Chess.com Dev Update: April 28, 2017

Hey Chess.com!

We really worked a lot on enhancements this week! In addition to completely reworking the chess board for the entire site to be more responsive, we are switching javascript libraries as well; moving from Angular1 (eww!)  to Vue.js (yay!)

Despite being focused on bugs and increasing overall performance, we did manage to squeeze out some new features  Foremost we saw a major overhaul to tactics!

- Wider variety of skill level: Instead of grinding through puzzles in a narrow band that closely hugs your rating, you'll now see more puzzles that are quite a bit higher rated than you, and a lot of tactics that should be easier too. This is much more realistic to what you will find in your actual chess games - and we think it’s more enjoyable too! Plus, you’ll have access to a much larger pool of puzzles with a lower chance of repeat.

- More "personalized" scoring logic: Given the increased variety, we don't want your rating to be dramatically affected by an occasional miss on a lower-rated tactic, or a longer think on a harder one. We introduced the concept of "Target Time." Target Time is personal; it's the maximum time you can take to solve the problem to still score 100% and is determined by several factors, including your current rating and the number of moves required to solve the puzzle. (It’s about half the time we would expect a similarly-rated player to take to solve the puzzle, so to score the full 100%, you do have to think fast!)

For those who still like to see the Average time, you still can! Just hover over Target Time for a pop up! 

- Puzzles allotments reset based on local time: Whereas previously, you had to wait until Midnight PDT/PST to get your next set of puzzles, they will now reset at Midnight in your local time zone. (We did briefly try a 24 hour rolling window, but based on member feedback we changed this! Thanks to everyone who wrote with suggestions!)

Chess.com Main Site

- You can now permanently save your game analysis directly in your games archive! This is our first step toward full personal game archives: much more to come! 

Open any standard game (no variants yet!) from your Archive in the Analysis Board to get started.

Then just add comments or additional lines of analysis you wish to save, and finally press save! 

 The next time you open that game in the Analysis Board, all your notes, thoughts and ideas will be there to review! 

- Chess itself might not be multi-lingual, but more and more of our content is! Drills, News, and Articles are starting to come in Spanish, German, Russian, French, Portuguese, and Norwegian! Multi

-lingual videos are in the works too!

When viewing content, you can even choose to only see material in the language that matches your site settings!

- Want to watch your games at the speed you played them? You can now play your games back in Real-time! 

First visit your Game Archive and open any live game, press play (make sure  you are not at the end of the game!) and then check the "Real-time" box. Only available for LIVE games.

Live Chess

- Everyone hates lag! But we've taken steps to make it less painful by introducing a bigger "Lag Bank" which forgives time lost on your clock due to lag! Essentially, when you experience lag normal amounts of lag, our sever won't deduct the time lost to lag from your clock!  

- It's now easier to rally your club mates for a Live Club Match as they now have custom URLs! 

Once you create a new Club Match, just copy the URL from your address bar and send it out to get a bigger match going.

iPhone/iPad

We know we're starting to sound like a broken record here, but we're still working on the next BIG release for iOS devices. More details soon

Interested in helping test the next release before it hits the store? Join the iOS club for details!

Android

3.5.3 has been released! There were lots of enhancements to game play aimed at making a smoother experience!. Here are the release notes! 

- Live chess improvements
- Improved chess engine
- Stability & performance improvements
- Please note that you will need Android 4.1+ to run the newest app! 

HERE is the link to upgrade if your device doesn't automatically update! 

Looking to be "in the know" for coming Android updates? Join the Chess.com Android Club for details!

As always, if you have suggestions or bugs to report use the HELP icon in the navigation, or on mobile, Send Feedback in the Settings.

Thanks for your support!