LinearOne year already! (News)
by Tony Kosten 
, France, Tuesday, March 20, 2007, 11:52 (6605 days ago)
Hi everyone,
It has now been just over a year since ChessPublishing took control of the site, and so I thought it was time to take stock: Personally I think the site is much, much, better than it was a year ago, but then I am biased!
So, please let us know where we have succeeded, where we have failed, what is good and what still needs to be improved.
Also, and perhaps most important, where do we go from here? What could be added to the site to make it better? 
One year already!
I have said already what i think of this site :it is excellent.
Anyway improvement is always possible.
Mihaela corner is a much needed opening session where basic clear ideas are thought and some new system is advised.Could it go twice a month ? so that we could build some form of opening repertoire in a shorter period of time ?
I like unlock your genius,not only because I won a copy of Fritz
It makes us think and your comments are always useful.Lets make it monthly regularly,it does not require a prize all the time if it is not available will be a useful exercise anyway.
I would be cautious of putting more material,there is already a lot to do if we want to use seriously the material available.It is easy to fall behind,specially for me.
I do understand you are a busy professional and so are the members of your team but my requests seem reasonable.
One year already!
I would like to see HGIYC a bit more frequently. Since the takeover it was suggested it would be every other week, but it is closer to a monthly publication.
The stuff I have mentioned before, though the format seems elusive, is positional assessment/plan development for positions that don't have tactical advantages to exploit. I would love something like this, but I have no idea how I would deliver it if our roles were reversed.
One year already!
by Tony Kosten , France, Thursday, March 22, 2007, 10:18 (6603 days ago) @ Don Lester
? I would like to see HGIYC a bit more frequently. Since the takeover it was
? suggested it would be every other week, but it is closer to a monthly
? publication.
I've just had a look at the last five issues and they were published over a 9 week period, which seems about right. I'll try to make sure they arrive exactly every two weeks in future, but I don't always have access to a computer when I am playing. 
Regarding the other points, over the next few months I think I will use 'Tony's Page' to discuss how tactical opportunties actually come about (the first is already online), and Unlock Your Genius to examine the process of assessing endgames ("that don't have tactical advantages to exploit").
I am not too sure that this is really the site for suggesting Opening Repertoires, myself, but I will certainly do it if the subscribers want it. I haven't forgotten that Chris Ward's repertoire stuff was a complete disaster in the past!
One year already!
What I meant Tony was not a real repertoire.
As I said to Mihaela a regular session on a good but concise view of common opening variations is very useful to me, maybe also to others.
I hope wiil become a regular feature in the future and even more frequently than once a month because the format is perfect.
I play the Sicilian as black and the closed system is frequent enough and I found what advised useful.
The fact that you are lowering the cost of membership confirm even more your generosity
One year already!
by Tony Kosten , France, Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 16:46 (6597 days ago) @ giorgio
IM Andy Martin has agreed to write some repertoire material, and what he has sent us so far looks very good.
One year already!
Yes, there is a wealth of great material here and this subscriber is more than happy. A few observations, feedback rather than criticism:
this month's Kramnik tactics are a bit more difficult than usual, level for level, it seems to me - appropriately! quite deep
I can get a better score on the advanced than I do on intermediate, some months
the Glenn Flear exercises are what I possibly gain the most from, both the quality of the material and the ability to download and do anytime, and repeat - please keep these coming!
HGIYC is fun but I get a better score ( sometimes by 20 points) if I hide the annotations as I often get put off the correct move by a comment made about it earlier - but it's good to go back over it with the annotations.
I like the blindfold visual trainer, I do well for about 12-15 moves but I discover that I'm doing well as much by reconstructing the move order as by having a mental snapshot of the board, disappointingly. I wonder if I could improve further by having a sequence of, say, 10-15 moves with a critical hidden move at the end, like a checkmate, obvious tactical hit, or critical defensive move, that one has to find from the mental image. Or other exercises, possibly like the pin and fork exercises in the infamous M de la Maza book.
The new opening material looks promising.
Great work
One year already!
by Tony Kosten , France, Thursday, March 29, 2007, 21:51 (6595 days ago) @ hamish
Thanks for the comments, and your points are noted!
? I like the blindfold visual trainer, I do well for about 12-15 moves but I
? discover that I'm doing well as much by reconstructing the move order as by
? having a mental snapshot of the board, disappointingly.
If you can reconstruct the first fifteen moves in your head that is already positive!
This is quite hard and needs lots of practice, but if you put the work in you will gain a lot. We have some material with mates and tactics at the end that we can put online for download if people are interested?
One year already!
Thanks for your comment; I'd really like to see that material with mates and tactics to practise on blindfold; in the meantime I'll plug on with the game sequences.....
