10 Jan 06
Originally posted by wormwoodI'm going to go with 95% accuracy especially after round 4. The only ones I had trouble with are some of those harder mate in 5's.
I've been doing CTS for about 4 months now. 26031 problems to date. gained about 400pts since starting with a more or less steady pace. -I did have a month or so when I didn't do tactics, but it didn't really have any effect. although I have heard of others having similar fading effect.
[b]rahim: 6*810 = 4860 problems doesn't seem so much? but I gues ...[text shortened]... so. but I think there might be hidden benefits in doing it, such as better success rate.[/b]
I tried the cts problems and they are way easier. Plus, how they show you the opponents move and then you solve the problem is sort of a hint. I feel its easier to solve a problem knowing what your opponents previous move was.
The thing which I really not like about cts is that you only have to find the first move and there's no follow up after that.
Often during my puzzles with longer combinations/mates, I could find the first move and then I would find a solution but when I looked at the answer I noticed that I missed something in the calculation a couple of moves deep. Say, I forgot that one of his pieces was blocking a square or something. To me I thought my solution was completely right but only after I went through the answer did I see it was wrong.
It would much better if CTS would let you make the move, give you the opponents reply and then you make your move etc... for the harder problems. I've seen chessmaster do that for some long combinations. It will force you the play the moves far enough to make sure you truly understand the tactic and not just understand the first move.
Is there any site which does this for tactics? I'll like to continue doing a couple of tactics each day as long as I can see the complete solution instead of just finding the first moves.
11 Jan 06
Originally posted by RahimKthe last move the 'opponent' makes is sometimes a decoy. you go thinking 'gee, that's removal of the guard combined to pin and I get that rook' and you'll fail because there was in fact some quiet pawn-push elsewhere beginning a 12 half-move mate.
I tried the cts problems and they are way easier. Plus, how they show you the opponents move and then you solve the problem is sort of a hint. I feel its easier to solve a problem knowing what your opponents previous move was.
The thing which I really not like about cts is that you only have to find the first move and there's no follow up after that..
I think you might not also have tried that many problems there, because most of the problems actually are what I think you are calling for? the opponent does move against you, and the combination can be up to at least 14 half-moves deep. they are also checked by computer, so that all problems have a unique single answer which is the best move. give the second best, and you'll fail. miss some minor detail, and you fail. there are also longer combinations with only the first move, but they always require you to find the correct variation before you'll know the first move.
sometimes, almost never, there are problems that don't fill this criteria of uniqueness. those can be reported and are then removed.
the relatively easier level comes from the fact that they should be solved in 9 seconds on average. if you can get even close to your otb-rating, you can give yourself a big pat on the back. most fall 200-500 short of their otb. even those 2300-2400 IMs and FMs only do around 1900 on CTS. I don't know if you can really call that easy.
I only wish there were more endgame problems, which I suck at...
11 Jan 06
Ya, I tried 4 more on there and I found those ones where you move, it moves and then you gotta move again.
I got 1350 after 4 problems because I spend 3 minutes on 1 problem which I just couldn't understand and i was watching a tv show also. It turns out white had 4 minor pieces to 3 for black. Black captured 1 minor piece back making it 3 to 3 and the tactic was to capture a minor piece back making it 2 to 3 for white. I didn't realize white was up a piece to being with and thought that can't be a tactic because it doesn't win anything just trades of the pieces. But that was the solution.
Ya i'll try using that more. Is there a way you can go over the answer after each problem?
Like I solve a problem and then go over the solution, and then solve another one and then see the solution? Like reading a book?
11 Jan 06
Originally posted by RahimKif you register an account (free), you can check a box or two to stop after every problem, and then try it again unrated.
Ya, I tried 4 more on there and I found those ones where you move, it moves and then you gotta move again.
I got 1350 after 4 problems because I spend 3 minutes on 1 problem which I just couldn't understand and i was watching a tv show also. It turns out white had 4 minor pieces to 3 for black. Black captured 1 minor piece back making it 3 to 3 and the ta ...[text shortened]... er the solution, and then solve another one and then see the solution? Like reading a book?
11 Jan 06
I saw that option when you sign it as guest but it didn't make sense to me. Why would you try it unrated again?
This is what I did, I went to guest, tried 4 problems and then clicked on last problem, it took me to this result screen and then I think it say summary or something and then i clicked on it and it showed the 4 problems i had done, I click on them 1 by one and went through the solution.
Now if i had done say 100 problems during that one session, and wasn't sure about 1 of them, how would i know which # it was and what the solution was?
