Is puzzle rush a good way to improve?

I have 2 theories here:

1) Puzzle rush is a good way to improve, because you practice a tonne of tactics that range in difficulty, and tactics are very important for people below 2000 rating like myself.

2) Puzzle rush is not a good way to improve, because it's basically the tactics equivalent of bullet chess, and most people would agree that bullet chess is not that great for improving.

Which theory do you think is correct?

Anyone have an opinion on this?

So, IMO, puzzle rush has it's place so long as it's not all someone focuses on. If it's all anyone did, they might get better at puzzle rush, but I'm not sure they'd get better at chess.

That said though, I don't think there's anything wrong with learning to identify tactics quickly - so long as someone isn't trying to learn chess by playing bullet. 

I also think it's important to go back and work out tactically the puzzles you missed. If someone just keeps starting the next round without going back to see what they did wrong on those red x's, they are't  learning from that position, or their mistakes. 

So as far as I can tell, puzzle rush is great - when combine with tactics training, and reading books, and exploring openings... and playing.

You can repeat all the puzzles by just clicking on the box afterwards. You'll see a bunch of boxes that have either green ticks or red crosses. All of those boxes will link you to the problem.

I usually always solve the puzzles I got wrong afterwards, unless I'm confident that it's an easy problem that I only got wrong because of carelessness.

As long as youre using it wisely, yes it will help.  But if you're doing it solely for speed?  Then yes, it can set in some bad habits.

I personally think Puzzle rush is a great way to improve your tactical strategies in middle/endgames,although that being said without knowing any theory and how to get in positions from the opening to have these tactical opportunities their is really no point.Thus meaning one should balance it out with an hour of puzzle rush then an hour of opening prep etc

I have the best answer: It depends.

Some people improve by playing bullet online (at least I did (ELO 1900 to ELO 2200)). I didn't train with books or a trainer, i just played 1+0 and 3+0 games. But of course there are other people who don't improve by playing bullet. Puzzle Rush is especially on chess.com not as good as bullet because you're not compelled to find a sufficient solution that wins but the best solution. It is still a good exercise to find tactics under time pressure.

I would think that it has to help everybody in some form. I doubt they're going to roll some new feature out that's going to hinder a persons advancement.

That doesn't make any sense. Chess.com isn't oriented towards your improvement but towards profit. If a feature isn't good for your chess but draws new members to the website they would do it. That's basic economics... It's up to you to decide what is good for your chess and what isn't.

Again: I don't think that generalized statements are possible. It can help some people.

One thing I fundamentally do not like about this website's approach to tactics training is that SPEED is valued almost as highly as solving the problem. This can lead to a habit of shallow calculation because puzzle rush rewards you for playing the first tactical pattern you see rather than calculating everything all the way through. That's fine for bullet - it's what you do in bullet. But you don't want to take those bad habits to slow chess.

Doing tactics on the clock simulates the conditions of speed chess or time trouble, and those are legitimate skills, but you also need to practice sitting at the board and working through as many variations as you can. 

It's better than doing no tactics at all, but it's definitely not better than looking at a puzzle with unlimited time and calculating the entire line to the end without moving the pieces.

Puzzle rush is definitely guilty of this, which is why I was curious if it's even a good thing, or if it just creates bad habits, such as guessing moves instead of properly calculating them.

However, the real tactics trainer rewards you for spending a few minutes on each problem and getting an accurate answer. I got my tactics rating up to 2100 by probably spending, on average, about 4 minutes per puzzle. So maybe this is far better for practice than puzzle rush.

Chess is pattern recognition at all levels though. So helpful for everyone in that regard. 

I think Puzzle Rush can be beneficial if you make sure to do the following (courtesy of my coach):

Use your time rather than solve as quickly as possible. Even if you don't attain your high score it's going to be more beneficial to your chess if you take some time on those tough problems rather than guess and pray when you get a difficult puzzle.

Save your incorrect problems. Once those incorrect problems accumulate, you will realize the motifs you need the most help on. And learning the tough problems will benefit your tactical skills.

I hope this helped!

This is why i do my serious tactics training on another site.  There i can start the game from move 1, and play through it until i get to the tactic.  That way i can see how the game unfold, and how the players arrived at the tactic.

Puzzlerush is fun but i have my doubts about how much it helps your tactics. In puzzlerush i first "waste" time with a bunch of puzzles that are way to easy for me. then i get to my "level" of puzzles and lose quickly. I think the normal tacticstrainer is better in that regard. You practice where you struggle

I am beginning again after 30 years and I think Puzzle Rush is very helpful. I redo every puzzle that I miss and am getting better at recognizing solutions. 

I also like the Tactics puzzles. I think changing back and forth between them is helpful.