One year already!
by Tony Kosten , France, Thursday, March 22, 2007, 11:46 (6603 days ago) @ Don Lester
? I would like to see HGIYC a bit more frequently. Since the takeover it was
? suggested it would be every other week, but it is closer to a monthly
? publication.
Ah, I see: it's a hint! A new one is due today! I will get it online immediately!
One year already!
? The stuff I have mentioned before, though the format seems elusive, is
? positional assessment/plan development for positions that don't have
? tactical advantages to exploit. I would love something like this, but I
? have no idea how I would deliver it if our roles were reversed.
I agree. Sometimes I get to a position where both sides are developed and then struggle to find a plan. Sometimes I look through GM games and they start repositioning their pieces, but it's not usually apparent to me why they choose the squares they do.
Also sometimes you see commentry along the lines, "White plans to post a knight on c5". Then after about 5 intermediate moves the knight comes to c5, and then black captures it immediately! Maybe that is the real intention to force the exchange, but it's not readily obvious to me why forcing such an exchange is better for white.
I'm trying to come up with my own plans. Assuming there is no tactical line to gain material or mate, I generally look at the pawn structure and wonder how I can force a pawn through to be queened. I'm sure there are often better plans, but coming up with them is hard.
One year already!
by Tony Kosten , France, Sunday, March 25, 2007, 10:29 (6600 days ago) @ markakeen
OK, I will do some material on strategic planning, and I will ask Glenn to discuss this in his future tests as well.
One year already!
by Tony Kosten , France, Wednesday, April 25, 2007, 13:47 (6569 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
What do you think of the two 'Planning' articles/tests that Glenn has done so far? If susbcribers find them useful we will do more of them.
Nearly two years already!
by Tony Kosten , France, Wednesday, January 30, 2008, 18:27 (6288 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
Almost one more year has passed! There is a lot more material on the site than the last time, and a lot of new subscribers. What can still be improved? What do you like and what don't you like? You can be honest!
Nearly two years already!
by tapestry 
, Hampshire, Thursday, January 31, 2008, 19:44 (6287 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
? Almost one more year has passed! There is a lot more material on the site
? than the last time, and a lot of new subscribers. What can still be
? improved? What do you like and what don't you like? You can be honest!
?
I particularly like the tactics puzzles, HGIYC and Unlock Your Genius. I like the approach to Unlock Your Genius where ideas are exchanged on the forum. I find Glenn Flear's articles very helpful.
I must admit I haven't used the Openings section or Middlegames very much. I think it is because I've pretty much sorted my opening repertoire for now, and would turn to books, ChessBase and ChessPublishing.com rather than the openings section. With all the other material available on the site, I haven't had the chance to look at the Middlegames section yet.
One thing I would like to do is print off the Tactics Gym positions. I would like to be able to take the positions away and think about them without needing to be by the computer. The temptation with the computer is to have a quick second guess if your first try is wrong. Would it be possible to attach the Tactics positions as pdf files (or something similar) that could be printed out several at a time (definitely without answers)? As things are you could only print out one at a time from the web browser.
What about an 'annotation competition' to GM games (no 'prize' needed though as the reward will come from the work we put in)? The idea would be for you to set a game to annotate and people could try their hand at annotating and publish their analysis on the forum. After a set period, you could then publish your own analysis and highlight a couple of the points that were raised in our analyses. I'm not sure how much work that would involve on your part (I would guess you might choose one of your own games or one of the classics that you've previously looked at), and, given the level of response to the Unlock Your Genius threads, what the level or response might be like.
Nearly two years already!
by Tony Kosten , France, Thursday, January 31, 2008, 20:42 (6287 days ago) @ tapestry
? I particularly like the tactics puzzles, HGIYC and Unlock Your Genius. I
? like the approach to Unlock Your Genius where ideas are exchanged on the
? forum. I find Glenn Flear's articles very helpful.
Good.
? With all the other material available on the
? site, I haven't had the chance to look at the Middlegames section yet.
Yes, I agree there is a lot to get through.
? One thing I would like to do is print off the Tactics Gym positions. I
? would like to be able to take the positions away and think about them
? without needing to be by the computer. The temptation with the computer
? is to have a quick second guess if your first try is wrong. Would it be
? possible to attach the Tactics positions as pdf files (or something
? similar) that could be printed out several at a time (definitely without
? answers)? As things are you could only print out one at a time from the
? web browser.
Yes, that should be easy to do. I suppose you can also print these out using the PGN file, in ChessBase?!
? What about an 'annotation competition' to GM games ...
Sure, why not? A bit like the coaching but using someone else's game instead of your own! How many other members would be sufficiently interested in this to actually annotate the game?
Nearly two years already!
