15 ms·

I’m a huge fan of lichess for playing and analysis but I think for tactics, it’s the one place it’s lacking, it’s always too easy for me for some reason and I g

by Trufa 6y ago

I’m a huge fan of lichess for playing and analysis but I think for tactics, it’s the one place it’s lacking, it’s always too easy for me for some reason and I go to chesstempo instead. Does anyone else experience this? By the way, when I say easy it’s for me that I’m an average player.

prune2000 6y ago
I love chesstempo too and use it a lot also!
watwut 6y ago
For me it tend to be more of difficult, but doable. I am beginner. Mostly it was not helping to improve at my level at all, they were sort of pointless exercises in my level. What helped were chess king exercises apps where you solve simple situations that are not even puzzles. But they are common in game and made you start noticing opportunities and own mistakes in game. E.g. at super beginner level, you improve a lot.
emerongi 6y ago
What is your puzzle rating? As a novice player (1300 rating), the puzzles are plenty hard for me personally.
- matsemann 6y ago
  For me (1700) the problem is that they often aren't real tactics. One can get a puzzle where there's really no obvious tactical move, only strategic ones. It's mostly okay, but there's a big difference between puzzles extracted by an algorithm from games, and from hand-picket/crafted tactic puzzles.
- whimsicalism 6y ago
  Disagree. I'm a 1500 player and get 2100 on the tactics, which is obviously not representative and means something is up.
nebulous1 6y ago
The puzzles on chesstempo are much better but the interface is much worse, particularly on mobile. Honestly the puzzles on chess.com are better than lichess. The lichess ones just seem to have limited scope, I'm not sure why. That said the interface is good and if you're finding them too easy then your puzzle rating should be rising to the point where it's offering you puzzles you'll find more challenging.
- whimsicalism 6y ago
  > if you're finding them too easy then your puzzle rating should be rising to the point where it's offering you puzzles you'll find more challenging. I'm at 2100 puzzle and they seem to sort of level off.
- kwoff 6y ago
  I feel like most of the chess.com puzzles have a point: fork the rook and king with the knight, or exploit a pin. That makes them easier (or maybe my level isn't high enough there, yet). The lichess.org ones I often have no idea what to even try, and when I'm given the solution I still don't know why it's the best move (though looking at the "Spectator room" of the game can help). Sometimes the better move is only marginally better; like the computer assesses black as -3.4 instead of -3.6.
tmountain 6y ago
Also a big fan of lichess (using it daily). That said, I agree on the tactics comment. I've found this website to be a nice supplementary resource (https://www.chesstactics.org/ https://www.chesstactics.org/).
Falell 6y ago
I'm also not a fan of lichess's puzzles, especially on mobile. Over the years I've been bitten for weeks at a time by a bug that fetches a batch of puzzles at a time on mobile, and then loops through those 50 puzzles repeatedly instead of fetching more. Even when not bugged, this behavior of 'fetch N puzzles at once' heavily encourages rating ping pong, you get a batch of easy puzzles, get them all right so your rating jumps more than it should, then a batch of hard puzzles and get crushed. I found I only ever progressed on lichess after grinding meaningful improvement slowly on chess.com, then coming back to lichess to 'catch up my rating'. I also quite like Chess.com's Puzzle Rush.

by Trufa 6y ago

prune2000 6y ago

I love chesstempo too and use it a lot also!

watwut 6y ago

For me it tend to be more of difficult, but doable. I am beginner. Mostly it was not helping to improve at my level at all, they were sort of pointless exercises in my level. What helped were chess king exercises apps where you solve simple situations that are not even puzzles. But they are common in game and made you start noticing opportunities and own mistakes in game. E.g. at super beginner level, you improve a lot.

emerongi 6y ago

What is your puzzle rating? As a novice player (1300 rating), the puzzles are plenty hard for me personally.

matsemann 6y ago
For me (1700) the problem is that they often aren't real tactics. One can get a puzzle where there's really no obvious tactical move, only strategic ones. It's mostly okay, but there's a big difference between puzzles extracted by an algorithm from games, and from hand-picket/crafted tactic puzzles.
whimsicalism 6y ago
Disagree. I'm a 1500 player and get 2100 on the tactics, which is obviously not representative and means something is up.

nebulous1 6y ago

The puzzles on chesstempo are much better but the interface is much worse, particularly on mobile. Honestly the puzzles on chess.com are better than lichess. The lichess ones just seem to have limited scope, I'm not sure why. That said the interface is good and if you're finding them too easy then your puzzle rating should be rising to the point where it's offering you puzzles you'll find more challenging.

whimsicalism 6y ago
> if you're finding them too easy then your puzzle rating should be rising to the point where it's offering you puzzles you'll find more challenging. I'm at 2100 puzzle and they seem to sort of level off.
kwoff 6y ago
I feel like most of the chess.com puzzles have a point: fork the rook and king with the knight, or exploit a pin. That makes them easier (or maybe my level isn't high enough there, yet). The lichess.org ones I often have no idea what to even try, and when I'm given the solution I still don't know why it's the best move (though looking at the "Spectator room" of the game can help). Sometimes the better move is only marginally better; like the computer assesses black as -3.4 instead of -3.6.

tmountain 6y ago

Also a big fan of lichess (using it daily). That said, I agree on the tactics comment. I've found this website to be a nice supplementary resource (https://www.chesstactics.org/ https://www.chesstactics.org/).

Falell 6y ago

I'm also not a fan of lichess's puzzles, especially on mobile. Over the years I've been bitten for weeks at a time by a bug that fetches a batch of puzzles at a time on mobile, and then loops through those 50 puzzles repeatedly instead of fetching more. Even when not bugged, this behavior of 'fetch N puzzles at once' heavily encourages rating ping pong, you get a batch of easy puzzles, get them all right so your rating jumps more than it should, then a batch of hard puzzles and get crushed. I found I only ever progressed on lichess after grinding meaningful improvement slowly on chess.com, then coming back to lichess to 'catch up my rating'. I also quite like Chess.com's Puzzle Rush.