I'm not great, had cracked 2000, now 1880 again. After two years of consistent puzzling, I am finding tactics more quickly in my games.
Yes, when used to focus on weaknesses.
In general, I hate getting things wrong, that slows me down, time pressure anxiety leads to mistakes. Puzzles made me even slower; belief in one solution is a bad habit and compounds my sin.
But...
Pattern recognition improves speed. To improve it, I focus on one theme, it was “Clearance”, now “Deflection” next’ll be “Skewer”. I bang away at the Easier (-300) level, unconsciously building that precious pattern library while ignoring the occasional googly that defies classification.
In general, I hate getting things wrong, that slows me down, time pressure anxiety leads to mistakes. Puzzles made me even slower; belief in one solution is a bad habit and compounds my sin.
But...
Pattern recognition improves speed. To improve it, I focus on one theme, it was “Clearance”, now “Deflection” next’ll be “Skewer”. I bang away at the Easier (-300) level, unconsciously building that precious pattern library while ignoring the occasional googly that defies classification.
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Yeah quite a bit. But my puzzle is kinda variable like if today I am 2450 then tomorrow I'd be 2150
Partly,they only help if they happen in games and if you have good memory .(only what I think)
Six months ago I was 1400 and hanging important pieces every other game. I decided to fix that by completing a large set of mate-in-1 puzzles. Six months and 51,000 mate-in-1s later, and I'm 1730 and feeling so much better about my chess. Puzzles definitely helped my chess considerably.
I think it helps with tactics a little bit. But not as much as people think they do. Some people are always like Do 120 puzzles a day or smth like that. Personally, just 5-15 a week is fine. Just my thoughts and experience.
@BlunderingTactician said in #26:
> Six months and 51,000 mate-in-1s later
Really? Like 300 every day for 6 months?
> Six months and 51,000 mate-in-1s later
Really? Like 300 every day for 6 months?
They did help me but only after I started incorporating "tactic-checks" in my thought process during the games which required switching to 30+20 time control. But here I mean demanding puzzles which require some calculation.
I have also recently started doing some puzzle streaks here and I think they should be quite good for blitz. I wonder though why I am doing them as I don't play blitz these days .
I have also recently started doing some puzzle streaks here and I think they should be quite good for blitz. I wonder though why I am doing them as I don't play blitz these days .
If you only have a short time available, say under half an hour, I think that puzzles are a much better use of your time than playing fast time controls. They will teach you to think properly, instead of moving intuitively.