Recent Site Enhancements - 2011/04/30
Hi chess-lovers!
Spring has sprung, and new features have been sprouting like April flowers! Here's the latest...
Live Online Coaching!
Going over your games with a real chess coach is a powerful way to gain insight into your weaknesses and overcome them. We've transformed our Coach Directory and Coach Profile pages to make it easy for you to find a coach and safely purchase online lessons! (Not only do we securely handle the payment itself, but we also offer a 100% service guarantee.)
To find a coach, select your current skill-level at the top of the directory page and hit "Search." Then review profiles to find someone who provides the kinds of services you want. (Of course, titled players and better-known coaches are generally going to charge more for their time. Consider the investment you're willing to make, along with the results you desire.) Once you've found the right coach, you can apply as a student - telling them about your goals as an improver - and then buy your lessons!
Of course, in addition to getting coaches and students together, we've been working on building the perfect "training room" for online coaching. Our Live Analysis Boards give coaches the ultimate tool for web-based instruction:
- Set up positions manually, or paste PGN / FEN
- Share control of the board with students
- Mark up the board with arrows and highlight squares
- Talk things over with browser-based Voice Chat
In addition, coaches will REALLY love what we've added most recently: advanced support for variations!
You can paste PGN with variations right into the board - or experiment with a student's suggested alternative to the main line. Jump back to the main line any time!
Whether you're a chess-improver or a chess coach, please check our FAQ page to learn more about coaching on Chess.com.
Other Live Chess Changes
Analysis-board improvements are not the only thing our Live Chess experts have been working on...
For instance, we've also made progress encouraging more civility and less hateful nonsense in our Live chatrooms by putting a few restrictions in place - mostly to ensure that new, basic members are here (at least partly) to play chess.
What else?
- Seek Graph now shows square-shaped dots for Computer opponents!
- A new option in Settings lets you show coordinates in a nice border outside the board itself
- The "Simple" version of Live Chess (LC2) has been beautifully re-styled and tested to support Internet Explorer 9. (The same treatment is coming soon to Live Premium.)
- Bug-fixes and stability improvements galore!
...That's about it. Oh! - almost forgot: We also brought back the Average Opponent Rating metric in Online Chess. (We took it away because the query we used to bring back that data was extremely costly in terms of processing power. It was never our intention to get rid of it for good.)
Stay tuned! There are some really amazing things coming along shortly!
Click here to track the Webmaster!
