Feature Requests and Wishlist Thoughts #2

AlanL wrote:

On the per-game message board, because much of the messaging is related to the game moves, it would be nice if the latest move was inserted along with each message, as a sort of time stamp. 

For something really fancy, the text of the move ("e4") could hyperlink to the game position at that time.

I'd prefer to actually see the timestamp itself on the messages.

I'd like to see timestamps on the moves as well -- perhaps something as simple as a mouse-over to show the date/time of the move.

[ERIK says: we don't be able to do this. people are in different timezones and the chat is a text file. as for the moves? perhaps one day. low priority for now.]

Hi Erik, 

Can we see the game sheet on the main page, it was made last move of the current turn-based games?...What do you think about this?.. 

PS.

I hope I wrote properly what I mean, beacuse I have no good english.

[ERIK says: this is why we have the rollover board :)]

Hello,

This may already be a feature that I simply can't spot, but I thought I'd mention it in case not!

I think it would be very good to be able to annotate, on a move-by-move basis, games that you've finished playing, so that you can make notes of good or bad moves, rationale, alternate suggestions, and so forth. These annotations could be:

a) private (a bit like the notes you can currently make),

b) for both players to read, or

c) your friends, or

d) completely public.

An extension of the idea would be to allow users to annotate any arbitrary game, even if they haven't played it, and make such annotations visible to all as "optional" commentaries with corresponding analysis boards for each position.

I think this would be helpful if you are trying to help another player analyse their game to learn what might have been done better, or vice versa!

If this already exists, I'd be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

tam

BTW - this is a great site. Congratulations on getting such a well-implemented site up and running in such a short time!

Baseballfan wrote: I have another one, on the alerts screen, I'd like to see some more detail. Specificaly when a game starts or ends. Instead of just putting up an alert about the game, is it a "game over" alert or a "game start" alert (especially nice for greeter games) or is it a "it's your turn" alert. To be honest, I don't care if it's a tournament or a regular game, I'd almost rather see those tags go.

I would love to see the "mouse-over board" on the "View" link of the alerts.  That way, no matter where I am in the site, I can get a preview of the position related to an alert without having to leave the page to go to my chess home-page.

[ERIK says: we are working on a new rollover board that will, hopefully, be better, and we can more liberally use it.] 

Based on what I have seen, chess.com's superior attention to detail and follow through could turn this vision into an amazing resource.  It would fit so well that I wonder if this has been a part of the intention all along...?

[ERIK says: this is a big dream of mine. it won't happen for a while, but it will happen!]

I don't know if anyone has already suggested this, but with live chess it would be nice to be able to downlad the PGN file. I am starting to look over my games more often now and I would love to get a quick library of games with the live chess. I know I could just write down all my moves and I do but it would be so much easier to just click a button.

[ERIK says: this will happen in the next 4-6 weeks as live chess becomes more stable]

A couple of things : I would like to see the ability to split up a quote when you post so it is possible to address each section or paragraph individually. As it is, you have to post inside the grey panel that indicates it's a quote. It's not very clear imo.

  Because it is not possible to alter the appearance of the notes panel, text in some colours (lighter ones used in dark themes) are not very visable. The same for the grey quote box; some text colours are difficult to read so it would be good if you had the option to change it when u design your theme.

 I realise you have higher priorities but I hope u eventually get to it :)

A couple features to add, or if they're already here point me in the right direction, would be a chess viewer that allows import (and export?) of FEN or PGN with subsequent ability to replay and manipulate the games.

[ERIK says: yes - this is planned]

I think it would be great to be able to "Tag" games and then sort or slice stats by Tag.

 For example, Tagging by opening type.  Am I better with a particlar openingverus another.  etc 

Perhaps a feature where we could keep a collection of PGN games, much like the user notes?  It would go in the user profile section...  Maybe we could store our own puzzles and such there as well, so we could copy+paste into each post graphically, instead of PGN or FEN strings.

tl;dr: A gallery of games/puzzles that the user can post in a special gallery section in the user's profile. 

To marysson

Likely just stops tournament invites. Easy to test. Set the option then enter a tournament in which you have no intention of playing.  Not one almost full or it might auto-start. Then withdraw after proving you can enter a tournament.

A mobile version of the side! That would bee real cool - i gues it will be quite an effort, but on the other side - as far as i know there is no mobile-chess side on the web so far.

[ERIK says: at some point we will do this. but there are SOO many problems with mobile... ugh. one day...] 

since there was an option not to auto claim win for time-outs, maybe you could put an option for timed-out games to be claimed or aborted.

I'd like to abort some of the games that timed-out and not claim win.

The only games i can abort on time-outs were only those games that no moves had made. 

[ERIK says: we're not going to do this. if you win, you win. sorry! :)] 

Would a bughouse variant be possible when live chess comes out of beta? That and any other variant would be nice.

[ERIK says: that is a loooong way out. we'll do events and tournaments first :)] 

Maybe you could have paid tournaments(but of course the free tourneys must still be there)where the participants will send registration fee(must not be expensive so that everybody could afford it-maybe $1 - $5)and from this comes the pot money which will be given to the winner and also chess.com gets a percentage from this for operating expenses.This way there would be something at stake so more excitement and a chance to win some money.

[ERIK says: we might do something like this, but it would have to be a tournament open to computers for obvious reasons] 

Just a small suggestion - in ones Stats area, in the Rating section (the one everyone can see, not the Full Stats area) i think it could be useful to have another stat displayed - Average Win.

 Some people, like myself have started and done well, playing low ranking players, which means i have a high rating, but in fact it is based on beating low ranking players. Now as i play high ranking players it will eventually balance out lower. For players to be able to see the average rank of those you have beaten, would be a little more accurate to know their likely ability. ie, if a rank of 1900 but an average win of 1400... is very different from a rank of 1900 and an average win of 1700. I know it wont be foolproof but i image it wouldn't be too hard to implement. Not a biggie either way, just spewing my thoughts :)

Brilliant site all round, cheers!

edit: i just realised in the full stats section there is what i take to be this info.. it says..

for winning, losing and drawing.

[ERIK says: yes - we already have this :)] 

2 feature suggestions:

1) Always allow sending "rematch" challenges even if player has accept challenges turned off.

2) Allow option of touching piece, then touching destination square instead of dragging so chess.com will work better on touch screen devices.  (and will work on iphone....)