How about when you're doing the tactics trainer, and it turns out you're too dumb to solve the puzzle, you could push a hint button, and it would then tell you it's a mate in three or whatever. Of course your rating wouldn't go up if you were able to solve it after seeing the hint.
Introducing... Study Plans!
Sort:
Aug 6, 2011
0
#23
woodshover wrote:
How about when you're doing the tactics trainer, and it turns out you're too dumb to solve the puzzle, you could push a hint button, and it would then tell you it's a mate in three or whatever. Of course your rating wouldn't go up if you were able to solve it after seeing the hint.
A hint button...hmm.
At Chess Tempo, you can run a chess engine after getting it wrong or clicking on the give up button without leaving the current problem. It's a very handy feature when the problem doesn't make any sense. You can even load your own favorite chess engine, or use the one provided on the site. Pretty slick.
I prefer to click on the give up button, as I don't like to guess. That's another nice feature.
Also, every problem is clearly identified after it is solved, i.e. fork, hanging piece, etc.
Why do I talk up Chess Tempo? Simply because chess.com's Tactics Trainer could be better than it is currently.
Musikamole wrote:
woodshover wrote:
How about when you're doing the tactics trainer, and it turns out you're too dumb to solve the puzzle, you could push a hint button, and it would then tell you it's a mate in three or whatever. Of course your rating wouldn't go up if you were able to solve it after seeing the hint.
A hint button...hmm.
At Chess Tempo, you can run a chess engine after getting it wrong or clicking on the give up button without leaving the current problem. It's a very handy feature when the problem doesn't make any sense. You can even load your own favorite chess engine, or use the one provided on the site. Pretty slick.
I prefer to click on the give up button, as I don't like to guess. That's another nice feature.
Also, every problem is clearly identified after it is solved, i.e. fork, hanging piece, etc.
Why do I talk up Chess Tempo? Simply because chess.com's Tactics Trainer could be better than it is currently.
Doesn't it just give you the answer when you click the give up button? I would prefer a hint before I was given the answer.
Aug 6, 2011
0
#25
woodshover wrote:
Musikamole wrote:
woodshover wrote:
How about when you're doing the tactics trainer, and it turns out you're too dumb to solve the puzzle, you could push a hint button, and it would then tell you it's a mate in three or whatever. Of course your rating wouldn't go up if you were able to solve it after seeing the hint.
A hint button...hmm.
At Chess Tempo, you can run a chess engine after getting it wrong or clicking on the give up button without leaving the current problem. It's a very handy feature when the problem doesn't make any sense. You can even load your own favorite chess engine, or use the one provided on the site. Pretty slick.
I prefer to click on the give up button, as I don't like to guess. That's another nice feature.
Also, every problem is clearly identified after it is solved, i.e. fork, hanging piece, etc.
Why do I talk up Chess Tempo? Simply because chess.com's Tactics Trainer could be better than it is currently.
Doesn't it just give you the answer when you click the give up button? I would prefer a hint before I was given the answer.
Yes, it does.
Thinking about it a bit more, a Hint button would be a nice feature for both Tactics Trainer and Chess Tempo. I like the idea.
IM Pruess, and Eric never listen to my questions or suggestions, so maybe you should suggest it to them.
Aug 7, 2011
0
#27
Re: Tactics Trainer, we already have firm plans to add the ability to create custom problem sets - for instance, to include problems formerly failed or problems matching particular tags..
The "hint" button, which I guess would only be enabled for problems that already have one or more active tags, is interesting indeed!
...But if you use it, you would actually lose points, as if you failed the problem (i.e. "gave up") at that point. Anything less would lead to significant ratings inflation, since every time someone got stumped they could just choose to take zero via Hint.
webmaster wrote:
What's a "Study Plan" you say? Well, check out the announcement in the official blog; then have a gander at the first Plan!
While I like the Study Plan, I'm more impressed to find today that this site does announcements, and that there is an "official blog". Good to know.
sftac
Aug 7, 2011
0
#30
@Musikamole -- Awesome feedback, and dually noted!
@woodshover -- Does someone need a hug 
??? We love you woodshover, and you comments are always noted....
Aug 7, 2011
0
#31
DeepGreene wrote:
Re: Tactics Trainer, we already have firm plans to add the ability to create custom problem sets - for instance, to include problems formerly failed or problems matching particular tags..
The "hint" button, which I guess would only be enabled for problems that already have one or more active tags, is interesting indeed!
...But if you use it, you would actually lose points, as if you failed the problem (i.e. "gave up") at that point. Anything less would lead to significant ratings inflation, since every time someone got stumped they could just choose to take zero via Hint.
WoOT !!
DeepGreene wrote:
Re: Tactics Trainer, we already have firm plans to add the ability to create custom problem sets - for instance, to include problems formerly failed or problems matching particular tags..
The "hint" button, which I guess would only be enabled for problems that already have one or more active tags, is interesting indeed!
...But if you use it, you would actually lose points, as if you failed the problem (i.e. "gave up") at that point. Anything less would lead to significant ratings inflation, since every time someone got stumped they could just choose to take zero via Hint.
I understand about the lose points thing. I thought about just as I submitted the suggestion, but was too lazy to change it.
a new one every day?? For how long?
DeepGreene wrote (on 2nd August):
Till Friday! Then a brief pause before intermediate material comes together next. :)
It has been over a month.
Sep 19, 2011
0
#35
Puchiko wrote:
DeepGreene wrote (on 2nd August):
Till Friday! Then a brief pause before intermediate material comes together next. :)
It has been over a month.
Won't be long now - probably next week!
Awesome! Can't wait :)
Im not sure if it totally matters, but would you say that the rating ranges for the study plans are given in chess.com ratings, or something like FIDE/uscf? Either way Im going through them all, even the beginners (which Ive already gone through 
).
edit: Okay so I just found out it is in USCF rating. I'll leave my post for others with the same question.
However -- responding further to my buddy DeepGreene's last comment -- We will eventually have study plans specific to certain tasks: Like beginner players wanting to master the Dragon Sicilian, etc... For now, our focus remains on expanding our "base repertoire" which is the Intermediate, Advanced, and Master Path Study Plans!
Look for this feature to become a critical part of how members navigate and use the features of Chess.com!!!
Thanks everyone!!!
No complaints. The chess.com team is really kicking butt in the teaching area right now. Thanks!
One thing, I would really like to see a repetition component added to tactics trainer to burn pattern recognition into my brain using custom sets of tactics problems, like I create at Chess Tempo.
Example of a tactics training schedule:
1. Spend 15 minutes daily solving rated Tactics Trainer problems.
2. Solve 20 removal of the guard problems daily, and then move onto another tactical motif.
I realize that I can learn tactical motifs in Chess Mentor, and I have almost completed the beginning course on tactics.
What I would like to see in either Tactics Trainer or Chess Mentor is this: something like 400 tactical forks to solve over a period of ten days, and then rinse and repeat, until I know those 400 tactical forks cold, being able to spot those forks and ones similar to those in under 5 seconds.
Last, perhaps an easy way to build repetition into Tactics Trainer right now would be to show more than just the last 25 problems solved. At Chess Tempo, I can go back as far as I want in my tactics trainer history, so that, for example, I could solve the last 100 problems over and over again as part of my overall training schedule.
Repeticio est mater studiorum
Repetition is the mother of all learning