GameKnot: GameKnot related, Chess puzzle solutions

GameKnot related: Chess puzzle solutions

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fredburger0
16-Sep-09, 13:42

Chess puzzle solutions

I, among many, make chess puzzles on this website and i also enjoy solving others. I have
found that if you go to the options tab and to the alternative solutions button, it will show you
the appropriate moves to solve the puzzles. I, as a puzzle maker, find this really annoying
because I'm seeing people solve my puzzles by cheating and even though it doesn't sound like
much of a big deal, I think it would be better if Gameknot would change it so the solutions
wouldn't appear until after the puzzle was solved.

kingdawar
16-Sep-09, 14:48

I don't fancy the "hint" button too much either, but I am not sure what your writing is after.

fredburger0
16-Sep-09, 16:44

when you go to enter an alternative solution after a puzzle is made, do you notice that it shows
you the first move(s) of the solution and if you click on it, you could figure out the puzzle by
navigating through the possible solutions? Well after that you could click the cancel button and
enter the solution and it would count the puzzle as completed excellently, that is with fewer
than 5 mistakes and no hints. Unfortunately, I can't really create a link to what I'm trying to
say so you'll have to try to figure it out.

darknessvisible
17-Sep-09, 03:40

Deleted by darknessvisible on 17-Sep-09, 07:44.

tugger
17-Sep-09, 07:34

I've been aware of this problem for quite a while, but I didn't want to point it out, because now more people will solve puzzles this way now it's in the forums. I must confess I've solved one puzzle this way, just to see if it marked it as solved. It did.

If you take the "hint", it will mark the puzzle as unsolved. If you click "all moves graph", it will mark the puzzle as unsolved. But clicking "another solution" will not. I guess it's a tricky situation, if you actually find another solution, it should be marked as solved, as you have found a solution. But maybe if you fail to find another solution, it should be marked as unsolved.

kingdawar
17-Sep-09, 07:41

Fairly often, I click "alternative solution", before first completing the puzzle creator's intended solution, because I am CERTAIN that it is nonsensical that my move was not accepted (i.e. a puzzle is posted as a #12 whereas the mate can be achieved in only, say, three moves). There really is an abundance of completely cooked puzzles.

So I think it should not be necessary to remove the alternative solution link. What can be done, I don't know. The lazy man's "hint button" is present anyway. Who cares if the puzzles would be marked correct or wrong for you?

fredburger0
18-Sep-09, 04:16

That's what I meant about that it doesn't look like that it matters, put if I put up a really great
puzzle and then everyone uses this method to solve the puzzle, it just really ruins it

kingdawar
18-Sep-09, 04:58

I think I understand what you mean, but the hint button is there anyway. I remember this puzzle #106 that seemed awfully nice to me (one of the first), but it was solved over 300 times with only a 3/5 difficulty rating quite quickly (hints did not affect the star rating). This was before the more extensive statistics became available: now it is shown that only 2% of 1203 solvers have actually SOLVED it - and the difficulty rating has shot up to 4.5/5.

fredburger0
18-Sep-09, 15:32

Haha heinzkat, I have no issue with the hint button. I'm just saying that this little cheat that
i've been telling you about is like a hint button, but if you press the real hint button it counts
the puzzle as not solved excellently. If you do use this little cheat then it will solve the puzzle
excellently which takes away from the puzzles value.

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