Well, I got a puzzle rating of around 2400(mixed) with a Blitz and Rapid rating of 1300 and 1600 respectively.
At the 2400 level I found the time taken to be excessive and of low worth in my gameplay and switched to doing mate-in-2's and gained another 100 puzzle rating points to 2500+. The mate-in-2's puzzles are fairly quick and there is a simple algorithm to solve almost all of them. I also thought I learnt more from the mate-in-2's regarding how pieces work together and the various patterns to look for.
My advice to the OP is to switch to doing mate-in-1's then move onto mate-in-2's. That's about all you need in the sub-1500 range.
I would also strongly advise stopping playing Blitz and concentrate on Rapid. You will spend more time thinking in the latter than in the former. Also consider playing unrated games - they are much more relaxing, and yield the same levels of improvement as rated games.
For what it's worth: I downloaded all my games and used LucasChess to create a puzzle/positional set based on my own games. I only get about 40% of these positions correct. The jury is still out on whether this is a good idea (takes a lot of time to construct the puzzles and each game has to be re-analysed)), but I am definitely sure this is more beneficial than continuing to do the 2400(mixed) puzzles. The positions are highlighting middle and end game failures which are not all that apparent from analysing games immediately after play.
I would highly recommend LucasChess to sub-1500 players wanting to improve rather than just having fun playing Blitz/Bullet etc - you can also do much more than construct homemade puzzles with it.
I feel the same way. My puzzle rating is always higher than my in game rating, and sometimes I feel like I have the tactics, but I just don't have the slow, well-thought-out planning throughout the game.
Blitz teaches us to balance intuition, pattern recognition and calculation, while puzzles force brute calculation ... but intuition and pattern recognition are essential here too.
@boilingFrog said in #33:
> Blitz teaches us to balance intuition, pattern recognition and calculation, while puzzles force brute calculation ... but intuition and pattern recognition are essential here too.
Good point. I have recently gained 100-200 bullet points after I realized that what I needed was not faster calculation. All I needed was to develop the ability to keep a hand-full of moves in my mind so that I can always have something to pick from. With that I avoided time trouble and reached my goal of 2000. Then my self-confidence increased and lead me to 2100, which was unexpected.
So self-confidence is essential to keep you focused on your options and not on the danger of loosing.
My OTB rathing is ~1490, my correspondence rating on ICCF is 1537, I haven't played here in probably 6+ months & blitz = 1397, rapid = 1455, corr = 1964. And lichess puzzles = 2130, Chessbase puzzles = 2290. On CB, I've kept my rating that high long enough to be badged "FIDE Master," - somewhat ridiculous, of course.
IMO, the main reason you can get higher ratings in the puzzle farm is that you know going in that there's a flash move that wins material or the game. IRL, you don't know that. You have to puzzle out whether or not that move exists, AND find a secondary plan if you can't find the "winning" move. Puzzles are nearly always purely tactical in the online camps. Sometimes, the "secondary" plan is a strategic plan to reposition your pieces, or constrict the opponent, or advance pawns, and so forth.
It can happen that IRL an opponent will make a not-self-evident blunder and good training in tactics is what enables you to see those opportunities. But, the real reason I do many puzzles is that it's gratifying to win more than I lose. Which, obviously, does not happen IRL. :( At least in the puzzle farm, I can feel like I know what I'm doing.
Rhddgxe
@DerDerDerDerDer I feel your pain, and I have experienced many of the same problems that you have described. If I might ask, how long have you been playing chess? And how many total games have you played? Chess, as you have found out, can be a devilishly difficult game. I learned the very basic rules of the game and how the pieces move at 12 years old, but never played more than a handfull of games in my adult life until Covid came along, and at 62 years old then, I found online chess. So I have been playing for roughly 18 months now. I played mostly 10/0 games for the first 6 months (which is the default time control on that particular site). After playing a few hundred games my rating was 483, and I was at a loss to understand why I couldn't seem to get better. I like to think I am a fairly intelligent person, and my results were definitely ego bruising, and self doubt and self criticism were becoming a problem. I have made slow progress though, and now have a rating of about 1580 for classical time control and around 2400 for puzzles (normal difficulty level) on Lichess and about 1250 on the other site.
Other posters in this thread have given some good advise, and I would say that at least for a while, you might try playing some longer time control games like 30 to 60 minutes, and go over EVERY game you play afterwords. Someone else mentioned that you might try playing unrated games too, which I agree could take some of the pressure off of you. Keep working on the puzzles too. Like you, I have watched a lot of YouTube chess content, some of which helped, and some of which confused me. I would like to recommend this particular playlist from YouTuber John Bartholomew. It is aimed at beginner to intermediate players who are trying to improve. These videos in particular helped me a lot I think. The playlist has 5 videos, each about an hour+ in length. Here is a link for that https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl9uuRYQ-6MBwqkmwT42l1fI7Z0bYuwwO . And remember that losing a game or blowing a puzzle doesn't mean there's something wrong with you, it just means you have more to learn. Best of luck with your game!
@ohcomeon_1 said in #10:
> I wish lichess called it something else (like puzzle score) and have the numbers be of a different order of magnitude, e.g. in 0 to 100 range (100 being exceptionally high).
What i think about puzzle rating is the puzzle has it rating itself. If you solve the puzzle, the puzzle rating decreased, and yours increased. It also worked if you failed to solve the puzzle.
Try the puzzle storm, and compare every puzzle you got there. I'm sure there is puzzle harder with lower rating, and easier puzzle with higher rating
I'm 2000 in puzzles
@atcsztl thank you for your deep consideration and perspective! I intend to chew on it and give a response of equal measure.
This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.