Chess.com Feedback: Why do we need GAMES and PLAYERS lists in Live Chess? Tell me!

Again, we're re-working Live Chess 2.0 and I have questions!

Tell me what you use the GAMES tab for. What are you looking at? Just the top games? Or what? Why should we list all of the games?

Also, why do you want the PLAYERS tab back? What did you do with the players tab? Were you looking just for the top players? Or just checking out good looking avatars (kidding)?

I want to know! These are two critical tabs and we need to understand their purpose.

I don't use either. Don't take away the seeks tab, though, I like to know games where a player requests a specific color (so I can avoid them).  And can you do anything to make it more stable? Or at least lose less points on a disconnect?

I don't suppose you could release the chess board from the browser window it's locked inside of...I'd give you all the tabs in the world for that function.

I don't use the games tab personally. If I ever have it was to locate a mod or if I was bored and wanted to locate a war between two high ranking players. I don't personally see any real use for the players tab either, aside from the things mentioned above.

Hey Erik,

I normally use it to look for the best rated players and observe their games...(I am learning!...) this is...could say the 3 out of 4 times.

I also like to check on the quick games (less than 3 min.) because I am really surprised how people it's able to move that fast when I even have problems playing in blitz mode.

I hope it helps...

P.S. Nothing to do with that avatars check....(although if I can find a very good looking w. chess player...I have to admit that maybe I will take apeek...;-)

Hi Erik,

For the Games tab, it's good because sometimes members refer you to a game they are playing or someone else is playing in order to spectate.  If they are not on your friends list, then you can search in the games tab.  However, the current games tab layout makes it very difficult to find the correct chess game.  I suggest having a "Table #" by each game so you can sort and refer to a game easily.  Currently I have to sort all the White player in ascending order and then try locate the Member name.  If not there, then I sort the Black players and locate the Member.  Very cumbersome.

For the Players tab, it's good to see who is in the room so you can challange specific people.  If they do not say anything in the main chat room, or they are not playing a game at the time, then you don't know that these members are available for a game.

I hope you find this useful!

Regards,

Prof Knox

If you have just played someone you found in a random seek, and want a rematch but with different time controls, there is no other way to rechallenge them without the players tab except to add them as a friend.

With the games tab I enjoy finding games with top rated Chess.com players. By no means do I only use it for that. Sometimes I like to watch players around my rating (or slightly higher) to compare my ideal moves to the ones played.

I don't use either tab, actually. Though I do sometimes scan the games tab to see the top games in case I feel like observing.

It would be cool if in 3d

I only used the players tab, to see the highest rated players online. Also the same with the games tab, just to find a high level game to watch.

Alll we need is a 'Top 10 players online' tab, complete with ratings, and a 'top game in progress' tab !

I did not read all the post's, but for me sort games in progress by rating and players tab both by ranking and by country

I use players tab to see who is on live chess as I don't want to have a huge list of "friends".

Games I never used untill the players tab went away.

I use the Games tab for spectating purposes. Usually I watch the top games, but I also watch games between people who are rated close to me to see how I compare.

If you are considering changing it to a "Top Games" tab, then I think you should include top games of each type. I usually skip the quick top games because they are full of mistakes due to the time controls, and not great for learning. It would suck if the top 5 games (say) were all quick matches and if these were the only spectating options.

i like the game tab because i enjoy watching others play.

i figure i could learn from watching others play.

Simple solutions: a list of all the players/games appears when the user issue a command or clicks a certain button/menu option. And the list must not be continuosly updated (unless you want to buy several servers for live chess). By default the seek graph/tab is no longer updated once a user starts playing a game (most people will not play 2 games simultaneously).

To prevent flooding the chat window with nonsense (and also the unnecessary traffic), each user should wait let's say one minute between two consecutive posts.

Just like on other servers (by the way, that server gives a two week free trial. Why don't you take a look on it with Dasher? The interface is really good).

One last thing: how did you manage to make the windows in live chess so difficult/awkward to move or resize? I'd love to know that, I've never managed to obtain this effect. :))

I hate to say this here, but I think this is one of the very few things that Yahoo got right.  There's no shame in poaching their look and feel.

yahoo limits rooms to 200 people :) their servers (and ours) cannot handle lists when you have 5000 people on them. so unless you want the terrible experience of going to different rooms (which we had and nobody went), we have to find ways to let everyone be in the same place but have smarter lists.

I believe they recently made it a 30 second waiting period.

I think both lists are important, and you'll cripple live chess if either is eliminated.  That being said, why does either have to be live?  What about the possibility of making them query only lists?

Game needs to be more stable with less disconecting. Also sometimes when I move it does not show up on the other persons monitor. Does anyone else have the same problem also?