Chess.com Feature Requests and Wishlist #3

Billium248 wrote:

Here's a total non-priority wish that I just thought of:  as you roll your mouse over the flag next to someone's name, a little box appears saying which country that flag represents.  I'm getting better at identifing them thanks to this site, but there are still too many I don't recognize.  I can always click on their profile to find out, which is what I've been doing.  So like I said, it's definitely not a priority, I just thought it would be cool.

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I thought this feature already existed?  I can hover over the flag to get its country.

GotGoose> I can hover over the flag to get its country.

Yep. I know at least Firefox 3+ and IE 7+ should recognize the title attribute that chess.com already puts into the img tags.

<img src="http://static.chess.com/images/flags/as.gif" title="Pago Pago" 
  width="16" height="11" />

Billium248> as you roll your mouse over the flag next to someone's name, 
a little box appears saying which country that flag represents.  

If you're not already seeing this effect, upgrade your browser and you should.

Another reason to upgrade is to get the latest security updates. :)

I've noticed that when playing multiple games if your opponent makes a move on a board that is not on top you don't get any kind of notice.  I think the tab with their board should light up telling you they just made their move.

GotGoose wrote:

Billium248 wrote:

Here's a total non-priority wish that I just thought of:  as you roll your mouse over the flag next to someone's name, a little box appears saying which country that flag represents.  I'm getting better at identifing them thanks to this site, but there are still too many I don't recognize.  I can always click on their profile to find out, which is what I've been doing.  So like I said, it's definitely not a priority, I just thought it would be cool.

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I thought this feature already existed?  I can hover over the flag to get its country.

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See how fast they get things done here at Chess.com? 

Apparently it does work in the message forums and on profile pages.  Thanks for bringing that to my attention.  Ironically, the name of the country is listed before the flag in both of these cases making the rollover feature a little redundant.

I was looking at Tournament Player Lists.  In this case, all you see is the flag, not the name of the country, and the rollover feature doesn't work here.

This is something someone else came up with in a previous thread, but I think it would give veterans an excuse to look at the member map once in a while:  Include a view that highlights everyone you've ever played.  Currently, "Opponents" just shows people in current games; I think a geographical view of one's entire chess.com career would be fun to watch grow.

erik wrote:

We have digested all of the past suggestions and added things to the to-do list. Here are the main ones:

Fix Live Chess :) Teams & Leagues Team vs. Team Vote Chess Annotate games while in progress Game management tools (download all PGNs, add offline games, tag, etc) Improve conditional moves (add in draw, wildcard, ajax, etc) Improve "play against the computer"
A "play from this position vs. computer" feature to practice situations Coaching mode (with takebacks) Sort games list Ability to choose which tab to start with in echess (some people prefer moves) Improved analysis board Timestamp messages/moves in echess Tools for coaches (in live chess especially) Open PGN editor & analysis board
Ability to insert games into non-chess.com blogs (like blogger, etc) Mobile/iphone support Add images to "your move" email Allow printable boards Rollover actions on a player name (rating, current games, etc) Add better game SEEk parameters (avg. time/move, min # games, etc) Allow for creating your own starting position for games Tournament game PGNs should have correct "Event" name Wall-to-wall notes (like facebook) Show what place I finished in "Completed Tournaments" Allow to post birthdate, or year, but not both

Please don't re-suggest these ones above :) And please know that while there are many great ideas, we can't always get to them right away. We have to balance the benefits with the costs, and we have limited resources to do these projects.

Thank you for your suggestions - this is where the best ideas come from!

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It would be nice if the analysis board could be used on previous completed games to explore move in the middle of the games rather than only being able to explore from the last move of a game. If that's what was meant by "open PGN editor and analysis board" then apologies for the repetition.

I'm not sure if this was already suggested and shot down, but I would love to be able to create a "killfile" list so that I would be able to completely filter out all threads and posts created by certain users.

I would love a chess.com iphone/ipod touch app that would give us access to both turn based games and live games.

This is kinda random and non-chess related, but for the forums, could you add a poll system where I can start a thread with a question and allow people to vote whatever they want given certain options by the thread creator?

erik wrote:...Improved analysis board

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I'm curious to know what enhancements are in the pipeline for the analysis board...  In my opinion, it's already too smart for its own good, in that it will stop you from playing illegal moves while you experiment (which amounts to help from an outside source). 

