Incorporating Online PLay

[tama]

Imagine ChessTempo had Online Play. It would be HUGE! A combination of tactics and online play with chat is almost unheard of. Imagine a system were one must play a tactic with an opponent and who ever completes the tactic first or who ever completes a series of tactics fist wins! I think it a fantastic Idea. Plus traditional online play.

Everyplayer would have an overal score as there rating based on a combination of how well they play traditional (1min-1hour) online chess, there tactical standerd and blitz ratings + there tactical strength against an opponent.

What do u think richard? n all the chess fans out there!

[richard]

Hi Tama,

This one is actually fairly high up my todo list, tmr (I think) also mentioned tournament play which is a good idea, but this one-on-one quick draw tactics play is an idea I've been toying with for a while. I hadn't posted on it until I'd had a chance the think through it a bit more, what do others think of this idea? Would it be something they think they'd enjoy playing?

Adding online standard game play is also a possibility but requires a lot more planning , infrastructure and time investment  Users don't mind if they get a tactic or two wrong due to a bug, but losing a game they've been playing for 30+ mins is a different matter :-)

Regards,
Richard.

[tama]

Very well done !! the new Algorithm is 10 times better then the old one my rating just flow up now lol!! i was at 1700 standard and now im at 1800 !!! lol all the problems i get are 1700+ so its so much easier to get points n when i miss a problem i loss close to nothing! Before all the problems i would get were rated around 1300+ n they were soooo easy i would get 0.2 for every correct n -5 for every wrong, so frustrating! GOOD WORK.

[richard]

The new selection code sounds like it is doing a much better job :-)

[tacto]

What makes chesstempo so great is its focus on Tactics.

This wouldn't be a bad addition but there is still a lot that can be done to make the current state of this website much better.

I don't really like the tactics one on one type thing... When I do the tactics I study them... I don't rush. A playing function would be nice but it would be a lot of work for Richard to just program all of that.

I think a better time investment would be to make this place even better tactically, go premium and have some funds to support the website and the hard work Richard does.

[chipschap]

I have to agree that the focus here ought to be on tactics and continual expansion and improvement of the problem set.  There are many, many on-line play sites and there is no point in retracing that well-traveled path.

I too am completely prepared to support CT with some funds when premium membership becomes available.  There is tremendous value here.

[richard]

Focus is definitely on the tactics aspects of the site in the medium term.  There are lots of both small and large improvements that are still on the list (the todo list currently has over 200 items on it :-)  ).

Online play is something I may consider further down the track. Online play does have the potential to attract a wider audience to the site, but it requires major time commitments and infrastructure changes which I am not able to make at the moment. When I have a few more items stuck off the todo list I might revisit this decision (partly because online chess would be fun to implement from a technical point of view and fun is one of my first criteria when taking on tasks at the moment :-)  ).

Regards,
Richard.

[slacker00]

I agree that  online play should be put on the back burner for now. 

1. I'm not sure  we've got enough traffic to have a good mix of players available at all  times to make the option widely useful.

2. I'm not sure there are enough players that really would use this option enough to justify it.  I mean, I'd try it out,  but I'm not sure  that it's the main reason that I'd come here.

3. As richard says, there's too many other medium and higher priorities right now to undertake such a task.

Cool idea, though.

[tacto]

Yeah, but we need to get the word out about this place. CTS is a very very populer site and I personally think it's inferior. Especially since all the newer updates ChessTempo has.

Chess Tempo will get populer soon enough though. I guess the name "Chess Tactics Server" searches better and sounds a little more attracting.

[richard]

tacto: I think the alternative winning lines has a lot to do with why more people haven't moved over from CTS.  I had hoped the last problem set update would deal with more of these than it did.  The next set due soon will definitely handle alternative winning lines much better, so it will be interesting to see if that translates to an increase in users converting from CTS.

Regards,
Richard.

[tacto]

I thought CTS was all that before I came here. I have learned A LOT... I really do mean that. A lot of new ideas for games...a lot of new things I calculate. This is becuase of the standard function and the time it gives you to think.

ChessTempo already has an edge. You should maybe do a poll "How did you find ChessTempo.com?" I bet most would be from a friend.


Actually I just seached google and ChessTempo popped up a lot of the time when searching for tactics. Seems you are even doing google ad sense. But still a poll would be interesting.

[richard]

I think users can start their own polls on the forum :-)

[tacto]

The forums are less active but ok thanks for pointing that out. lol