GameKnot: GameKnot related, gameknot tactics

GameKnot related: gameknot tactics

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yannay
03-Jul-12, 12:24

gameknot tactics

Could you - gameknot - add some details about the tactics training of the site?
That is, i am interested in this:
- do you create the problems automatically? is there a human eye reviewing them before published?
- how do you set the rating of a problem?
- what exactly is the meaning of the responses for a wrong move, like "good try", "sorry try again", "not quite, try again", "Incorrect try again", "wrong move"? Are they an indication to the evaluation of the position?

Thanks

Gameknot.com
03-Jul-12, 16:05

The Chess Tactics problems are created algorithmically (i.e. automatically) using a chess engine by analyzing positions in the games played on GameKnot. None of the problems are reviewed by a human chess player before they are added to the database. I don't have any concrete numbers at the moment, but I think after we ironed out all the initial problems (big thank you to everyone who participated in the initial testing!), after that we only had to delete a handful of problems (i.e. less than 10 out of over 100,000 so far). They were reported to us by the users fairly quickly, so generally we don't see a need to review all problems beforehand.

As far as why a tactical problem can be incorrect -- because the chess engine can only analyze positions up to a limited depth (i.e. a limited number of moves ahead, because the time for analysis is limited), it is technically possible for it to make a mistake because the next decisive move is just over "the horizon" of what it was able to analyze.

The rating of all problems is set at 1200 initially, and then the same Elo formula is used as with calculating the rating of each player on GameKnot (we also have a separate "tactical rating" for players who use Chess Tactics).

There is no special meaning behind different responses -- they all mean the same thing -- i.e. the player made a move that is not the best in the given position. Variety is the spice of life, as they say.

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