puzzles.

It seems that the new rating system is not a rating system. Using Elo or Glicko systems, your rating should converge even if you only play easy puzzles. When your rating rises, the reward for solving an easy puzzle should go down to zero, while the punishment for failing an easy one should go up. But they seem to have put a floor for the rating gain. This means that my rating will keep on rising in the long term without bound. So it measures time spent rather than ability.

Apparently two things went wrong. Firstly, the designer of the new system may not fully understand how a rating system works. Secondly, the issue was missed by all testing and decisionmaking between development and production. To avoid repeats of this screw-up (because that's what this is) both should be addressed by chess.com.

Would be nice to get a statement from them laying out the path forward.

I was up to 4200 puzzle rating (lol) but the last few days it has dropped back almost 1000 points. It feels like they made it harder again

Actually, I fully support the +5 system. Although this is not how the elo system works, one's rating will eventually converge to a (very large, probably unrealistic) number (provided that chess.com removes all puzzle modes except one, preferably Extra Hard). This is because one will not be able to farm elo from easy puzzles. However I don't want chess.com to give me puzzles that have a rating way below mine.

The +5 for solving any puzzle correctly, regardless of time and rating, was put into place well before the difficulty setting. Once all the new system is in place, staff will likely revisit that minimum, if it causes the goals of the project not to be met.

There are posts in this topic about those goals.

I'm not going crazy! I've been pinging my buddy about this for a couple weeks now, and I'm breaking new records, and tossing down streaks of 15, 16, 17...all breaking new personal rating records.

It feels wrong. I wish they didn't change anything, or at least told me.

Yup, its annoying. Its that new difficulty changing setting.