During assisted play, if it would be a blunder for a piece to stay in place, it would be ideal for the square to turn red or to alternate magenta and red to indicate to the player that staying in place is a blunder. Currently if staying in place is a blunder, there is no indication of a blunder because the board demonstrates the current square only as magenta.
For context, I experienced this during a 2 person over the board game against my son where I had no assistance, and he had intermediate assistance. We noticed he would have blundered a piece if he didnāt move the piece, and there was no indication that staying in place was a blunder. This was played on 12/25/2024, so we had frequent network disconnections during the game, and the game was not saved to the board, so I was unable to sync the game to the app to analyze the game to confirm it would have been a blunder, but it was an obvious blunder.
I should also say, that I love the board and my family loves the board too. Iāve only played my son OTB, and I played levels 6-12 of the built in bots, it was easy to set up and has been an overall great experience. My wife does not know how to play chess, and after watching my son and I play OTB, she was easily able to follow the game, and commented that with the assistance of the board, sheāll finally be able to learn how to play with us.
It sounds like you would like an option to āalertā the player of pieces hanging / en prise. Interesting idea. Youād probably have to make it so the hanging piece doesnāt need to be the one touched for the alert to go off, or else youād have to touch every piece on every turn to find the hanging piece.
The way the assistance lights operate currently makes sense because itās highlighting legal moves, and itās not a āmoveā to leave a piece in place. If your queen is hanging, and you go to move a random pawn on the other side of the board for example, the pawn moves would all light up red for blunder, when itās on the player to identify why the move is a blunder.
It could get confusing in situations where you leave a piece āhangingā but youāre making an equal or greater threat of your own, for example. Using the lights to highlight threats is an interesting idea to add to the assistance.
Yes, you understand what Iām requesting and took the idea even further.
I like the way the interface works currently. I think it is better that the player is an active participant in finding the best moves, and that the interface isnāt designed so players rely solely on the assistance of the board. To use your example about a hanging queen, I like that a player, upon noticing that all moves are red for a random pawn on the other side of the board, has to find the blunder. But, if the blunder isnāt indicated when the player touches the queen, because the blunder isnāt a move, the blunder is staying in place, I think beginners and novices may blunder the queen, when a flashing red/magenta light could both indicate the current square of the queen, and that the queen is hanging if not moved.
The white knight on e5 is attacking the hanging black bishop on c6. When the bishop is touched, its square is magenta indicating that is the current square of the bishop. My request is add an indication that the bishop remaining on c6 is a blunder and that could be a flashing magenta/red square on c6. Magenta would indicate c6 is the current square of the bishop, and red would indicate it is a blunder for the bishop to remain on c6.