I would find this a very useful exercise. What intrigues me about GM games is the moves that don't make sense to me. After watching a video clip of Kramnik going through one of his games it became apparent that he was making moves to prevent something that might happen...of course the reason for this move never played out on the board...because he prevented it. Analyzing a GM game would be a great exercise especially if we were then able to compare other players analysis against GM analysis...learning from my own errors and from others.
Nearly three years now!
by Tony Kosten , France, Thursday, December 18, 2008, 15:14 (5965 days ago) @ Mahout
I thought I would drag this old thread back to the front once again! I am thinking of stopping adding new material to the 'Your Move!' and 'Strategy' sections (they are already very full) and concentrate resources on something else, but what?
Anyway, I would welcome anyone's thoughts on the future direction of the site.
Also with the recent change in the exchange rates is the price of a subscription too high?
Nearly three years now!
by tapestry , Hampshire, Saturday, December 20, 2008, 09:21 (5964 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
? I thought I would drag this old thread back to the front once again! I am
? thinking of stopping adding new material to the 'Your Move!' and
? 'Strategy' sections (they are already very full) and concentrate resources
? on something else, but what?
? Anyway, I would welcome anyone's thoughts on the future direction of the
? site.
? Also with the recent change in the exchange rates is the price of a
? subscription too high?
I really like the Your Move and Strategy sections and these are the first areas I turn to. I think they are very well written and I like being able to print out the questions and take them away from the computer quite readily, so would be disappointed if they were to go.
I very much like the interaction involved with Unlock Your Genius (dlwyatt nailed the last one and I couldn't find anything to add!) and I think that plays to the strength of the internet over, say, a book.
I am sure we all have lots of chess material to use but the difficulty is making the best use of it. Perhaps a series of articles aimed towards learning how best to make use of the material we already have would be useful, with examples of how the author has done so. For example, I reckon a lot of people would have collections of annotated games, but how do you read such a book to get the most out of it?
I do find the tactics gym awkward to use as you need to be by a computer. Personally I would find it much more useful to be able to print out the questions if they were presented like the Your Move/Strategy sections.
If my situation is anything to go by, I find that there is a huge amount of information and that it is easy to get overwhelmed. To juggle worklife, home life and chess life can be quite tricky. Knowing what to read and when is half the battle (the other half seems to be remembering what I've read and how to apply it in practice!). The material that appears each month does seem quite random. I wonder if adding any structure to it would help.
For example, planning the year ahead so that the material is based on specific themes each month might help. The idea then may be that all the tactics, Your Move, Strategy and Unlock Your Genius might all be based around that theme. If we knew in advance that might help us plan our own study programme. (I reckon a lot of information is already on the website but it is a matter of grouping together the appropriate information).
Nearly three years now!
I agree, the Your Move!, Strategy, and similar sections are what set this site apart from other competitors. In fact, to be honest, I don't really even do much in the Tactics Gym here because I find the user interface to be rather clunky; I do tactics practice on another site, but come here for the content above and beyond tactical practice.
Nearly three years now!
by Tony Kosten , France, Monday, December 22, 2008, 12:54 (5962 days ago) @ dlwyatt
Interesting! Please keep your replies coming.
Incidentally, has anyone come near to doing all the Your Move! and Strategy material?
Nearly three years now!
by tapestry , Hampshire, Monday, December 22, 2008, 17:08 (5961 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
? Incidentally, has anyone come near to doing all the Your Move! and
? Strategy material?
Pretty much all since I joined (mid 2007 I think) and about 1/3-1/2 of the ones before.
Nearly three years now!
by tapestry , Hampshire, Wednesday, January 07, 2009, 10:37 (5946 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
? Also with the recent change in the exchange rates is the price of a
? subscription too high?
At £30-£40 I wouldn't think twice about re-subscribing on cost grounds. At £50 I would think a bit more.
Nearly three years now!
by Tony Kosten , France, Sunday, January 11, 2009, 21:10 (5941 days ago) @ tapestry
? At £30-£40 I wouldn't think twice about re-subscribing on cost grounds. At
? £50 I would think a bit more.
Good, it's currently $29.99 (roughly £20) to resubscribe, and I certainly wouldn't increase this. 
One year already!
by Tony Kosten , France, Thursday, March 22, 2007, 10:22 (6603 days ago) @ Tony Kosten
? Hi everyone,
? It has now been just over a year since ChessPublishing took control of the
? site, and so I thought it was time to take stock:
I think it only fair that subscribers who resubscribe should pay less, to both repay their loyalty and to take account of the fact that they have already had access to a lot of the material, so in a sense get less when they subscribe again, so I have just lowered the resubscribe price to $29.99 (which is a 40% saving)!
Also there is the usual Andy Martin eBook for an extra $10.
