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How I became mediocre in Puzzle Storm over 2+ years: Part 1 of 2

I don't do Puzzle Storm much but gave it a try and got a score of 31 (68 moves) with 100% accuracy although I was a bit slow taking 3.46sec per move. I think if I practiced a lot then getting to 40 to 50 should be doable.

Generally if wanting to improve score the key thing is to be able to quickly recognise the type of puzzle. Generally they will fall into the following types:

  1. Checkmates
  2. Discovered attacks to win pieces, often with check
  3. Checks that come with a fork to win a piece
  4. Hanging pieces
  5. Pieces attacked more than defended
  6. Pawn promotions in endgames
  7. Trapped queens

So I think key is to quickly identify what type of puzzle it is and then it's easy to solve. As first few categories all involve checks it means checking the checks first makes sense.

I don't do Puzzle Storm much but gave it a try and got a score of 31 (68 moves) with 100% accuracy although I was a bit slow taking 3.46sec per move. I think if I practiced a lot then getting to 40 to 50 should be doable. Generally if wanting to improve score the key thing is to be able to quickly recognise the type of puzzle. Generally they will fall into the following types: 1. Checkmates 2. Discovered attacks to win pieces, often with check 3. Checks that come with a fork to win a piece 4. Hanging pieces 5. Pieces attacked more than defended 6. Pawn promotions in endgames 7. Trapped queens So I think key is to quickly identify what type of puzzle it is and then it's easy to solve. As first few categories all involve checks it means checking the checks first makes sense.

Now I am all ears for part 2

Now I am all ears for part 2

Good stuff! But looks like there's some pretty interesting positions on the boards in that awful AI-generated image...

Good stuff! But looks like there's some pretty interesting positions on the boards in that awful AI-generated image...

My high-score is 48 in 15 attempts, but only use it has for me is a warm up for tryhard bullet session (when I was pushing 2400 on an alt)

But it's a very interesting point, that for players with worse pattern recognition, it might be a pretty effective technique, as there is almost no guessing involved. i still think doing regural puzzles is better, if you want to learn to do something good and fast, first you learn to do it good, then speed up

My high-score is 48 in 15 attempts, but only use it has for me is a warm up for tryhard bullet session (when I was pushing 2400 on an alt) But it's a very interesting point, that for players with worse pattern recognition, it might be a pretty effective technique, as there is almost no guessing involved. i still think doing regural puzzles is better, if you want to learn to do something good and fast, first you learn to do it good, then speed up

Puzzle storm just became harder soon after its introduction, that's why I could never improve mine

Puzzle storm just became harder soon after its introduction, that's why I could never improve mine

@Cedur216 said in #7:

Puzzle storm just became harder soon after its introduction, that's why I could never improve mine

After plateauing hard for some months (you can see it in my progress graph above), I did briefly become paranoid and wonder if puzzle storm had been made harder.

Unfortunately for me, over the past few years, there haven't been any changes to the algorithm I believe. I then downloaded the current and historical puzzle databases and compared them, but it seemed the puzzles themselves hadn't gotten harder either! (See my analytics at https://lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/puzzle-database-archive-and-updates#5).

So I couldn't blame Lichess for my lack of progress!

@Cedur216 said in #7: > Puzzle storm just became harder soon after its introduction, that's why I could never improve mine After plateauing hard for some months (you can see it in my progress graph above), I did briefly become paranoid and wonder if puzzle storm had been made harder. Unfortunately for me, over the past few years, there haven't been any changes to the algorithm I believe. I then downloaded the current and historical puzzle databases and compared them, but it seemed the puzzles themselves hadn't gotten harder either! (See my analytics at https://lichess.org/forum/lichess-feedback/puzzle-database-archive-and-updates#5). So I couldn't blame Lichess for my lack of progress!

Could you not put in the effort to find a real picture of a chess tournament but the effort for the entire blog post?

Could you not put in the effort to find a real picture of a chess tournament but the effort for the entire blog post?

After 400+ attempts of Puzzle storm (and perhaps another 1000 attempts of puzzle rush) my highest score is 19. I've tried all the things that you have described in your what-didn't-work blog (i.e. lots of puzzle storm, Chessable spaced repetition of "easy" courses, de la Maza methods (though I didn't do more than 3 circles), classical games, harder puzzles). These haven't been that effective for me either.
Curious to see what did work for you....when r u going to post part 2 :)

After 400+ attempts of Puzzle storm (and perhaps another 1000 attempts of puzzle rush) my highest score is 19. I've tried all the things that you have described in your what-didn't-work blog (i.e. lots of puzzle storm, Chessable spaced repetition of "easy" courses, de la Maza methods (though I didn't do more than 3 circles), classical games, harder puzzles). These haven't been that effective for me either. Curious to see what did work for you....when r u going to post part 2 :)