Levels for “The gym” (General)

by slamiga, Saturday, January 31, 2009, 14:24 (5919 days ago) @ AndreaCoda

In my opinion the terms don't truly reflect the reality of the players: unless I'm utterly useless and I don't think that I am!

I am using Beginner in the Tactical archive and I defy any 'Beginner' to see a 5-6 move combination (sacrifice) of their Q to mate with only a B and a R when the opponent has 2 Qs on the board! Surely, that belongs in Intermediate at least? And, if so, what must Advanced be like?!!

I love the challenge though: I don't care if it's Beginner since that gives me a lot of practice opportunities!!

-----------------
? I am just trying to rebuild some confidence in myself, after having tried
? the exercises from “the gym”!
?
? The introduction says that the levels are as follows:
?
? >Beginner: you know the moves;
? >Intermediate: you are between 1200 and 1500;
? >Advanced: you are graded up to 2000.
?
? Now, I would consider myself an advanced beginner; I have been doing
? tactics for quite some time now, and on tactics site like chesstempo.com I
? am rated about 1600 (which, of course, has nothing to do with an ELO
? rating, but it is still relatively good)
?
? Here, after one session done at beginner level, I managed nothing more
? than a mere 55% success rate, which I consider really a poor result. I
? believe, though, that the positions are very tough, and I seriously doubt
? that somebody who “just knows the moves” can solve them! Just the fact
? that, this month, they are all coming from Petriosian’s games, gives an
? hint about the fact that they can’t be sooooo basic!
?
? What is your experience?
?
? Thanks in advance for any reply!
?
? Andrea