I am around 1900 in Puzzles on Lichess (highest 20xx) currently 1800, and 2111 on
Chess.com But still there are players on both sites, with puzzle ratings around 1200 that comes up with brilliant tactic during the game.
When I look on players with 1200-1400 elo on
chess.com they are usually worse on puzzle than I am. So what is keeping me from getting higher than 1100 on that site and, 1500 on this site ?
What should I focus on ?
Not sure how "useful" they are. But they can be very entertaining indeed...not to mention quite beautiful (especially doing mates in 3 and 4).
I had a paid Platinum subscription gifted to me on
cheese.com. I played over 10,000 puzzles. It is fun in itself and it trains the eye for quick tactic recognition, and overall board vision but it takes a lot of reps in order to build strength. I started out there in the 900s by the time my sub ran out I was in the 16-17 range. Study, practice, lots and lots of puzzles (use them to warm up before you face the humans, post game analysis, use "Learn from your Mistakes", play the computer and gradually increase the difficulty until you only win sometimes. Chess is a mountain that gets steeper the higher you climb. You have to do the work... or no. You can just have fun winning and losing.
I find the puzzles from Mate in 1 to Mate in 4 most valuable, because playing chess, its hard to argue that it would not be a great skill to master in order to win against your opponent. There is also check mate in 5 or more, but I already found a significant improvement in visualization just playing up to check mate in 4 for 2 weeks.
And I would make similar arguments for training king opposition in the pawn endgame. Matter of fact, these themes have often enabled me to win even though, I was down on material.
Training for openings and middle games seems to be useful to me to, but here, improvements are not available (for me) in the short run, because situation are more complex (more than one tactical option is available etc.). Improving in middle game and opening seems to require more time for me.
So, selecting the theme to train for is an art by itself, because it depends on your weakness and your time that you have available to improve it when you consider the complexity of the theme... (?) :-( So, for me it seems most important how crucial a theme is (check mate in 1-4, opposition, fork, pin) versus how complex it is to learn (middle game, opening)...
I am faster to see material imbalances after a lot of puzzles, but that's about it.
