Move-by-move comment system

I have been playing chess on this site for about 3 years now, and it's very interesting. The site has been a very relaxing mental stimulant for me while I work on my PhD.

Recently, I had an idea that I believe would be very useful for chess.com to implement. It may require some new memory allocation on their part, but I think it would be useful. I don't know if someone has thought of this or posted about this idea already, but I'm going to post it anyways just incase it hasn't (and I am far too lazy to read back through the forums).

What if chess.com allowed players to comment on positions they play? It would be awesome if, after a game, I can go and look through my moves, click on a move where I wasn't sure what to do, and then see and read people's thoughts on possible strategies they implemented when they got in that position, specific tactics they were looking for and trying to exploit, and any big ideas they had in the back of their minds while playing the position. This would be would be such a useful tool to allow new players to learn opening theory and the big ideas that come with playing certain positions. Chess.com would just have to write the software for the move-by-move comment system (which may be a formidable task, I'm not sure), and then their users would generate all the content. It is crowd-sourcing at it's finest.

Also, maybe even have "like" buttons on the comments so that people who know what they are talking about can get positive feedback on the positions, and maybe make the comments with more likes show up first on the comment list, like reddit or stack-exchange. I don't know, these are details I've been thinking about recently, but the big idea is the move-by-move comment system.

One problem I can see with this is the database that would have to store all the comments. I have absolutely no idea how much data this might consume, but chess.com already stores all these games, so I feel like they can store comments on all the positions of these games just as easily :D maybe even just automatically delete comments that don't get a certain number of "likes" per day, or delete comments that don't make it over a certain thresh-hold of "likes".

Anyhow, I post this on the forum so that it can get mangled by the scrutiny of the public. Any comments or suggestions, however harsh or praising, are extremely welcomed. I don't expect this idea to remain as is, but rather I unleash it to the public to mold it and mash it into a beautiful sparkling diamond of an idea. 

Cheers,

Eigenstate

It already exists to some extent:

• For correspondence type chess, players are allowed to keep notes during the games and consult them when they come back several days later to try to remember what they were thinking when they made that last move. (These notes are kept private, however, and are not viewable by outsiders.)
• The ability to kibitz on games is allowed- and the players are not allowed to see the comments until the game is over.

you can post entire games or just positions from a game in two forums here:

http://www.chess.com/forum/category/game-analysis

http://www.chess.com/forum/category/game-showcase

Sometimes you can get useful discussions going.

My idea is the following: Let's say I'm white and I play the following game (as an example): 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5..." After the game, chess.com allows you to see the moves you've made, so I click on 2.Nf3. When I click on Nf3, I see people's comments on what they were thinking about when they got into this exact position. And I can assume that the top comment has the best advice because it has the most "likes" or it has been reviewed by some GM or whatever. It would be so convenient!

To Doirse: This idea would get rid of all the hastle that goes into making a forum page and posting a game in there every time you have a question about a position. This idea is an alternative, quick and dirty way to get information about a position, and it would help players learn different openings much more quickly.

Chess.com has the potential of being the main chess information provider for it's users (you don't need to watch videos or read books on these openings, chess.com would provide relevant information to you in an extremely convenient fashion). All in all, this is a very unique system that would make chess.com stand out more as a chess site.

I see what you mean.  that'd be a cool idea.

There's an even better system than seeing which move has the most likes.

Databases tell you which moves have the most wins. Right down the line, until you hit 15 or 20 or even 25 moves, and then you are on your own.

So, you're in the middle of a game and you think "I wonder what others would do here?"   So, you click on the "Request comments on current board position button", and you continue playing your game (because you're not to see the comments until the game has ended.)

I understand the value of community sourced comments.  It's very useful on software developer forums, etc., and it's tempting to think it would work here.  

However, I'm wondering if the "frequent commenters" who the system would essentially rely on would really give you the long, useful explanations that would help develop your play, or if instead they would devolve to "I'd do Ke5", with no further input, etc.  If that's the case, you might as well just look at the Analysis Engines reports when you're done with the game.

Perhaps a different way to approach it would be to have comments, not on *your* game", but on this board position.  After all, there's a high probability that whatever position you find yourself in, someone has been there before and the analysis from 20 years ago may still be valid.  Huge books of positions are out there with massive comments.   Perhaps you just want to note this position and come back after the game and read what the masters have done when in the same spot.  

A crowdsourced stockpile of commentary on a specific position could be developed this way and when you "request feedback on a position", the message goes out "Player Eigenstate is in position 14,534; Please add your input on that position"; people can read what's been said already, add comments, etc.  The system just saves you a list of positions in the "position bible" for you to read about later.

Chess.com could even pre-load the Position Bible with existing commentary.

Instead of a comment system shich would accumulate dross over years, each position could have a Wiki-like page associated with it, procedures for editing it, reviewers, etc.

Of course there are a vast number of positions and some are similar enough to others that the same commentary would apply.  Not sure how that would work unless there was a way to cross-link similar positions.

Since there is disagreement about which move would be best at any one position, you'd also want to integrate the database that already exists into the page so it can, over time, show the stats on the various options.

@notmtwain, I agree that knowing the stats, which we can do now, is nice, but it's not explanatory, and doesn't aid with learning.

Best, Steve.

Yes Steve that's exactly what I want chess.com to implement, and crowdsourced stockpile of commentary on specific positions! You implemented it slightly different than I would have though, but I honestly might like it more your way.