4 ms·

lichess is legitimately one of the most impressive web applications I've seen and used. I've never been a big fan of playing chess, but I discovered the site se

by nilkn 10y ago

lichess is legitimately one of the most impressive web applications I've seen and used. I've never been a big fan of playing chess, but I discovered the site several months ago, and it allowed me to get into the game in a way that I thought I never would. It started with the tactical puzzles. They're derived algorithmically (using Stockfish analysis) from games actually played on the website. This alone is fascinating: https://en.lichess.org/blog/U4sjakQAAEAAhH9d/how-training-puzzles-are-generated https://en.lichess.org/blog/U4sjakQAAEAAhH9d/how-training-pu... My favorite thing about the puzzles though is that I can easily explore suboptimal solutions using lichess's analysis tools. If I ever got a puzzle wrong, my first question wouldn't be what the right move was, but rather why my move was bad. This is trivial to answer with the analysis tools. You can even see the game that the puzzle was derived from and see what moves the players actually made. The site is just a goldmine.

minusSeven 10y ago
I didn't like there algorithmically derived puzzles at all since almost 80% of the ones I tried where variations of similar puzzle. I guess I should admire that it is algorithmic but even then I expected proper puzzle.
- cmyr 10y ago
  When did you last try them? They changed over to a new selection process and a new batch of puzzles a few weeks ago, and they're much more real-world now.
Fnoord 10y ago
Very cool project, I was blown away by this feature. Did stumble upon a bug though. I had three puzzles which I thought were buggy. I forgot the URL and details on the first one (so it may or may not been buggy), and I was flat out wrong about the second one (a bishop was making sure a horse couldn't move which I thought could be used to take the piece supposedly causing checkmate). My third one though is clearly buggy: https://en.lichess.org/training/61461 https://en.lichess.org/training/61461 Its not over when the game says victory. Black has 4 (! EDIT: 3, but still) ways to avoid the checkmate, and Stockfish also suggests these moves. Nevertheless a very nice project, including Stockfish integration. I can't repeat that enough! App of the year for me.
- nilkn 10y ago
  I don't think the goal of that puzzle is to achieve checkmate. "Victory" just means you solved the puzzle, not that the game is over. The goal is just to find the most optimal move given the board configuration. In that particular position, white can use its knight to simultaneously attack the black king and queen. Since the king is more important, it must be moved, effectively forcing black to sacrifice their queen. So the goal of that puzzle isn't to checkmate black, but to use a temporary check against black to capture the black queen (at the cost of a white knight -- still a worthwhile exchange, since the queen is much more powerful than a knight).
  - Fnoord 10y ago
    Yes, I was wrong, and I concur. I have since my post completed puzzles which do not have the goal to reach checkmate. For example, I had the goal of 'deflecting' an attack where I was in severe disadvantage. Its refreshing to have different goals, and forces the player to think outside of the box for such a goal thereby increasing the difficulty. FWIW, I do not agree is (always) more powerful than a knight, but generally they are (while a queen is more powerful than a rook or bishop which is almost always better, a knight has a unique utility).

by nilkn 10y ago

minusSeven 10y ago

I didn't like there algorithmically derived puzzles at all since almost 80% of the ones I tried where variations of similar puzzle. I guess I should admire that it is algorithmic but even then I expected proper puzzle.

cmyr 10y ago
When did you last try them? They changed over to a new selection process and a new batch of puzzles a few weeks ago, and they're much more real-world now.

Fnoord 10y ago

Very cool project, I was blown away by this feature. Did stumble upon a bug though. I had three puzzles which I thought were buggy. I forgot the URL and details on the first one (so it may or may not been buggy), and I was flat out wrong about the second one (a bishop was making sure a horse couldn't move which I thought could be used to take the piece supposedly causing checkmate). My third one though is clearly buggy: https://en.lichess.org/training/61461 https://en.lichess.org/training/61461 Its not over when the game says victory. Black has 4 (! EDIT: 3, but still) ways to avoid the checkmate, and Stockfish also suggests these moves. Nevertheless a very nice project, including Stockfish integration. I can't repeat that enough! App of the year for me.

nilkn 10y ago
I don't think the goal of that puzzle is to achieve checkmate. "Victory" just means you solved the puzzle, not that the game is over. The goal is just to find the most optimal move given the board configuration. In that particular position, white can use its knight to simultaneously attack the black king and queen. Since the king is more important, it must be moved, effectively forcing black to sacrifice their queen. So the goal of that puzzle isn't to checkmate black, but to use a temporary check against black to capture the black queen (at the cost of a white knight -- still a worthwhile exchange, since the queen is much more powerful than a knight).
- Fnoord 10y ago
  Yes, I was wrong, and I concur. I have since my post completed puzzles which do not have the goal to reach checkmate. For example, I had the goal of 'deflecting' an attack where I was in severe disadvantage. Its refreshing to have different goals, and forces the player to think outside of the box for such a goal thereby increasing the difficulty. FWIW, I do not agree is (always) more powerful than a knight, but generally they are (while a queen is more powerful than a rook or bishop which is almost always better, a knight has a unique utility).