So I would hope for a dumber ("freer" might be a better word) AB.  It would also be nice to be able to play hypothetical lines starting from a previous position, which is currently not allowed.

Oh... one other thing that would be really cool in the analysis board and/or the main e-chess game display ("Moves" or "Details" tab), would be a one-click check for the current position in the Game Explorer.

Better access to website themes.

For example, have some featured themes and make the change theme button far more noticeable.

DeepGreene wrote:

Oh... one other thing that would be really cool in the analysis board and/or the main e-chess game display ("Moves" or "Details" tab), would be a one-click check for the current position in the Game Explorer.

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For that option to be fair to both players would have to agree on it, or it would have to be able to be disabled somehow.  But that would be an awesome way to learn the openings!  It kinda sounds like cheating though.  When you play in tournaments you have to play from memory,  so shouldn't you play online only from memory too and do your memorization off the board?  And wouldn't that promote a lot of mindlessness, because you wouldn't understand why you were making the move you were making, so you aren't really understanding the position and how you got there?  Regardless of personal preferences regarding the option, it could only add to our current knowledge of opening theory.

bowanza wrote:

DeepGreene wrote:

Oh... one other thing that would be really cool in the analysis board and/or the main e-chess game display ("Moves" or "Details" tab), would be a one-click check for the current position in the Game Explorer.

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For that option to be fair to both players would have to agree on it, or it would have to be able to be disabled somehow.  But that would be an awesome way to learn the openings!  It kinda sounds like cheating though.  When you play in tournaments you have to play from memory,  so shouldn't you play online only from memory too and do your memorization off the board?  And wouldn't that promote a lot of mindlessness, because you wouldn't understand why you were making the move you were making, so you aren't really understanding the position and how you got there?  Regardless of personal preferences regarding the option, it could only add to our current knowledge of opening theory.

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Well, the "Details" tab already gives us the FEN notation for the current position, which is all you need to check it against pretty much any given database.  Keep in mind that this sort of thing is *not* cheating in the context of e-chess (although I gather that it is forbidden in Live Chess).  Whether or not it's mindless really depends on the user; it *should* be helping you improve your openings, not just acting as a crutch (because as you say, if you don't know what you're doing, someone will usually take your crutch and beat you with it).

The enhancement I'm looking for here would really just integrate two existing sets of features; there's nothing really 'new' here - and I don't think it should require agreement/permission since, again, I already have access to the FEN anyway.

DeepGreene wrote:

Whether or not it's mindless really depends on the user; it *should* be helping you improve your openings, not just acting as a crutch (because as you say, if you don't know what you're doing, someone will usually take your crutch and beat you with it).

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 I've never heard the concept phrased better!  I agree 100%!

I would like to see more opportunities to be tutored. I mean by someone/group who is serious about  helping those us who are interested. I think it could be a collaborative effort from the alphabet soup of masters, or just someone who has the time and desire to help. I am lucky to have a few players who are doing a wonderful job in mentoring me. But I know that there are others who are not so lucky, and a feature like that would be great. I don't think most people if they were serious about learning would mind it being a premium feature. I am also lucky to have found a few groups, where these unsung and patient players help newbies like myself. This is a wonderful site, Erik and the gang, just a few more tweaks and yuo'll be spot on!!

Right now, conditional moves are erased after they are used; there could be a button under the Submit Move button that says something like "Always Do This Move", and it will make that move every time the position is reached.

Lizard87 wrote:

A "go to next ready game" link, like in all game screens, on the screen you get to after you've awarded a trophy to someone. Right now you have to go back to your online chess and then click on the game. Just thought I'd mention it, it's on all game pages, but just not there ;)

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 Daarvoor kun je ook op het handje met de pion klikken, boven het tabblad My Home. Daarmee ga je automatisch naar de 'Next Ready Game'

I'm thinking that an 'auto play forced move' feature would be useful in time saving. It'd come down to an indvidual's prefrence of course.

What I mean here is that if my opponent makes a move to which I only have one legal response, then the computer makes the move for me automaticlly.