Show HN: Checkmate Champ – a training tool for chess tactics(checkmatechamp.net)
checkmatechamp.net
Show HN: Checkmate Champ – a training tool for chess tactics
https://www.checkmatechamp.net/
41 comments
If you don't want to drag, you can click the piece and then click the target square.
> Is this book out of copyright now?
I think so. The copyright term back then was 28 years, and AFAIK the copyright wasn't renewed.
> Is this book out of copyright now?
I think so. The copyright term back then was 28 years, and AFAIK the copyright wasn't renewed.
> Positions marked "1001" are taken from Fred Reinfeld's 1955 book 1001 Ways to Checkmate.
How did you enter these positions into the app? Manually?
One idea you can try to avoid manual work:
First, download a game database, like for example a Lichess database,[1] or a database of Masters games. After parsing the PGN, check if the game ended in checkmate. If so, then at the very least you have a Mate in 1 puzzle. Using your engine, you can check the last couple positions of the game to see if there was a longer forced mate. If the game didn't end in a checkmate, it's still possible the resignation was due to forced mate, so you can do a similar process to check the final position.
By removing manual entry, you can add a lot more metadata that the user can search for to customize their training. For example, you could add the ability to train specifically on rook checkmates or knight checkmates, or queen sacrifices, or checkmates that occur in the back rank, or endgame checkmates (positions where there are few major pieces on the board).
^1: https://database.lichess.org/
How did you enter these positions into the app? Manually?
One idea you can try to avoid manual work:
First, download a game database, like for example a Lichess database,[1] or a database of Masters games. After parsing the PGN, check if the game ended in checkmate. If so, then at the very least you have a Mate in 1 puzzle. Using your engine, you can check the last couple positions of the game to see if there was a longer forced mate. If the game didn't end in a checkmate, it's still possible the resignation was due to forced mate, so you can do a similar process to check the final position.
By removing manual entry, you can add a lot more metadata that the user can search for to customize their training. For example, you could add the ability to train specifically on rook checkmates or knight checkmates, or queen sacrifices, or checkmates that occur in the back rank, or endgame checkmates (positions where there are few major pieces on the board).
^1: https://database.lichess.org/
Isn't that what Lichess already does, plus estimate difficulty based on which bot Elo is required to solve the position? (The OP's site doesn't have difficulty estimates but it's from A curated book so presumably that's captured in the puzzle number.)
https://database.lichess.org/#puzzles
> Generating these chess puzzles took more than 50 years of CPU time.
> To determine the rating, each attempt to solve is considered as a Glicko2 rated game
https://database.lichess.org/#puzzles
> Generating these chess puzzles took more than 50 years of CPU time.
> To determine the rating, each attempt to solve is considered as a Glicko2 rated game
There are some filters in lichess, but you can't easily combine them in lichess.
So you can filter problems for queen sacrifice or mate in 3 but not the combination of the two.
The second quote means that the puzzle rating is dynamic and changes every time someone tries to solve it (the puzzle gets points for losing / winning the same way the player wins/ loses rating for solving the puzzle. )
So you can filter problems for queen sacrifice or mate in 3 but not the combination of the two.
The second quote means that the puzzle rating is dynamic and changes every time someone tries to solve it (the puzzle gets points for losing / winning the same way the player wins/ loses rating for solving the puzzle. )
Other chess apps have the mouse approximately in the center of the piece so that when you drop the piece it's dropped where the piece and the mouse is located. I've accidentally dropped the pieces on the wrong squares on this page, since the mouse is to the right of the piece.
Which browser and OS are you using? I notice that behavior in Firefox on Mac, but not in Chrome on Mac. When I tested years ago in Chrome and Firefox on Linux, that definitely wasn't happening. In general, I've found a few inconsistent behaviors on how drag and drop is implemented across browsers and OSes, and possibly in different browser versions over time.
I dont want to know exactly how many moves it is in advance. Changes the thinking.
For tactics training, one can also check https://chesstempo.com/chess-tactics/
The best app for chess problems I've used is 'Chess Tempo'
Really large set of curated problems, which can be divided into particular problem types (e.g. attaction or desperado tactics). Further, after you do the problem, community discussion forum of that problem becomes available, where they discuss alternate choices and their problems etc. It really is high quality.
Really large set of curated problems, which can be divided into particular problem types (e.g. attaction or desperado tactics). Further, after you do the problem, community discussion forum of that problem becomes available, where they discuss alternate choices and their problems etc. It really is high quality.
They also have clear decision point for the right solution (must be 2 pawns or more advantage, and okay solutions that are not best do not count against you(alts).
There is another mode (mixed) which includes problems that are about defending.
There is another mode (mixed) which includes problems that are about defending.
Instead of using "<<" and ">>" buttons, with instructions and popups explaining these mean next puzzle and previous puzzle, just make that the label on the buttons.
Woah! It's been a while since I've seen an HTML <center> tag.
