Why one move before the puzzle? And why the blue squares?

[mindbreaker]

I can't see why we can't see the problem right away rather than wait for a computer move to make the actual position we are to solve.  It is not just the wait, it is now a different position than the one I was looking at 5 seconds ago.  I also am very distracted by the blue squares.  I sure wish we could toggle these features off.

[richard]

The blue squares are there so that if you get distracted and miss the opponents move you can still see where they moved from/to. You can turn off the highlighting in your preferences settings (evailable via the link underneath your username on the top right of the screen).

The reason there is a computer move at all is to put the position into context. I think seeing the last move makes the situation a bit more like a real game. I realise that traditionally book based problems just show you the current position , but IMO the last move is a useful improvement which will hopefully allow tactics training to map over to OTB performance more easily. 

The time delay was a relatively new feature requested by a number of users. It is based on a similar rationale to the last move display, in a blitz game you have a few seconds to look at a position before the opponent moves and this delay is modeling that.  Eventually I'll probably also make the delay optional (although users that choose not to have the delay will be at a disadvantage as the delay is essentially a "free look").

Regards,
Richard.

[mindbreaker]

Thanks, I am very glad to be rid of the blue. You also inadvertently preemptively responded to what would have been my next complaint; I could not figure out how to switch from speed chess to normal chess.  It is apparently one of those options in the pop-up that allowed me to turn off the blue.

Perhaps a more obvious button to switch modes on the "solve tactics" screen would make it more obvious for others and perhaps a few other options there?

I would defiantly like the puzzle immediately rather than the last move slowly creeping over the screen, at least an option to make it quick.  I would rather solve more puzzles in less time than be rated 20 Elo higher on the site.

It is more distracting than anything because I find a solution and then they defend and I have to find something else anyway.

[drahacikfm]

I find the 5-second delay in blitz mode to be very useful.  There was a long discussion on this about a month ago in this forum.  During that 5 seconds, you get a chance to count up the material, to see who has a safe or exposed king, etc.  In real life, blitz or tournament chess, you never have a position thrown at you out of the blue and have to start solving it.  In a real game, when your opponent moves, you already know what the material count is, who has a safe king, who has more active pieces, etc.  Then when your opponent moves, you can start calculating lines. The 5 seconds is not nearly enough to get oriented, but at least it's something, to help get a little closer to a real game situation.

[drahacikfm]

Just to add to that:  It's not possible to start calculating solutions to a problem without first knowing what the material balance is.  If you are down a rook, then you know you need to do something fairly amazing, such as winning the queen or mating.  If you are one pawn up at the start, then you know it's not going to take much to get a winning position... just win the exchange, or win a pawn or two more.  So without knowing the material balance, you don't even know what to look for in the problem.  You might see a line that wins a knight, try to play that, get marked wrong, and only then realize you were down a rook at the start, so winning the knight could not have been the correct solution.

During the 5-second delay at the start, there's no reason to calculate lines.  That time should be used to assess the position in general.

[richard]

mindbreaker: You can select the type of your next problem in the solve tactics view.  Next to the text describing your current problem set is a "select" button. It seems I should probably think about renaming that to "Select Problem Set" (there are a few places where the UI could be made more obvious to new users).

If ratings are not important then until I provide a "play move immediately" option in blitz you can just use standard mode and treat it like blitz.  It currently doesn't have the 5 second pause.

Richard.