Best site for high quality challenging tactics problems?

[Do it Right]

I'm in a tactics mood but I don't really like emrald.net since they seem to definitely value quantity way above quality. I'm looking for something along the lines of August Liv****z's "Test Your Chess IQ" (which is I feel the best challenging tactics collections in print to date) or the puzzles chessbase likes to put up.

So in order of preference of what I'm looking for:

1. Difficult. I want some mind benders.
2. Noncomposed. Positions from actual games.
3. Quality. One solution and no positions where 'any move wins but this one our automated computer grader gives a 1.23 pawn advantage over the other 15 trivially winning moves'.

Does such a site exist!?

[TexAg06]

Have you tried chess.com's tactics trainer? I looked on their website and for $7/month you can get unlimited access to it, along with some other features as well. I haven't used many other online tactics databases so I can't compare too much, but I really like it. I looked through the tactics ratings and there are some titled players that seem to get online pretty regularly. It might be worth looking at or trying for a month.

[Do it Right]

I only have a free account there which offers like 3 problems/day so it's been tough to get a handle on what their more challenging problems are like. They also have that very slow rating system on the tactics problems and with 3problems/day I'm still getting silly trivial stuff.

[TexAg06]

Oh yeah, I forgot they limited it that much. From what I've been able to tell, I really like it. They do let you go month-to-month, so you could always try it for $7 and if you're done, that's all you've invested. Hopefully others on here can suggest some different options too.

[RFW3]

chessgames.com is a good place to look as well. It's a free site and has a daily puzzle on the front page that is exactly what you're seeking. A position from a real game and discussion on said position.

[Crotale]

Originally Posted by Do it Right

I'm in a tactics mood but I don't really like emrald.net since they seem to definitely value quantity way above quality. I'm looking for something along the lines of August Liv****z's "Test Your Chess IQ" (which is I feel the best challenging tactics collections in print to date) or the puzzles chessbase likes to put up.

So in order of preference of what I'm looking for:

1. Difficult. I want some mind benders.
2. Noncomposed. Positions from actual games.
3. Quality. One solution and no positions where 'any move wins but this one our automated computer grader gives a 1.23 pawn advantage over the other 15 trivially winning moves'.

Does such a site exist!?

Yes: http://chesstempo.com/

[Vempele]

Originally Posted by Crotale

Yes: http://chesstempo.com/

Fails on quality. Some of the defensive moves are WTF. For example:


This problem has a Blitz rating of 2449.8 and a Standard rating of 2174.6.

Spoiler:

1. Kh1 Re4? 2. Bxf6+ Kxf6 3. Qxe4. Come on, it's easy to see that 1. Kh1 is the right move just by noting that 1...Re4 is an adequate response to everything else. 1...Re6 2. g4! (2. Nf2 also works, but there's no way a human could see that and miss 2. g4) is much harder to see.

This is supposed to be much easier: 2205.7 and 2091.1.

Spoiler:

1. R1b7

( 1. R1b7 O-O 2. Rxd7 Rxb8 3. g4 a2 4. Bc3 Bb4 5. Ba1 Bc5 6. Kg2 Rb1 7. Qc3 Bb4 8. Qd4 Bxa5 )

1... O-O
2. Rxd7 Rxb8 *

At least this proves they don't use engines, because Rybka immediately says 3...Rb1+ is a draw (3. g3 would have won). It's also not the game continuation (1. Rxc8+, which is good enough for a R+B endgame with an extra outside passer - you could prune it out on the knowledge that you need to win 2 pawns for it to be a solution) so I'm not sure why they included it.

[Noir_Desir]

i have the "quality chess puzzle book" and there's some challenging stuff in there.

[wlrs]

Since I don't know anything better online than shuffling between chess.com and chess tactics server with the occasional chesstempo mixed in, I'll suggest a book as well: Perfect Your Chess by Grabinsky/Volokitin is superb and very difficult

[Matty Oh]

chesstempo.com lets you do as many tactic problems as you wish, but i will not speak on quality/difficulty, as that varies widely. other site features require payment.

[RajHendon]

Chessimo is good

http://www.chessimo.com/trainer/inde...lang=en&val=en

[mightytiny]

The Encyclopedia of Chess Middlegames by Informant is a great book for combinations. If you can find a used copy, your game will improve.

[Kittens]

Originally Posted by Do it Right

I'm in a tactics mood but I don't really like emrald.net since they seem to definitely value quantity way above quality. I'm looking for something along the lines of August Liv****z's "Test Your Chess IQ"

lol

[QuantumCage]

Chesstempo has the hardest problems. And you can be sure they are computer checked. If I remember correctly, the answer to the first problem I looked at from perfect your chess was wrong. My reading stopped there. A lof of other sites also have these handmade problems. They can be beautiful, but they are not very practical.

[BotOnTilt]

Originally Posted by Do it Right

I only have a free account there which offers like 3 problems/day so it's been tough to get a handle on what their more challenging problems are like. They also have that very slow rating system on the tactics problems and with 3problems/day I'm still getting silly trivial stuff.

At least on the iOS app you can log out from your account and log in again as a guest - then you'll be allowed to do 100 tactics puzzles. Can't remember if it rates you when you play as an unregistered guest, but at least you'll get a feel for the puzzles.