Were you doing web dev way back in the day or is this based on a template you modified? It reminds me a lot of a tool I once made. It was before I was programming professionally but I had a blog and was figuring out bit by bit how to customize things and animate them. Fun times!
Were you doing web dev way back in the day or is this based on a template you modified? It reminds me a lot of a tool I once made. It was before I was programming professionally but I had a blog and was figuring out bit by bit how to customize things and animate them. Fun times!
I started my board game site back in 2010 as a set of CGI scripts that sent the games to people in HTML emails. Then I turned it into a proper website, then I got it running as a persistent process, then I added this trainer, then I moved the trainer to its own domain. So that <center> tag is probably a decade old. I made my first website in 1999 or so.
Very cool to see you still making progress on it. I love board games and even though I haven't played much chess since I was a teenager, it was still fun to check this site out.
Great tool! I like that the solution puts you in the eyes of the defender (so you can see all variations of the solution). I didn't really like how the board gets reversed though.
This is quite fun. I tried the first 5 where you seems to just sac your queen in each. Maybe adding variation in the types of mates could make it more engaging?
IIRC, Reinfeld's book groups the positions by theme. If you click the dice, it will show you a random position from the set, so that should give you a different theme most of the time.
Even doing it randomly, I found the content is extremely heavy on "play the most forcing move, ideally sacrificing the strongest piece possible with check". It took me 10+ problems to find one where this didn't apply (#659).
This would go down well on Reddit, where that style of puzzle is almost the only one appreciated. And it's a good way to quickly drill a few checkmate themes. But for chess improvement I would recommend a more general tactics trainer. IMO Chesstempo cracked the problem of automatically generating and rating interesting problems, but if you find the interface there too dated, lichess or chess.com have a reasonable second-best.
This would go down well on Reddit, where that style of puzzle is almost the only one appreciated. And it's a good way to quickly drill a few checkmate themes. But for chess improvement I would recommend a more general tactics trainer. IMO Chesstempo cracked the problem of automatically generating and rating interesting problems, but if you find the interface there too dated, lichess or chess.com have a reasonable second-best.
Is the goal to give players an engaging experience, or guide them through specific chess material?
I had a similar experience to the person above - after a few puzzles where the first move is the same I wasn't interest in doing more. I also don't want a random puzzle - generally puzzle progression goes from easy to hard - will random just give me a really hard one?
If you are set on keeping the order of _1001 Ways to Checkmate_, maybe giving some context on which chapter the user is on would be nice (Queen Sac, Forks). Otherwise as a user, if I don't want to do some unknown amount of queen sac puzzles over and over then I'm just going to bounce.
I had a similar experience to the person above - after a few puzzles where the first move is the same I wasn't interest in doing more. I also don't want a random puzzle - generally puzzle progression goes from easy to hard - will random just give me a really hard one?
If you are set on keeping the order of _1001 Ways to Checkmate_, maybe giving some context on which chapter the user is on would be nice (Queen Sac, Forks). Otherwise as a user, if I don't want to do some unknown amount of queen sac puzzles over and over then I'm just going to bounce.
One thing I observed during my format analysis was that the solution mode was not very intuitive. It is not clear that the "Reset position" would restart the animation (which cannot be paused by the way), and you can make a move even when the animation is still playing.
Can the chessboard be bigger on mobile? My old eyes need to zoom in and then the other buttons dissapear
Why would I use this over the puzzles on chesscom, where the UI is much better, where the puzzles are integrated with social features, where there are many more puzzles and you have more control over the type and difficulty of the puzzles you see, etc?
(I am an earnest student of chess, so I'd love for you to have a convincing answer to this, actually)
Cool collection! But I keep right clicking and dragging due to my habit in online chess platforms of making circles and arrows, instead it just shows context menu.
I kept sacing my queen, and it kept on working!
I wonder what happened to Chesscademy.
anybody have any suggestions for learning openings?
Chess.com seems to have excellent opening instruction. It actually tells you the opening name as you play. After you play, it gives you more. It shows where you screwed up, gives you a chance to find a better move, etc. If I was starting over (I'm over 2k now) I'd start with chess.com's interactive organic approach. Chessable is just rote memorization which is in essence trash.
I'm using Chessable (which is owned by chess.com). There are some incredible free courses on this plattform.
lichess has a lot of good free opening courses. chess.com has a lot of videos but you have to buy a subscription. Gotham Chess on YouTube is entertaining.
Gotham Chess is entertaining, but Levy's not doing so much beginner content these days. I like Eric Rosen's "speedrun" series. He's got an authorised speedrun account on chess.com (meaning that his opponents do not receive a penalty for the games) and he has a very calm style and takes time to explain the positions. Very educational.
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Meh. There are a TON of good puzzles there, this one is not good, the UI is sluggish. I see the mate, then I should enter it as fast as I can, and not in 6 seconds or so.
The main thing I'd recommend is having illegal moves do nothing, and make drag and drop more clear. The "floating ghost piece" is actually not the cursor, and that's kinda not very nice UX. You might try a "click to place" technique instead of drag & drop.
Is this book out of copyright now?