Simple and Fancy Changes for Chess.com
Introduction
The Chess.com platform is constantly on the lookout for ways to improve itself, and changes do happen regularly. However, not all of those changes are welcomed by users. Therefore, it would make sense to focus that energy and desire for change on what will bring welcome changes for most users instead.
Here we will explore some simple changes that most users would agree with, and some fancy changes that will entice others.
Simple Changes
The following are highly needed changes and their implementation would greatly impact user satisfaction. Currently some of these features are only available for the web version and require switching from app to web to use. Let’s make switching a thing of the past.
- How much Vacation Time do I have left?
This is only available in the settings for web, but would be very handy on the app. It could even show at a glance as a bar graph with percentage, similar to battery charge. - Which current games on my list are ‘No Vacation Allowed’?
If you are short on time, and would like to concentrate your efforts on ‘No Vacation’ games first, it would be very handy to have an icon on the list denoting those games as such.
Currently, it is possible to activate Vacation, refresh the list and then the ‘No Vacation’ games will be the ones not paused. However, this would be unnecessary with the addition of a special icon. Also, activating Vacation will deduct a minimum of 24 hours from it regardless of its actual duration. Beware! - Does the current game belong to a Tournament or Club Match?
This will readily show on the web, but not on the app. It would be handy to take a peek at how we are performing in our group, and how many more wins it will take to get to the next round. And for Club Matches, it would let us know how our team is faring against the other. - Past Tournament rankings at a glance
We are all interested in our own performance levels, always eager to improve them. However, it is currently cumbersome to work out how well we have ranked in all past tournaments.
In the Tournaments Page on the web, under Completed, it will show the past five tournaments and your ranking in them. Unfortunately, upon expanding that list, the ranking column disappears. Perhaps we could persuade it to stay. - Managing Daily Tournaments more smoothly
Although accessible through the app, it takes 5 taps to access them and it creates a Live Connection. Press Play > Tournaments > Daily > Upcoming > Managing. This could be brought down to 3 or maybe even just 2 taps by pressing Tournaments > Daily > Managing. And the app could automatically choose between Live and Daily based on which was used last or more often, thus removing a step. - What is my average time per move and timeout percentage for Daily?
This is useful and important information which can mean the difference between being able to join a tournament or not. One used to be available in Stats under 90 Days on the web, but was removed. Perhaps it could be wrestled back and added to the app. Also, maybe a streak-style reward would keep players motivated to keep their timeouts low.
It is still possible to access this and other information on the web, but only as a technical page, unknown to most, and hardly user-friendly. Non-technical users would appreciate an alternative.
To see your technical stats, modify the link below replacing your-username:
https://api.chess.com/pub/player/your-username/stats
Help articles:
How is average time per move calculated?
Published-Data API
Good luck!
- A new way to keep track of the average time per move for Daily
Currently there is only one value for average time per move regardless of total days available to move. This would severely impact someone attempting to join a 1 day per move tournament requiring average < 12 hours, when they normally play 3 or 5 days per move games. Therefore, at the very least, a separate average time per move for 1 day per move games is necessary.
Otherwise, the average time per move could remain as one value, but kept as a percentage of total time used instead. Therefore, players only using on average less than 50% of their available time on any number of days per move should qualify for a 1 day per move tournament requiring average < 12 hours. Neat! - Achieving consistency with some features and labels
The ‘Missed Win’ Move Classification has been replaced with ‘Missed’ on some features, but not all. Also, are they exactly the same or do they differ in any way?
Game Shapes are no longer showing on Game Review, but still showing on the Insights feature. They are useful and should be displayed on Game Review as well.
Fancy Changes
The following changes are geared toward Club Management and could be interesting additions to how clubs operate. However, they might be somewhat niche and not necessarily of interest to most players.
- Adding optional Elections for Club Management
These changes could be added as an option for new clubs, and only available to existing clubs should their respective owners allow them first.
If enabled, the current Club Owner position would change to Club President and it would automatically trigger an election to be held in one month’s time. Therefore giving enough time for candidates to advertise their plans for club leadership. Voting should be optional to avoid burdening members who would rather opt out.
The positions for Admin and Coordinator could also be filled using just one election. Although, Super Admins should only be assigned or dismissed by the new President.
When voting concludes, the list being ordered from most to least votes can be divided in three, ignoring the top position. Then all in the top half become Admins, and all in the middle half become Coordinators, as long as they have certain predetermined minimum percentages of votes.
Super Admins would still retain the power to promote or demote members from their positions; although they would be unable to demote those who were elected. To remove an elected member from a position, an internal management-only election must take place and gain at least two thirds of the vote. Only elected members would be allowed to vote.
It should be possible for a club to switch back to traditional club ownership, although this must take place through a fresh club-wide election. No self-declared dictators! - Adding Polls
This would be similar to the Poll feature found in WhatsApp, and would allow members to participate in fun activities to find out their club members’ preferences regarding openings, play style, or even favourite cake. - Voting Method options
Both Elections and Polls could include options for different voting methods.
The ‘First Past the Post’ method is not the only one. There are many, each one with its pros and cons.
Example:
For a club of cake enthusiasts, two different methods could be used for different purposes.
In the ‘First Past the Post’ method, whoever gets the largest number of votes wins, even if their percentage is below 50%. Such a method would be fine for satisfying club members’ curiosity in terms of which cakes are the number one favourite for other members.
This could yield results such as meringue cake being the one with the largest amount of votes at 27% and plain cake getting the least amount at 2%
However, that method would certainly not be the best one to work out which cake should be made for the club’s anniversary party. It is entirely possible that while meringue cake is the preferred one for 27%, the other 73% might absolutely abhor it.
Should the party go ahead with meringue as the only cake, the overall satisfaction would be very low and most members would have a terrible time, many of them even refusing to eat at all.
In such a case the ‘Ranked Choice’ method is preferable. In this method members would rank all available options according to their preferences, therefore yielding a result which would bring the most overall satisfaction. In this way, perhaps fruit cake would win and the party would be a success given that an overwhelming majority of members were positive about the result.
For more information about voting methods, watch the video below: - New procedure for removing inactive sole Super Admin
Currently Club Owners may only be removed from that position if they are the only Super Admin, and have been inactive for some time. Then a makeshift vote is done in a new forum topic, and then Support is contacted to make the necessary changes.
This could be improved by allowing Elections to be automatically enabled for clubs with inactive Club Owners being the only Super Admin, and then the feature becoming automatically disabled once voting concludes. After that, the new leadership can decide how they would like to run the club going forward.
Conclusion
The overall satisfaction for users on this platform would dramatically increase should the simple changes become a reality. While the fancy changes would be a nice bonus for those who find them interesting.
Hopefully enough members will agree at least with the simple changes, so that they will be implemented by Chess.com. If you agree, then spread the word!
Thank you for reading my blog post.
