Welcome, Al
I hit 1900 in puzzles. That means I’m better now, right? 
3 Likes
I hit 2500 last week, but only briefly 
I’m 2656 in puzzles right now! Not sure why, but I think the puzzle rating doesn’t translate well.
Daily 1611 (this one still frustrates me so much)
960 1520 (this one too)
Rapid 1951 (very low volume)
Blitz 2054
Bullet 2018
Puzzles 2656
Best guess at OTB strength - 1750-1950.
My daily seems to fluctuate between 1750 and 1850. My blitz is terrible, same with bullet. I’ve never really tried the tactics and puzzles much.
My uscf otb rating is 1780 or so, but I havent played in about 5 years, and have only played 3 tournaments total in the last 11-ish years.
Do you do lichess tactics also? I tend to find that a bit more difficult than chess.com.
My patience for tactical/combination calculation isn’t as good as it should be, but I tend to have solid strategic knowledge and have a large mental opening database that usually gives me a good position. I wonder, given your stats, if your tactics are outpacing the rest of your game (this isn’t a bad thing!).
Correct.
A while ago they changed their secret formula and mine has shot up since then.
It’s definitely a chess-puzzle-rating and not a chess-rating.
I haven’t done lichess tactics in a while. Been playing mostly chess.com lately. And just signed up for a membership so that’s likely to persist.
My main issue is with putting in the time / effort. So in normal games, I probably don’t look for tactics nearly often enough.
1 Like
Have any of y’all ever heard of the Alekhine Defense, the Squirrel variation?
I saw that yesterday on Eric Rosen’s Youtube channel. The knight gets out into play early and you let the pawns and bishops chase it around the board.
Sorry for knocking your daily rating 
1 Like
I was playing so well (at least for me) against golfer the whole game, until I make this blunder. Ughh.
1 Like
I just hit 1900 on puzzles recently. Trying to join the 2,000+ club but it’s so difficult 
Yeah i hit 1900 then sank back to 1700 like instantly. Got it back up but still haven’t hit 2000.
I’ve been taking my time more but I finally reached 2,014. Here’s to hoping I never go below 2,000 again. I feel like I’m part of the cool club, lol.
I started doing the 5 free puzzles on chess dot com lately, and is it just me, or is ‘passed pawns’ listed as the theme on a lot of puzzles where… passed pawns have nothing to do with the theme?
Up to 2243! It seems like puzzles with quiet moves are the lowest success puzzles. There was one with an obvious check that I’m sure most people fell for.
I usually try to get my 5 free ones in each day. Currently at 2576 with my highest at 2655. Some of the puzzles rated over 2500 are very difficult. Here’s two that I missed in the last week-
Three moves as white-
Get yourself a queen as black-
I’m at 2760 or so. Still far out of whack with my actual rating.
On your two puzzles,
Summary
Feels like Qa8+, Ne5+, Qxd8+, Nxc6+ is winning
Summary
Ka1 seems obvious. But it can’t be that easy, and I suspect that the long diagonal proves treacherous here. So I think you have to play a4, then a3, before Ka1. So that Rxa2 doesn’t put your king on the long diagonal.
Not quite on both of those.
Summary
After Qa8+ Ne5+ black goes Ke6 (so no Qd8 with check). Those first two moves are correct though, but what’s the follow-up from here? This third move is the hard part.
Summary
You are right that Ka1 first loses - white replies Rxg2! If you take the a pawn runs and that diagonal is not your friend.
So you correctly go h4, h3, but white goes c4, c5 (instead of a pawn). Now if you go Kh1 the game will go Re1+ g1=Q Rxg1+ Kxg1 c6 h2 c7 Queen Queen but white has the extra pawn. If white had run the a pawn down the board Kh1 works after h4 h3 since you get to that diagonal first.
After you bring your pawn to h3 you need to go Kg3 instead of Kh1.
Makes sense on both. Hard when I don’t see the exact follow up.
Summary
For 1, I’d guess Qa5, protect Qxc3+, still attacking the Queen, and lots of danger for the black king and queen.