Tactics Trainer

Tactics Trainer in v2 is great. I pull up a screen and BEFORE I hit the start button I look to see if I am playing white or black and how much is the average time for that puzzle. And I get to watch the time run down as I look  at the puzzle.

I want ALL those things. 

Then as soon as the puzzle stops, I can read all the comments right there on that screen. I don't have to go and look for them.

That is what I have in v2 and that is what I want. I play about 20-30 TT puzzles almost every day. I have reset my score (and therefore history) a few times, but all told I have probably played 50,000 puzzles in the past four years.

I like TT because each puzzle only takes a minute, or a few minutes. I don't have time to play a game and in TT I never have to know that somebody beat me. I want to keep TT just like it is.

Thanks! I understand there are some differences. Let me see if I can address. 

- We have received mixed feedback on how much information people want to see for the puzzle before and during. It's been an extremely tough balance. Avg time, etc. Some people like it, some don't. We should probably make that an option in the future. 

- As for color to move, we show the computer move, and show your move color as the background. I understand that isn't as clear as an explicit BLACK TO MOVE. Part of that was to allow for more languages. And part to be more explicit that it is YOUR move. But I can see that taking some time to get used to. 

- As for comments, that was a decision made because 99% of people do not look at or use comments. And loading all of those comments does slow it down. Again, perhaps an option for "Always show comments" would be possible here. Noted. 

I appreciate you voicing your thoughts!

Thanks Eric. Have a good day!

I kind of agree with both JustADude80 and erik.
And V2 tactics don't have the resizing issues.  Which seem like quite a big bug!
V3 has the great new Stockfish feature though.  A kind of chess oracle.
And displays the previous move better.  And deletes comments completely. 

But why not put in the V3 display "You play - (whatever color)" and "Your move"? 
Also - there's a problem with unrated displays.  Players have been confounded by it.
When the problems display unrated - V2 or V3 -
they don't display the previous move that starts off the problem. 
In other words - they see a different problem and position than when its rated.
Why not make sure that that previous move has been played - with - again -
"Your move - you play (color)" ?

However, I can think of two things that would make TT better - assuming that I didn't lose the features I have in v2 now (see above).

I would like to keep what I have in v2 plus have two filters to select the TT puzzles that I get. I want to filter based on average time (I just don't want to play a puzzle with average time over 300 seconds) and pass rate (I don't want to see a puzzle with a pass rate less than 40 or maybe 30 percent).

If I could keep what I have plus get those two filters, wow, that would be so fine.  

Great ideas

There is a sorting feature on the Tactics Trainer Performance page.
And if it worked properly - then JustADude80 could select many problems
of the exact type he wants.
But its seriously Dysfunctional.
And its possible that erik doesn't know about the Dysfunction.
I haven't done a Bug Report on this yet.  Would rather mention it here.

Its like this - you can sort the 50,000 Tactics problems in both V2 or V3 -
exactly as JustADude80 is saying.
By Average Time, Pass Rate, Rating - even ID number.  And number of Attempts.
In my next comment - I'll post the Navigation path for each Version.  V2 and V3.

But here's the BIG PROBLEM .... 
It will NOT let you go to the middle ranges of the  page numbers.
In other words - this feature will NOT give you access to most of the problems!!
You'll only be able to view the problems at the highest and lowest of each type.

This can be a problem on other databases on the internet too.
You can't input a page number within the gigantic list.  So you're stuck.

This will be much easier to understand if you try it yourself.
So I'll post the Navigations to the feature next comment.

First - Navigation in V2.
Hit your Home Button.  Then Tactics Trainer.  You'll see a big grey Performance Button.
Hit it.  Lots of good stuff comes up.
But at Top Right - you'll see a button ...   "View Problems".  Hit it.
In the bottom half of that page - you'll see a Gigantic list of Tactics problems.
All 54,330 of them.  You'll see page numbers at the bottom of the list.
And at the left top of the list - a Sorting Feature.   With a Drop-Down menu.
It defaults to Rating - Lowest.
But try viewing problems at say - 1600 or so.  You can't.  No way to get there.
You'll see a bunch of problems that start at 400.
HOW are you going to get to the problems at 1600??  Or 1800?? Or 2000??  Or 1200?
But its similiar if you use a different attribute.  Like Average Time or Pass Rate.
You're not getting there.
Unless there's a Trick - that I don't know about.

erik - if there's a Trick - please have it posted here.  Let us all know about it.
I'll post the V3 Navigation - next comment.

Okay - V3 Navigation now - to ALL Tactics problems.
That's what they call it in V3.  Tactics.  Not Tactics Trainer.

