Hey, chess lovers! How time flies! After a short hiatus, we're back to review not one, but two months of goings-on around the site—and with our apps. Let's buckle up and review what was new in July and August 2021.

Web

• We completely overhauled the member Stats feature—adding the ability to look at all your Stats by time interval, and much more! Read the full announcement here. 📊
• We added streak indicators to the calendar and post-attempt modal in the new Daily Puzzle! 🔥
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Messages to be sorted in the wrong order.
• Added a confirmation dialog to Vs Computer and re-ordered some buttons, to make it much harder to resign a game by accident! 😧
• In the "Current" tab of Play > Tournaments, we now show only events that have at least 50% time remaining.
• Analysis lovers rejoice! Key Moments and Game Report merged, evolving into the new Game Review feature—now offering better-than-ever post-game analysis with a friendly coach to guide you through the game. Share your brilliancies, see the moves that were best, and retry your mistakes to improve your vision! Click here to learn more!
• In a related story, your Game Review and general Analysis is now powered by our new Tablebase feature, which can tell you with 100% certainty what the best moves are in positions with seven or fewer pieces. Read the announcement here.
• Made some improvements to ChessTV chat, including immediately converting relevant combos of text characters to emoji.
• Speaking of emoji, you can now use them as a fun new way to react to comments in forums, etc.!

• Still speaking of emojis... have you ever wanted to drop emoji directly on the chessboard? No? Well, you're probably not a Streamer or YouTuber, but it's still pretty fun! Check it out!
• We fixed a bug in Events that often would cause the incorrect Round number to display.
• Made some improvements to usability in Lessons Search, including little things like ordering the Lesson authors alphabetically in the search menu.
• LOTS of improvements to UIs for creating and playing in Club Events.
• In the Tournaments list, we made the line showing the current time much easier to see.
• On the same page, we added tournament search filters to allow you to find tournaments and games by type...

• If you like Focus mode and you like playing in Arena tournaments, you'll like the new button we added to the post-game modal to find a new game in the same event!
• In the navigation menu, Play > Daily now directs to the Daily tab of the Play UI.
• We implemented the ability to filter by Country at the top of the Ratings page.
• Fixed a bug in Stats that would cause all your recent games to be displayed in the Recent Games section - instead of just the ones relevant for the current view (e.g. showing only Blitz games on the Blitz Stats page, etc.)
• You can now pick your favorite Coach (avatar) from a menu of options... 
• Improved the game-over state in Play, adding options (e.g. Add to Library) and generally harmonizing with Archive and Watch UI.
• As with other Puzzles features, you can now take back an incorrect move during the Daily Puzzle, just by clicking on the board.
• When you open a game from one of your Library Collections in the Analysis page, a new menu at the top of the page will provide quick access to other games in the same Collection... Cool!
• Made improvements to the plotting of lines in Stats rating graphs.
• See your Club's avatar beside your own during play in Team Matches and tournaments.
• Rounded the corners of player avatars in various member lists, like Streamers.
• In Stats, added a player comparison feature! (You can start a comparison from the top of a particular Stats page for any given member.)
• Improved usability of flow to create a Custom game in Play.
• Following up on our earlier efforts to allow players to save their Vs Computer games, we've now added the ability to delete Vs Computer games from the Archive also. (Open the game to see the option at the bottom of the side panel.)
• Started working on some very cool improvements to our site Search functionality. (Stay tuned!)
• Finally, the old Drills feature found a new home in a new feature, simply called Practice. Look for the 🎯icon in places like finished games, puzzles, master games, openings, etc., to bring the current position to Practice and spar vs your Bot of choice. Read more here.

Android 🦾

Team Android worked hard to bring out some great new features in the latest version of 4.3...

• The new Daily Puzzle
• Perfect your technique with the Practice feature
• Learn how to finish your opponent with Endgames training
• Watch international chess Events live!
• Improved Awards
• Archive your Vs Computer games

iOS 🍏

Team iOS released v3.9.21, including the following new features...

• The new Daily Puzzle
• Improved Awards
• Opt in or out of Lesson & practice reminders
• Access to your Clubs

Fair Play & Sportsmanship 😇

July

• 295,289,341 games reviewed for fair play.
• 10,248,502 accounts reviewed for fair play.
• 25,900 accounts closed for fair play (including 8 titled players).
• 1,204,468 abuse reports received.
• 61,744 mute actions taken.
• 52,105 individual accounts muted.
• 40,847 accounts closed for abuse.

August

(Owing to some database changes partway through the month, we are missing reliable numbers for a few of the usual metrics...)

• 23,193 accounts closed for fair play (including 9 titled players).
• 1,170,072 abuse reports received.
• 59,235 mute actions taken.
• 49,324 individual accounts muted.
• 38,026 accounts closed for abuse.

Member Support 💁‍♀️

July

Average time to first response: 21 hours, 24 mins.
Total support responses: 33,022.
Average quality by member rating: 92% "Great" or better.
Total ratings: 3,627.

August

Average time to first response: 20 hours, 50 mins.
Total support responses: 30,421.
Average quality by member rating: 92% "Great" or better.
Total ratings: 3,383.

Whew! Well, that is a lot of the stuff that kept us busy for the last couple of months. We hope you enjoyed this review and discovered at least one cool new feature you want to use! Thank you for reading, and please let us know what you think in the comments. Until next time, stay safe and enjoy your chess!

⏮ June 2021・ 🗓・September 2021 ⏭