New training idea.

[aleric]

Here's another idea I had.

The background of this idea is this: I usually don't give up on a position until I think I found the solution; which takes me often several minutes. Even though I saw every variation and every trap or problem, I still lose rating points in that case (in Blitz) because others (apparently) never think very long (the average time used for any problem is far below one minute).

Having reached a rating of 2100 in blitz now, I'm dealing with problems in the range of 2200 - 2400 often, where the average thinking time is still only 40 seconds! So why is the rating of that problem so high: because many people failed. Conclusion: people are gambling. There are only so many possible moves, and a certain (small) percentage gambles right (in those first 30 seconds or so). That both keeps the rating of the problem high (only a few gable right) and the average think time low (those that "found" the right solution didn't take much take much time).

I thought about how to tackle that problem and came up with the following:
Force people to really see the WHOLE solution in advance, by demanding that the second, third and so on, moves be done within 2 seconds. You can think as long as you want in the beginning, but once you do the first move, and the computer replies, you have to qucikly finish the combination. Especially in the case of combinations this is possible if you really saw up front what was going on!

[drahacikfm]

The FAQ explains that something similar to your suggestion is already being done.  Time that is taken after making the first move is penalized much more than time taken before the first move.  So it's bad to make your first move if you haven't thought out your next moves already.  (That's only for blitz, of course.  Standard is not timed).