So - whether you've hit Home or not - there's a Learn Button.
Its easily found if you have the Menu at Top.
If you're using SIDE menu - also known as LeftNav - its harder to find.
But its main feature is two diagonal light squares.
Hit it.

Now hit Tactics.  Scroll to the bottom of the screen.
Below the big brown Start Button at bottom right -
there's three gray symbols.  If you hover on the middle one -
it should say "Tactics Problems".  Hit it.

Again - you'll see a Humongous list of Tactics Problems.  This time -
56,765 of them!!
Again with useless page numbers at the bottom.
Again with a Sort Feature.  But its at top right now.
It has a drop-down menu.  You can pick different things to sort by.
But again - you aren't going anywhere.
You're stuck at the low and high extremes of each range.
I've experimented with trying to scroll further in -
it soon just stops.

Please - chess.com - fix these Sort features in the overall problem lists.
Or tell us what the Trick is ...   

The comments is one of the best aspects of TT in my book, except for the spurious boasting that goes on, and the notorious  Mr "Cucaput's" habit of bookmarking each attempt complete with date.

Never tells us whether he succeeded though.

Interesting about the problems with sorting the puzzles posted by playerafar.

camter hi.  There are several V3 versus V2 forums - and in one of them -
I saw an idea of assigning a kind of shelf-life to the Tactics comments.
In other words - comments that have become too old - get deleted automatically.
I like this idea - but I'm not a programmer.

Gosh!- now I see erik's comment about this very thing above!
And the phrase in his comment "slow it down"
So this now seems like initial confirmation that less page information - is a good thing.
But there could be many other good ways to reduce page information
besides the idea of the optional comment display button (good)
and the idea of old comments automatically deleting (I think that's good too)

I want to mention a few more:

1) Nobody who posts videos in the Tactics forums -
uses those videos for chess purposes.
I have yet to notice even one such chess video.
They use the video option for spam purposes.
So remove the video button! 
Don't videos use an enormous amount of "bandwidth"??
If "bandwidth" isn't the term -
don't they use a tremendous amount of "something"?

2) Remove animated and flashing characters from the fonts.
I could post a link to a problem -where a post has thousands of animated characters.

3) Limit Comment length to 30 lines.  Or 10 lines plus image or diagram.
Uh oh - I went over 30 lines -
so I broke this comment into two comments! !!

4) Limit comment frequencies per member per day/month/year per problem.

5) Or set it up so if you go over the limt - your oldest post deletes.
Members can already convey more info by editing their previous posts anyway.
Although I've noticed that many simply refuse to do that ...
Its seen as a kind of concession or "surrender".  "Sign of weakness" ...

I don't want a limit on comments unless it is very high, like 20 a day or 100 per week. Commenting on a puzzle and seeing what other regular TT players say about it is part of the fun of TT.

JustADude80 hi there.
The limits I'm suggesting are per problem.   Per member per problem.
Not per member on all problems.
So in theory - my idea would mean that a player doing 200 problems or more -
in one day - could post 200 comments.  One on each. 
Or whatever the limit would be on each.

As for a limit on total comments per day by any member - that's a different idea.
That I hadn't thought of.  But that makes sense too.  And yes it would be high.
20-50 a day.  Or whatever a week.   But there are obstacles to even the best of these ideas.
erik might not like them. 
Or somebody might scream he's withdrawing his membership money.
Or maybe some things are hard to program.  That doesn't seem likely though.

If I had my way - people would be able to BLOCK comments by certain members
like they block certain members in chat rooms.
And that could save an awful lot of "server throughput" or "bandwidth" or "latency"
and improve atmosphere - prevent arguments and animosity.
I don't know if any websites have that capability though ...

Ok playerafar. Thanks! 

Welcome - right on with the Tactics!   I'm addicted to them ...

In v2 when you play Tactics Trainer, there is no longer any analysis on the screen for Analysis Board. You get the board, but no explaination of the moves at all.

Not sure why it went away...

@JustADue80
I noticed that too in V2 - yesterday - got the board - plus it seemed to be not working at all.
But I found I could get it to work by playing the other side's previous move.
But then it wouldn't do anything else except allow me to play more moves for each side.

I've also noticed that V2 still displays average times in both rated and unrated Tactics problems.
But V2 does not display "Target Time".

Whereas V3 was displaying "Target Time" only if you went at a Tactics problem rated it seemed.
But just now - did a Tactics problem in V3 - unrated.  From a notify.
And it did display the Target Time there too.  But no Average Time.
Got to edit this though -
because V3 will display the Average Time - if two things have happened.
One is - you've done something about playing the problem -
and second you hover or click the mouse over the Target Time. 

Certain puzzles no longer finish in v2. If you get it right it just freezes and you get no points. And the people at chess.com refuse to fix it. That is sad. They just tell you to play in v3. I won't do it.