New FEATURE REQUEST: THIS IS AWESOME!!

So I was playing a game today in the live area with a buddy of mine and our game got adjourned while the servers were restarting (It was a 3 min. Blitz game).  At the time we didn't know that the game was adjourned.  Anyway we were chatting back and fourth though email, about wishing we could have finished the game and I was like.  I think I can remember the entire game (which consisted of like 22 moves so 44 moves total).  I opened up my winboard application and started moving the pieces.  I remembered that he opened e4 and that I played the pirc.  Long story short I put all the moves into winboard and then sent him a .pgn of the game.  He thought it was cool and corrected me on a move I put out of order (which I thought was cool).  Long story short I was impressed that I recalled the game.  Which gave me this idea!

Every week have the staff pick a GM game.  Anyone in the chess.com community can sign up for the challenge to reproduce the game on a blank board.  Errors will result in a message saying, "I'm sorry, that wasn't the correct move. Try again."  Any more than 5 errors will disqualify you from that challenge.  If you successfully complete the game without error, you get to move onto the next challenge. 

Why is this a good idea?  When you memorize GM games it helps you in the opening, it helps you understand planning, and also it is also is great for memory and calculation abilities.

Finally, for those of you who bring up cheating.  Of course you could cheat at this just like anything else, but for those who are actually trying to get better it would be an awesome addition to the site.

I think it's a good idea.  It's similar to what they do in the tactics part anyway though but with a slight (interesting) difference.

Yeah the first game I ever memorised was "The Game of the Century".  That would be a good one to start with.

interesting! kinda like a guess the move?

Sorta....but you'd have to replay all the moves for both sides from memory.

And of course it would also be a game you've already played over....

Not a bad idea but i think it would be good to start from several moves in because of course it might be too difficult to get it right right from the beginning.

The point is that it is difficult.  It isn't supposed to be easy.  The entire game from start to finish memorised.

Exactly...Also let me be clear.  You would have time to study the game and to memorise the game.  I don't really see how this would work if you hadn't already looked over the game manic??  Therefore I don't really see the point to have the name of the game.  You will be able to play over the game as many times as you want until you think you are ready to enter the challenge board which will be at the starting position..

It would be difficult to 'guess' the moves from just the knowledge of seeing them being played, but if you teach yourself the ideas and plans that each player was trying to achieve, as well as memorising the moves then you would do well in correctly identifying each move in the game.

This is also a major factor in learning, no one learns anything by just taking a move at face-value and accepting that it must be good because it was played by Bobby Fischer or Gary Kasparov.  It's far better to learn why the move was good and how it fits into the game plan of the player, this way you can learn to immitate their strategy, positions and in some cases their tactics.

Which is what the excersise does. 

^_^

I like the idea.  It's fun and optional, so if anyone is opposed to it, they don't have to do that activity.

Isn't guess the move more instructional, rather than memorise the game?

When you're playing a game of chess, do you guess your moves or do you memorise variations from known good strategies and tactics?

Both

Good idea. Will be fun

It isn't one or the other.  Memorization of games is highly effective in making you a better player.  Howeve, "guessing the move" in a GM game is also highly effective.  So as you said so perfectly, "BOTH".

Chess Mentor has some of this for certain games and progressions. It tells you the game and the objective and something about the history or players then you make the sequence of moves as they occurred in the game (or a variation if a winning line or defense other than the actual one has been discovered). If you cannot conceptualise the right progression, it gives you feedback on why certain moves are not preferred, are errors or not in the described progression. If you know the games, you can do what you are describing in Chess Mentor with the added element of picking up lines in different points in the game.

Yeah...not the same.  Not really even similar.