Chesscom's new Game review, what the heck happened?

Here are some concrete reasons behind the changes...

• Chess is hard and confusing to learn. We felt that having a Highlights page about all your stats from the game, separate from Coach's move-by-move analysis, would simplify the flow for new users and create a quick and easy way for experience users to see their stats form the game.
• Putting Coach on top helps put Coach's move explanations front-and-center, which is the point of the move-by-move part of Game Review
• Some things, like moving Analysis from a tab to a button on the top-right, was done due to user feedback! Users said they needed more vertical space, and we felt the tabbed design was taking up more space than its functionality justified. I get that not everyone likes every change, but this is an example of us taking action to change Game Review based on user feedback!
• We have some follow-on projects coming for Game Review to add even more cool features. These features will be much easier to integrate into the newer design. While I can't go into detail about these new features at the moment, I know a lot of you have been members at Chesscom for a long time and have seen the product grow in the time you've been here:
  • Moving from Game Report to Game Review
  • The new Brilliant move algorithm
  • Adding Great and Miss classifications
  • Steady improvements to Coach's speech
  • Adding the visualizations of Coach's speech with arrows and square highlights
  • Adding report card

Wow! It only took over 200 posts in several threads for this to show up, after many days asking for it.
THE HIGHLIGHTS ARE AT THE TOP OF THE CURRENT REVIEW! As a new user and new player I loved the ease and information of the old/current version. How is switching to a different tab "a simplified flow" compared to JUST SCROLL DOWN?!!!
You lie when you say you "put coach on top", you HID HIM IN A DIFFERENT TAB!
And WHY are you deleting THIS important information?!!!!

If you want to improve something, stop wasting loads of empty space and add the percentages for the Opening, Middle and Endgame directly into view. It's ABSURD you have to hover over an icon that tells nothing SIX times to see all the percentages!!!
Or, you know, just add the option to toggle between icons and percentages. People like options!!! And btw, it's DISGUSTING how much better the old/current version is, now that you switched me back. It feels like it's version 4.0 of the crap "new" version!!!

While I still think the version I was temporarily advanced to is trash compared to the older version I’m back to for the time being, I do appreciate you taking the time to answer this question. I’ll try to have a slightly better tone moving forward in these two threads now that I don’t feel like we’re being treated like infants who cannot handle or understand the reasons for a change.

my hope is that you and your team will use metrics available to you to see how much less often analysis is used / toggled over to from review, now that the tabs are gone, and if it’s a significant decrease…then, that space for tabs wasn’t wasted at all, it was being used to allow users to easily use both functionalities in tandem when reviewing their games.

If analysis is being clicked just as often in tab or top right locations, then fine, I’ll eat crow even if I think it’s visually clunky.

My understanding is that was just restating information that already exists in the phase classifications and didn't really provide additional valuable information.

Still, the old version is so much smoother. After being reverted to the older version I felt like I could actually smoothly review my game and avoid the clunky mechanics of the newer version, including the bug where after switching from analysis to highlights I get moved to the beginning of the game.

Theoretically ALL the information exists in just the list of moves made, which is what the Review uses to calculate all the different things it displays.

But surely you don't equate six vague icons with four concise sentences? I find the summary they provide very valuable, and I save them all in my Excel documentation. There's zero reason to destroy this, except to save a few pennies a year on generating them on the back end. Pennies that will lose dollars from cancelled subscriptions.

Thank you for moving me back to old one.

The new version was unbearable!

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Truthfully, in my mind, the old review is very close to my ideal review set up.

The only thing the old version is missing is a few things.

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When I review a game, I do the following steps.

1. I try to figure out where I played poorly with out any help.

My first review of the game is just to gather initial thoughts on the game.

It is very important to draw your own conclusions on a game before having engine or other resources tell you what you did wrong because the next time your in similar position in an actual game you can’t use outside resources.

2. I try to use Opening Book to see if my Book moves were correct.

My second review of the game is to check to see if I messed up in the opening.

