Is the chess.com Analysis Board a form of computer assistance?

Don't get me wrong, I love the Analysis Board and use it nearly every move of every CC game.  It's just that I've noticed more than once that I've been saved from making a bad move because the Analysis Board will not allow an illegal move.  

Perhaps you have had the same experience -- It's late -- you're tired and you really should be asleep but you are working on a game instead.  You get a few moves down the line in a variation and suddenly the board will not let you play a move you had assumed you (or your opponent) could make because of a discovered check, for example.  

If you were making the same moves in your head or on a wooden board, you might have overlooked the problem and proceeded to blunder in the game.

That's nifty and I'm grateful for it, but isn't it really a form of computer assistance?  

Should the Analysis Board be 'dumbed down' ?

For correspondence chess no. It is on equal footing with the regular games played on this site. The board does not prevent bad moves, merely illegal moves. In OtB chess illegal moves are usually caught by your opponnent and brought to your attention. Rarely will both parties miss an illegal move.

whatever people think of the analysis board it's allowed by the rules and therefore reasonable to use it.

I'm just surprised that you miss illegal moves at your rating, MrZugzwang! Then again, you do say it's late at night... Is that about the time you start playing at my level?  Or does it never reach that point? 

I think his point was that he is analysing several moves ahead and the board points out that his intended continuation is illegal, if he was simply using an actual set on his desk to do the analysis he wouldn't notice the illegal move which was say move 4 in his continuation and he would go down a path where he would discover that his intended brilliant move couldn't actually be played!.  Therefore because the analysis board shows that move 4 Bxd6 for example can't be played he would avoid the plan.  Zugswang I think you raise a good point, it should just act as a dumb board in that respect.

It's really handy that you can fast forward and back again, I used to have to use several sets to do the branching off into subvariations so could trace my way back!

I can't imagine that letting Fritz tell you that would be within the rules of the site.  Could it?   On the other hand, the Analysis Board is clearly within the rules of the site and nearly all of us use it.  

MM78, thank you.  You stated the gist of the issue better than I did.