Hey, chess lovers! The end of the year is almost upon us, and as if that isn't enough reason to celebrate, we still have to look back at the penultimate month of the year—and review all the interesting things that happened around the site in November 2020. Let's dig in!

Web

• When you hit the Vs Computer page, you are automatically scrolled down to the row of the last bot you played.
• Also, you can quick-start a Vs Computer game (using current settings) just by making a move on the board.
• When you defeat a bot, you may now opt for Next Bot instead of "Rematch."
• We also added a quick explanation of how adaptive bots work...

• When drawing arrows on the board, you can now hold down the "a" and use the primary mouse button. Also, drawing arrows will now deselect the selected piece, if any (to avoid accidental moves).
• Yet more work on a new Library feature for storing, sharing and studying collections of games from all kinds of sources.
• Made it easier to navigate through moves when reviewing a live game.
• Added hot-keys in Live for Focus mode ("z") and Flip board ("x").
• Improved Search feature in Lessons.
• Lots of work done on design update for member stats pages (coming soon!).
• "New Game" in the navigation now opens the new Play interface, rather than the old new game pop-up form.
• Many improvements and updates related to Guest play.
• Changed the icon to denote and explain en passant captures from ❓to ℹ️, since the former was sometimes being interpreted as "Mistake."
• Brought Vote Chess up the same standard as the rest of the site with new board technology and an updated "V5" design—plus you can now see the current votes represented over the board as arrows!

• If you are viewing multiple games in live, it is now impossible to close a game tile for an active game you are playing.
• Changed name of Bughouse to Doubles and updated the icon as well.
• Improved the Guess the Move feature for live game observers.
• Made improvements to a number of pages that weren't as usable with dark mode active, including forums pages.
• Changed visibility of club upcoming events to show only those the viewer is eligible to play in.
• Added game over glyphs to Analysis:

• Added the Challenge Sent (Waiting) animation to Focus mode in Play.
• Lots of work to extend our capacity for more people playing real-time games simultaneously, without overloading the Live servers.

iOS

Version 3.9.10 (2) landed on the App Store, bringing the following improvements and new features:

• Practice Key Positions vs the computer to hone your technique and learn to recognize common patterns that occur often in chess. (Look for Key Positions under Game Type when setting up a Computer game.)
• Need a chess board in real life? Just tap New Game and choose "Pass & Play"!
• We added some new celebrity chess bots! (And there are more to come!...)
• Fixed several crashes and other minor bugs.

Fair Play & Sportsmanship

• 158,261,639 games reviewed for fair play.
• 6,965,852 accounts reviewed for fair play.
• 18,511 accounts closed for fair play (including 9 titled players).
• 516,769 abuse reports received.
• 88,245 mute actions taken.
• 75,553 individual accounts muted.
• 27,303 accounts closed for abuse.

Member Support

• Average time to first response:  1 day, 14 hours.
• Total support responses: 31,052.
• Average quality by member rating: 92% "Great" or better.
• Total ratings: 3,701.

That's all for this month! We'll come back in January to take a look at December. Until then, thank you for joining us in this monthly recap—and please let us know what you think in the comments. Stay safe and enjoy your chess!

⏮ October 2020・ 🗓・December 2020 ⏭