Most strong players including myself don’t value what engines think in the opening because most engines struggle with horizon issues in the opening. It is often better to trust Title players (I.E Humans) in the opening.
This is were Opening Explorer is very important.

3. I try to use a Chess Book or Source + Engine to see if my middle game plans were correct.

My third review of the game is to check to see if I messed up middle game.

Most players in middle game need to have plans on what to do. The best way to get plans is by reading books, listening to video lectures, chessable, hiring coach, etc.

I think this could be something Chess.com improves on!

Chess.com has a coaching feature!

Why not allow the AI coaches the ability to tell players what middle game plans to do?

Obviously, it is a lot to ask for. Most chess websites I have been on don’t have any middle game features designed to help chess players improve.

If Chess.com is trying to be on the cutting edge, this is what they should be looking into.

4. I try using a Table Base + Engine to review my games end game.

Does chess.com have or use Table Bases?

If they are not using them, it is another issue which needs to be improved.

Chess.com has an archived of videos with end game positions Danny has probably looked at.

Why are those not in the recommended section for the end game?

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Again, The Old Review is miles better vs. New Review.

However, The Old Review still has room to Improve and to be the all time best.

I just gave an example of how I review my games.

The funny part is I should have gone into greater detail because I do a lot of things which I would say are weird habits which the old version allowed me to do and new version didn’t.

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I always like looking at Summary Page and at my game!

The Summary Page might say you did 2 Brilliant moves in the game.

At which point, I have the habit of searching for those 2 Brilliant moves in game.

The Summary Page might say you did 2 Blunders.

At which point, I try to go find blunders.

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The Old version has the Summary Page at top & moves at bottom so all I had to do was scroll up and down.

The New version has the Summary Page on its own separate page which forced me to do tons of back clicking and forward clicking.

In addition, their was delay times because every time you back clicked or forward click the page would reload and chess.com server would retry to calculate the review page.

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I always liked looking at the time situation in the game.

The Old Version had it.

The New Version didn’t have it.

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I have always liked Chess.com aesthetics.

Compared to all other chess websites I have gone to Chess.com seems to be only one which has very eye pleasing aesthetics.

A lot of rival chess websites are beating Chess.com in function, but they lack appeal.

They are Black & White sites with no color or no appeal.

Chess.com can’t afford to lose the fashionable aspects of their website.

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In fact, they really should be doing more!

Why can I not play a chess game using Vampire Chess Pieces with Count Dracula Castle Chess Board Lay out?

Why does the game not have daily missions/quest which provide a currency which people could use to buy memberships or different lay outs?

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Chess.com needs more Aesthetics & Cosmetics

It just needs more!

@drittman13 This entire week my reviews have not been getting any move explanations at all, let alone the statistics about my openings...

I agree; it is change for the sake of change rather than improvement.

The old style is much better.

wtf is this? [i find no analysis at all - just a replay with damn bot comments... no lines, no best three moves... nothing that can call itself analysis at all. thats just like a review for a three year old but nothing that can call itself analysis... thats just a downgrade of chesscom off 300 %...]

ok, rewind - small hidden button self analysis... still don't see any improvements... still lets say felt 200% worse than before... i don't feel any intuitive thing to do in the main "analysis"... and why hide the real one behind a small button?... hate it....

There was feedback about the tabs taking up too much of the review interface, so the analysis option/button was added as a change.

I would just like to add my tuppence in case anyone important is monitoring this thread - the new game review is significantly less ergonomic and pleasant to use and the old version was vastly preferable.

Since game review is probably the main reason I pay for membership, if the new version is what we can expect going forward there is a high chance I will give up my premium account.

im back to the old one as well. i think the new one is way better formated for mobile.

is there a way to get the new one again..?

Can you spare a second and we'll discuss the things you missed.

Where is that? Has searched all settings with no success

It is also very hard to click next or previous moves on Android. Last version it was so much easier to navigate between moves. Please do not fix which is not broken. Bring back the old style.

bobby max has problem from neck up.

If you're on a full browser you use the settings icon next to the board.