11 Jan 06
K I was playing around a bit more and i think I got it figure out.
Your wormwood on there right? 1441 rating about?
I still don't understand the time thing.
When you get a problem it says 1540 (236)
Whats the number in the brackets for? and 1540 is the problem hardness?
So the computer moves after 6 seconds, and then you have 3 seconds from that point to solve the puzzle and you get points? So if you take more then 9 seconds say 12 seconds do you lose points? What if you take 200 seconds do you lose tons of points?
11 Jan 06
Originally posted by RahimKyep, I'm wormwood there also.
K I was playing around a bit more and i think I got it figure out.
Your wormwood on there right? 1441 rating about?
I still don't understand the time thing.
When you get a problem it says 1540 (236)
Whats the number in the brackets for? and 1540 is the problem hardness?
So the computer moves after 6 seconds, and then you have 3 seconds from ...[text shortened]... nds say 12 seconds do you lose points? What if you take 200 seconds do you lose tons of points?
yeah the 1540 is the rating of the problem, which is also adjusted every time somebody tries it. when you solve a problem, your rating increases and the problem's rating decreases. I don't know what the number in the brackets is, but maybe it's the problems 'relative deviation' rd? all new problems start at 1500, as do new users and guests. so a 1500-problem might actually be a 1200-problem just released, but might also be a 1800-problem. statistically you'll get as many 1200 & 1800 -problems with initial 1500-rating so it all balances in the end.
solving under 3s you get the full points. the amount of full points depends of your RD and the difference between you and problem-rating. the 9s neutral score applies only to problems exactly the same rating as yourself. if problem's rating is lower than yours, you get less time. if higher you get more time, a second for every 20pts difference in rating I think. so you might get 30+ seconds for a 1800-problem. the 3s for full score is always the same.
failing the problem you get minus points. once again the amount depends on the rating-difference and RD. using over 9s or whatever the neutral limit is, gives you a portion of what you'd get for failure. the amount-factor decreases linearly from 3s to neutral limit, and exponentially after that. so 9s vs 15s is a lot bigger difference than 100s vs 200s.
if you have a big RD the rating-changes are big, in order to converge your rating quickly to your real performance from the initial 1500. just like being provisional on rhp. for an active tactician RD goes under 20, which makes the changes into 1 or 2 points or even less than 1.0 points. RD grows over time, so if you take a longer break your rating might jump a bit at first.
because of the tight time-controls you easily get sucked into guessing and trying to get bigger rating. but it shows in your success-rate. for me, going from 67% to 87% dropped rating 120pts, so you may take that also into consideration when you start comparing yourself to others. 🙂
it's seems almost incredible that 'nabla' does 1900 with 88% success-rate. but then again he's also 2350 elo...
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12 Jan 06
Originally posted by RahimKi agree that a couple a day is effective enough. in my case, i processed reinfields"1001" book in nine months.
I think all the books I read helped me get to where I am right now. I read 9 books in 04 summer mostly. Last summer 05 I didn't read much, couple of books.
I'll post a book/dvd's list on here when I compile it.
To be honest with everyone, I think if you do 10 tactic puzzles per day for a whole year it would be almost the same as this program. I did sp ...[text shortened]... f you spend 90 hours on tactics no matter how you do them, it should improve your play a lot.
a page a day, maybe 5 positions ... and it doesn't have to be hard tactical problems either. i thought reinfeilds' book was great mainly because it had a good mix of difificult, moderate, and easy positions.
14 Jan 06
Originally posted by RahimKYou just said it in this post, RAHIM! I am in the same situation you were in (even worse) with my 1500s rating on RHP when I know I'm a 1700 player OTB. So, you of all people would know what I'm talking about playing all my moves of 20 games in 30 minutes each day. Of course, lately, I've been getting lucky. People have been moving less and guess what? I'm able to think better and longer, and I'm about to split two games with a 1700+ player on here which will add 20 points I guess? I think that's how it goes. Anyway, you just said what I am going through, but in an even worse situation.
It raised my rating, where?
O the rhp thing. That's just me seriously trying on here to catch my OTB ratings. I was wondering how people on here got high ratings and i'm a 1700 OTB player and my Rhp rating was 1500ish. So I got annoyed and started playing good on here.
Since then I've gone from 1525 to 1690 catching my OTB rating of 1705 soon.
My O ...[text shortened]... started at say 1300 OTB rating, doing this program would have got me to 1600-1700 easily.