Milestones

[tmr]

However it is unlikely the site (at least in its current form) will ever make enough money to justify that (it is questionable if it will even make enough to justify my own time spent, but I enjoy working on the site which is rewarding in itself).

A sad but unfortunately probably true fact.  You've put a considerable amount of time into the site which at going rates must be a big expense.  That will be hard to recoop let alone cover the cost of the various items on your to-do list.

[richard]

tmr: There is definitely a fairly low ceiling on the revenue a tactics training site can hope to achieve. Morphing into an online play site is probably the most obvious way of increasing revenues , but there are a bunch of hassles that would come with that and I'd be competing with other sites that already do an excellent job in that regard.  It will be interesting to see the response to the premium feature set release next weekend, who knows, maybe it will bring in a bunch of new users and I'll be pleasantly surprised with the revenue that will translate to, but I'm not holding my breath :-)

Regards,
Richard.

[tacto]

I think if the premium features are worth it a lot of people will get premium.

I think it will be.

[drahacikfm]

I finished all the Mate-in-2 problems on the site!  2633 of them.  Actually, I did 3638 mate-in-2 problems, because I did 1005 problems in the previous problem set that did not make it into the current problem set.

If I ever have a mate-in-2 in a tournament game, I bet I see it

My 9-year-old son should be finished with all the mate-in-2 problems in about a week.

[richard]

I was going to ask how long did that take, and remember I have that data available :-) I've added creating a "total time spent" column to the non-rated problem set stats, some people might find that interesting/useful.

I was also going to ask how often you thought 2 move mates appeared in master games. I can't easily search for this as I don't keep enough data from the original games around, but I'll be changing this in the future also.

Richard.

[drahacikfm]

Mate-in-2's almost never happen in master games, because the defender sees it coming several moves ahead of time, and avoids it.  But they occur in your head all the time when you are analyzing lines and choosing which move to play.  The main reason to practice mate-in-2's is not to actually play them, but to see them instantly when they are possible on the 4th or 5th move of a variation you are thinking about playing.

For example you think "I want to play d5, but then he plays c5, I have to move my knight away, and then he plays Qg5 which threatens a mate-in-2 and also threatens my hanging knight.  So I would lose my knight if I play d5.  I have to look for another move."

[richard]

Thanks Drahacik,

I thought that might be the case.  I still think it would be fun to have a problem set which had say "mate in 3 or less" positions from GM games.  Obviously it would be a very small set, but I'm sure there would be a few interesting examples (although the cases where this has happened to the "super gm's" is probably already well documented elsewhere).

Regards,
Richard.

[drahacikfm]

I passed the 50% mark of problems on the site done correctly.  When I do "Search Problems" and choose "Problems I got right at least once" it says 8171.  When choosing "Problems I have never got right" it says 7476.

Now Richard will update the problem set and mess it all up

[drahacikfm]

2400 Standard

[drahacikfm]

bubak - 9 years old and Top 10 in Standard at 2124 !! 

[salamanteri]

I finally made it to the standard top ten Jiihaaaa.

[angrypirate]

Set a new high in standard!! 1760! (I had set a higher one but was with a volitile RD, so i am not counting it...this is the highest i have been with a low rd)

Also in the last year I have gone from under 1000 USCF to 1510 USCF...now my rating is non-provisional as well.

I give a lot of credit to Chesstempo.com  for this.

Thanks, Richard and everyone else who comments/tags/ posts in the forums.

[andreacoda]

Kudos on such an achievement!!! Keep up the great work, and keep us posted on progress!
Andrea

[richard]

Thanks angrypirate,

There have been quite a few reports of users feeling the site has been useful in improving their game recently, so hopefully the site isn't just wasting away hours of peoples time :-)

Regards,
Richard.

[iduditz]

I've recently gotten back in to chess and have found that  working problems on this site has lead to better concentration in my longer games, increased visualization, and stronger chess in general as a result. Thanks!