Tactics Trainer Timing

I realize that one of the benefits of working the Tactics Trainer (TT) is to be able to quickly recognize patterns and this is a reason for the timer. When I am playing a game, whether I recognize a pattern or not, once I have my candidate move I follow a procedure to insure it is the best move I can find, make sure all replies can be refuted and make sure it is safe. If I try to do this with the TT, I often run way over on time. If I don't follow my game procedure with the TT, I get in a bad habit of rushing my game moves. Maybe I should just use the TT for learning and don't worry about the timer and the associated TT rating.

What do you think? 

The timer is annoying. I don't want unlimited time, but I don't like losing rating points while getting a problem right but taking a little too long in doing so. 

Exactly. Well said in a few words. What do you do?

The timer is annoying. I don't want unlimited time, but I don't like losing rating points while getting a problem right but taking a little too long in doing so. 

Perfectly stated.

Here's what I do...

What I do is far more tactical training at chesstempo.com. Time for tactics is not so punishing when you are right on the mark but a little slow on the particular tactic.

Here? I re-set the rating, periodically, such as if I am having a bad-hair day and getting whacked on time.

I'm a law dog, a legal beagle. Woof, woof! 

Interesting, but I meant what do you do to relieve your annoyance? e4nf3 resets his rating. I guess ignoring the TT rating is probably the best idea rather than forming bad habits by trying to beat the timer. Also, I think I will try chesstempo.

Thanks e4nf3.

You are welcome.

A final thought...

What I do is just what I prefer to do. In all actuality, if one were to play n+ games to a large number, it won't matter. In other words, assuming that the tactical trainer is more or less perfect (I wouldn't assume that...or anything else without hard facts) then one will simply average out or regress to the mean. 

So...all you get over the long haul...is resetting the rating "to have another go" for the short run. That's my longer answer.

It still feels good to reset the rating periodically, even though you start off again at 1,000. The fun is also that the tactics seem simpler and you feel so much smarter as you rebuild your rating. ;)

My rating fluctuates wildly from 1200 to 1900 depending on how quickly and recklessly I move. When I go fast and don't take the time to analyze the whole position my rating goes up while my pass rate drops to 50%. When I take the time to understand the position and make sure I look at everything, then my pass rate goes up but I lose rating points on every problem and my rating goes way down. It's annoying for sure, but it definitely helps my skills. So, overall I put up with it. It's like a yoyo. 

Good thread guys.  Like a lot of you I have struggled mightily with how to approach TT.  Finally decided it just doesn't matter.  The process of attempting to solve what are obviously "critical moments" in games is all that does matter.  Beginners are best served by simply doing TT in unrated until they get enough board vision to actually see what is going on.  The rest of us are aiming for the holy grail of "pattern recognition" and some sense of urgency seems to be necessary.  I go up, I go down; I swear I won't budge from a problem until I solve it or I start making educated guesses.  I review every problem 2 or 3 times: I don't review them at all.  I do several hundred in a day, I do 25 and call it quits.  I do ChessMentor tactics courses over and over again; I don't look at them for weeks.  I do TT well rested,  I do TT tired,  I do TT lethargic, I do TT wired.  It's all good, and it is all helpful in the long run.

So true!

I consider the computer tactical training a truly major advantage that we have today. There was a time when once a week in the newspaper there was a "chess puzzle".

Yes, one per week. And...you'd have to wait until the next week to get the answer.

The way I handle it is that I have an account on chesstempo.com.

Chess.com's tactic trainer is nice, but honestly it doesn't compete with chesstempo's. Which is ok. Chess.com is about building a chess community, they do that better than anyone right now. Chesstempo is about building a tactics trainer, and they've done a better job at that.

...and not even from Kansas!

Agreed with the others that Chess Tempo has much better tactics training (and the game explorer is much better there too).

The chess tactics server is also good. It has more of the extremely simple tactics that you can solve in 10 seconds but need to be able to recognize in 5 seconds or less, whereas chesstempo is good for tactics that require more thought and build upon the sort of simple tactics that the chess tactics server presents.

My favorite is ct-art though (I have version 4.0).

True. Many of us are aware of this.

Some of us would like to have our cake and eat it, too. IOW...get a TT rating to measure progress but not to feel overly rushed as to make unnecessary blunders nor be penalized when the correct tactic is realized but the timing is a tad too slow.

We are not talking about v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w play, either. For example, I can often do 10 moves in one minute. Yet, some puzzles (especially if there is a lot of material on the board) may take a half minute...even more...just to get the grasp of the implications of the problem...and yet another 2 or 3 minutes to solve.

And, if you get the right answer but the five moves (let's say)  takes 2 minutes and 30 seconds, you are penalized on points if the average time for solution is 1 minute and 50 seconds.

This is the frustration. But, I am mostly stating the obvious. The problem, it appears to me, can be resolved with a lot of good practice. After a lot of same, pattern recognition improves to the point where answers come faster because less calculation is required.

Yeah, it takes me a while to recognize patterns or figure out the best move, and that's why my rating on the TT is so low.  That's also why I tend to play correspondence chess instead of live chess.  I often have to work out numerous moves and it takes me a while to think them all through.  Perhaps if/when I get better over time I won't have any problem with the TT, but it seems like it takes me longer to find the right move than the timer gives me.

I have a thread on this timer issue over here... if you would like to contribute to my thread.  I have found that the time you take to find the move is weighted very heavy against your rating!

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/premium_members/tactics-trainerwhy-is-time-to-move-weighted-so-heavily

I think I'm applying the same thought process as OP (thanks to Dan Heisman's "The Improving Chess Thinker"). Therefore, even on easy puzzles I always take my time. The timer on the TT here at first scared me into moving too quickly and accordingly my rating plummeted like a shot duck from the sky. I then decided to just ignore the timer. And look and behold, since then my rating slowly climbed again. It is still really very low (about 1100), but there nevertheless has to be some small training effect in so far as I'm getting at least a little bit faster even though I *insist* on going through all the steps of my usual analysis thought process every time. 

Hi every one this my first visit here and it seem we all have the same issue

I tend to rush the TT and then look at the puzzle for what is the right move

There seem to be that tenddancy to assume check mate is what is expected there

you over look what is been asked .In a real game you are more keyed into what you are trying to do

Thanks for the info  e4nf3 on chess Tempo

I checked it out for myself Looks like one can play for free