Terrible Puzzle

Is there a refund for bad puzzles?

lichess.org/training/61280

Taking a free piece (only move) and then finding the best of several winning moves to protect that piece? The 2nd best move is +2.1 and the correct move is +4.3, like come on, both are clearly winning but the 2nd best move weakens black's king a lot.

Besides, any puzzle that starts with just taking a free piece and being a piece up is absolutely horrible. From what I can see it has 0 upvotes, as well. It stings extra when you get like +2 to +5 when you're right and lose 19 points when you're wrong. I'm joking about the refund but I do think the puzzle should be removed. The only reason it's 2279 is because people found 2 of the other winning moves as they're both more attacking in nature.

Also it's practically impossible to calculate it to finish before the first move. You gotta predict that black plays a +4.6 move rather than one of the +5.5 / +5.6 options, and neither of them have a clear best move in response as everything's winning, so you're sat there with more than a dozen lines where everything's clearly winning. It's just a huge waste of time.

It seems like a very clear choice to me, f4 is easily best.

Also, the whole current lichess puzzle system is getting thrown out pretty soon (not quite sure when, but the new one is in beta right now and is getting rigorously tested) and will be replaced by the one on lichess.dev.

Lichess.dev/training.

Well, the second move actually doesn’t weaken black’s king. After Qh5 g6 Qxh6 Qxe5 black’s king has nowhere to move, but white has no attack either. The king rook is blocked by the pawns, the queen rook isn’t even nearby, the light square bishop is behind a pawn, and the dark square bishop isn’t really contributing to the attack. Even if white did manage to activate some pieces, black can escape by moving the rook. Overall their positions are about equal: weak and inactive. Whites only advantage is a pawn and some activation opportunities for pieces.

If you'd bothered to do the "calculating" you would clearly see that the second best move loses the piece you just won.

I didn't see anything terribly wrong with this puzzle. Figured it out rather quickly.

It's certainly not the best puzzle I've seen on Lichess, but it has practical value, if for no other reason that it being from a bit of a messy and uncertain position (like often happens in games.)

I agree: a puzzle that starts with pretty much an en prise situation is pretty much a lame puzzle.

@mathwhiz16 I clearly saw that. Now, this may shock you, but there are tactical puzzles where you sac a piece for compensation. The 3rd best Bxh6 also sacs a piece but is also good for white.

Y'all really gonna defend a puzzle with 330K plays and 0 upvotes? At least the NM sees my point.

Anyway, thanks @TCF_Namelecc for the info, happy to hear that. /thread