When I gave some difficult puzzles to advanced kids, often their responsible parents got back to me, saying "My son solved all problems in xxx minutes. I have entered his solutions in computer and they are correct".
Is this checking against computer good for your kids?
I always forbid using computer before solving a problem. I never strongly object using computer to check afterward. Now I want to modify my standpoint a little. I believe checking against computer is bad, before or after.
As a parent, I understand you could not tell your child's solutions are correct or not by yourself. But it's not your job to confirm your child's solution. It's his/her job! Your job is making sure s/he has done the assignment, and writing down the total time. That's it. S/he has to confirm his/her solution by him/herself. Knowing you will check them for him/her, s/he will just skip the confirmation step. This is much more important step than any other steps when doing tactics training. Skipping it will reduce the effectiveness by at least 70%.
When we play a over-the-board tournament game, we may come up with an excellent tactic combination in 5 minutes, but we spend another 10, 15, 20, even 30 minutes to calculate all variations multiple times, so we can be sure that our great idea works. Sometimes it is really good, sometimes it has some holes but can be covered, and sometimes it has too many holes so has to be killed. This process can not be skipped if you want to play solid games. How to get into such habit? You get it from your tactic training.
In addition, your kid's solution is one correct line, but the computer says there are two other variations. Do you consider s/he is right or not? NO. All variations should be discovered during his/her confirmation step. If S/he misses one, it could be a fatal one that costs a game.
I always say solution is not important. The important thing is you go through the correct process. Other than generating ideas, you learn calculation, patience, thoroughness, self-criticism, self-correction, in the end, you improve your self-confidence.
I have some positions that I never solve completely, after spending more than 20 hours and 8 years. I never to want to enter them in computer to find the real clean solutions. Someday I may go back them again and try to crack them.
Is this checking against computer good for your kids?
I always forbid using computer before solving a problem. I never strongly object using computer to check afterward. Now I want to modify my standpoint a little. I believe checking against computer is bad, before or after.
As a parent, I understand you could not tell your child's solutions are correct or not by yourself. But it's not your job to confirm your child's solution. It's his/her job! Your job is making sure s/he has done the assignment, and writing down the total time. That's it. S/he has to confirm his/her solution by him/herself. Knowing you will check them for him/her, s/he will just skip the confirmation step. This is much more important step than any other steps when doing tactics training. Skipping it will reduce the effectiveness by at least 70%.
When we play a over-the-board tournament game, we may come up with an excellent tactic combination in 5 minutes, but we spend another 10, 15, 20, even 30 minutes to calculate all variations multiple times, so we can be sure that our great idea works. Sometimes it is really good, sometimes it has some holes but can be covered, and sometimes it has too many holes so has to be killed. This process can not be skipped if you want to play solid games. How to get into such habit? You get it from your tactic training.
In addition, your kid's solution is one correct line, but the computer says there are two other variations. Do you consider s/he is right or not? NO. All variations should be discovered during his/her confirmation step. If S/he misses one, it could be a fatal one that costs a game.
I always say solution is not important. The important thing is you go through the correct process. Other than generating ideas, you learn calculation, patience, thoroughness, self-criticism, self-correction, in the end, you improve your self-confidence.
I have some positions that I never solve completely, after spending more than 20 hours and 8 years. I never to want to enter them in computer to find the real clean solutions. Someday I may go back them again and try to crack them.
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