Rating is not important the strength and power and concentrate is important to improve chess....
Sorry but puzzles on lichess are not good at all for compare to puzzles in any books
Puzzle help us to think more and more
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I'm a bit tired of those calling puzzle rating meaningless. What exactly is this difference between the ability to play chess and the ability to solve chess puzzles, that makes the former so much more meaningful? In my mind, meaning is entirely subjective: if you've put a lot of time and effort into improving your chess, that makes it meaningful, and the same goes for puzzles. So once you achieve a certain goal you've worked hard on, you deserve to be proud of it (but not for too long, of course).
Anyway, I've also got some tips to improve:
- Start by familiarising yourself with the position. Count the material, so that you know how much you need to win to solve the puzzle. Consider the safety of both your and your opponent's kings. Make sure you're aware of any pins, batteries, opportunities for forks, etc. Don't get lost in any variations yet.
- Next, start listing candidate moves. Start with the most forcing moves, i.e. checks, captures, direct threats. Analyse each for a few seconds. You can probably discard most immediately, but some might (surprisingly) be harder to refute. Sometimes, a move that looks ridiculous is actually mating.
- Then, start analysing each of the remaining candidate moves deeply. Hopefully, you will start to get attracted to a certain variation, and you can work it out.
- Lastly, check if your move is correct. Go through all the variations again, and make sure your opponent has no alternatives. Also make sure you are winning at the end of each variation.
A common fallacy is the reaction fallacy: thinking you or your opponent have/has to respond, whereas you can actually do something completely different. Here's a good example: lichess.org/training/QsSWp. When I first got this puzzle, I discarded 1. Rxe6 as the position after 1. .. Rxe6 2. dxe6 Rd4 (or some other move) did not seem winning at all. However, 2. dxe6 was not at all forced, and white can in fact win with this first move.
Anyway, I've also got some tips to improve:
- Start by familiarising yourself with the position. Count the material, so that you know how much you need to win to solve the puzzle. Consider the safety of both your and your opponent's kings. Make sure you're aware of any pins, batteries, opportunities for forks, etc. Don't get lost in any variations yet.
- Next, start listing candidate moves. Start with the most forcing moves, i.e. checks, captures, direct threats. Analyse each for a few seconds. You can probably discard most immediately, but some might (surprisingly) be harder to refute. Sometimes, a move that looks ridiculous is actually mating.
- Then, start analysing each of the remaining candidate moves deeply. Hopefully, you will start to get attracted to a certain variation, and you can work it out.
- Lastly, check if your move is correct. Go through all the variations again, and make sure your opponent has no alternatives. Also make sure you are winning at the end of each variation.
A common fallacy is the reaction fallacy: thinking you or your opponent have/has to respond, whereas you can actually do something completely different. Here's a good example: lichess.org/training/QsSWp. When I first got this puzzle, I discarded 1. Rxe6 as the position after 1. .. Rxe6 2. dxe6 Rd4 (or some other move) did not seem winning at all. However, 2. dxe6 was not at all forced, and white can in fact win with this first move.
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