New 3D Boards & So Much More!
Greetings, chess-lovers!
Well... It's been a while since we made any major (well, obvious) enhancements to your favorite chess site, but today's updates make the wait worthwhile! There is SO much great new stuff to see today! Let's jump right in...
New 3D Chess Boards!
These look amazing! Visit your settings for Tactics, Mentor, Online Chess or Live Chess and select "Real 3d (beta)" for your Board Size or Pieces Style to try them out.
There are a few easy tricks to know:
- You can zoom in/out with your mouse-wheel
- You can tilt the board by grabbing one side or corner with a held right-click and moving the board around
- Because of varying levels of support for the technology, there may be variations in how these work & look on different browsers. (If you want to see them at their best, try Chrome!)
"Play" buttons on Game Boards!
Give your clicky-finger a break and just watch the action unfold, with this new VCR-style navigation control!
New Diagrams!
Another place you might see the new play button is on our hugely improved chess diagrams! Commentary no longer hangs down, hiding text below the diagram! You can actually SEE instructive notes within a puzzle - and all notes are visible in context! So. Much. Better!
(Use the lightbulb to get help with the next move, or the "?" to see the whole solution.)
New Tactics Analysis Board!
Oh my! Here, we took the nicest parts of our new Diagrams and fashioned a brand new Tactics Analysis Board that puts the old one to shame!
Step through the analysis (or experiment on your own) with ease! Clicking within the move list will now update the position on the board! Grab the FEN or PGN by clicking the download icon. (Click on the image above to try it out!)
So if you're confused about the outcome of a puzzle, there's no reason NOT to click "Analyze"! 
Full-Square Highlights!
...are back and better than ever! We've custom-colored the highlights for each board color to make them attractive and effective, instead of awkward looking and... yellow.
Better Move Animations!
After much testing, we've created new behaviors for piece-movement animation - based on the time-control in effect! (Check it out! Bullet is now lightning fast!)
Improvements to Live Analysis Boards!
Lastly, we've made a bunch of improvements to Live Analysis boards, to make them more usable and more stable. Anyone you explicitly invite to your board will now be made a Student automatically - and all students have control by definition! Fewer steps!
Whew! Ok, those are the highlights - and we're so happy to finally see them live! We hope you love these new features and improvements as much as we do!
Until next time!...
