Some people say it helps a lot because you learn patterns in an active way, some others say you already know there is a solution so they don't help much.
I personally have noticed that many patterns happen in my games after I solve such puzzles. The same thing happens when I see an annotated game, I will play something similar with what I see very soon.
I think puzzles are better than studying by reading or watching, because puzzles train all your skills at the same time. Every move in chess is important, one mistake and you lose immediately, so puzzles help to be aware of such dangers.
Solutions in puzzles are found by calculation, by using intuition, by being aware of tactical and strategical motifs, by visualizing what happens. So they improve all the skills you use to play good.
Do you have any experience with chess puzzles? Do you use the training option of Lichess? Show us how it helped you improve your game.
I actually have over 7k tactics solved on
chess.com and 1k solved here (exactly 1000 reached in 4 days, lol).
I do see smothered mates like a second nature (plus few variations), also discovered attack on a hanging queen is in bones already.
Yeah sometimes it's hard to spot those in a game, but it still helps your pattern recognition.
@nchebykin I think you have a lot to learn yet, I saw one of your games where you were moving something strange when your enemy knight and queen were close to your king.
Puzzles should develop your understanding first of all, after you solve a puzzle ask yourself about what were the factors that made that solution possible.
@GentjanLici, yeah I know, thanks for the advice.
I'm currently in "play to have fun" stage, otherwise I will drop playing chess for few months / years.
Most of my blitz games are all about surviving tho:-D
Should use higher time controls, I guess
yeah you should use higher time controls, and following basic chess principles with strengthen your play a lot, be safe, be active, destroy your enemies safety, destroy his activity, such basic things will enable you to go to the right way of improvement.
If we are to practice pattern recognition, then we should practice a patterns at least 7 times. It helps to commit it to long term memory. Practicing something once, is short term.
The puzzles test the way we search for the next move, like we were playing a real game. When in training we are basically searching for the best centipawn combination.
The puzzles are not specific to checkmates or particular tactics. I believe we need a tactic specific feature towards helping to master a particular tactic.
When we do a math exercises, we are practicing a particular formula. Chess puzzles should be exercised in the same way. The training section is setup more as a test than to help practice a tactic or a checkmate.
no.
yes. I usually do the daily puzzle, plus others when I have time. Puzzles help me reproduce that feeling of "there is something to be done" in my own games. I observe my position as if it were a puzzle, looking for the tactics that will give me an advantage.
Lichess offers "mate or capture queen" puzzles only.
It would of course be very interesting if we could choose between those types of mate puzzles and the "improve your position" puzzles - an entirely different way to play puzzles, and better training probably since you can apply that type of thinking to your games from move 1 to end.
Chess games are normally lost in 2 ways: bad piece play, tactical blunders. most double attacks are spotted. but sometimes you need calculate 6 moves deep and to then only see you are winning a piece of a double attack.
tactics help. chess books help even more so buy a chessbook about tactics
