Tactics too hard.

@mjharris (Matt), You are blitzing out tactics, too. Actually, I played POLGÁR Judit once and have put up fierce resistance (after blundering early).

I'll try and slow down then. Just sometimes I'll see what I think is a really good move in 10 seconds only to find it's wrong. Although my average time doesn't feel that fast when the average for most puzzles seems under a minute. But I probably should do some more tactics. Although I'm slightly skeptical as to how much they actually will help to be honest.

Wow you're lucky to have played her. It always amazes me when I read about grand masters abilities because they're like a different species. I tried one game of blindfold as a test and blundered after like 6 moves against an easy opponent whereas she and othershe can play 5 games and win them all even against strong opponents. 

Well, two things Matt (and also Will):

1.) Do not be mislead by the average time for these puzzles rated 800-1000. Most experienced players started Tactics Trainer with ratings between 800 or 1200, and now they are rated 2000+ or even 2200+. They are the ones who get these puzzles -- comparable in difficulty with Chess.com Daily Puzzles -- in a matter of seconds, say: less than 5.
2.) Tactics help! In my teen years, I received formal chess training at a/the local club: three times 90-120 minutes per week. The basic drills were endgame and tactics puzzles and we had to do "homework" as well.
My spiritual mentor wrote: "The game is always won by the player who sees more and calculates longer variations". I guess, both of You want to become decent players or at least win more games. How do You expect to win if You do not educate Yourselves to "see" chesswise and be able to calculate variations? How do You expect to be able to calculate, if You do not have trust in tactics puzzles/combinations?

Let me just add that the common wisdom is that chess -- below a certain level -- is 99% tactics!

Good points. I'll try and do say an hour of tactics a day, and worry more about getting them right than necessarily getting them done quickly.

Maybe 10-15 a day is enough. After an hour or even maybe 30 minutes, Your head will be mixed up. Mine is!

Surely it's better to do too much than too little? And I can split it up across the day rather than an hour straight with no breaks.

OK, Matt! Good luck! If I do too many puzzles in a single session, I start imagining things and seeing motifs that are simply not present in the respective positions.

Right. Practicing tactics everyday is a good way to sharpen them. I'll try right now!

That is smart, to bad I can't do unlimited. I can only do 25 at a time!

Even 25 is a bit much. I usually stop after 10 or 15... when I have the feeling that I might miss the next ones because of becoming overwhelmed.

 I understand that totally! I did 13 just now. Rating 905 to 918. I feel that if you fail you lose MUCH more then when you pass and gain some.

Right! Congrats again! And missing a tactic is just partly helpful... It might be frustrating, too, yet it is meant to be fun!

Yes, you are right!

Yeah I've also noticed this. I guess if you fail an easy tactic you go down more than if you fail a hard one. But I still feel it should be like daily ratings and accomodate for number of puzzles attempted.

You're right.

Just done about 30 mins of tactics and 53 puzzles. I've now done more than 2000 total puzzles and my rating improved from about 915 to about 1020.

I'll probably do more trainer later tonight. The good thing is is that whilst there's probably no right way to practice chess, it's possible there are wrong ways or less efficient ways. But tactics training is probably a pretty good way to improve.

Wonderful! To bad I can't do infinite. I will try some on the 10th when I come back from vacation.

I just have to remind myself that there's nothing wrong with not being at the high levels yet and everyone was once a novice.

Stopping for today. Will resume tomorrow probably. Went from 915 to 1002. Hopefully I can reach around 1500 in a year or so as well as around 1500 daily and rapid ratings. Is that realistic? To go up 400 points in a year?

I passed 68 of 126 in 67 mins, maybe a little too fast although some I got right in less than 10 seconds as they were easy to me. Others took about a minute and I maybe still got them wrong at least slightly. My overall is 51 percent pass from 2087 total.

I'm now back down to 930. Dreadful. Sometimes chess is very fun and at other times it's honestly infurinating. I just don't feel like I'm improving.