Nickajack wrote on 06/03/17 at 03:27:39:


I agree.  There is too much emphasis on engine evaluation.  Even assuming the silicon beast is right, does it really matter at amateur level if Fritz thinks a position is 0.21 in favor of White?  I still have to be comfortable in that position and know what to do. 

I also disliked the change to the sub-forums, which seemed to coincide with a drop in usage.

Keano wrote on 06/03/17 at 03:52:06:


True, chessplayers are often quite happy to post here when they are trying to advertise their books (!) but I really meant the ChessPublishing.com writers.

GMTonyKosten wrote on 06/02/17 at 08:57:49:


Engines are not good at all at explaining the thoughts and aims behind the moves. There is still room for strong humans' commentary, especially in the opening - the engines' weakest phase of the game.

Nickajack wrote on 05/30/17 at 23:37:59:


Sometimes some of them do post here, although it is quite rare. In the past we actually had problems because certain members couldn't resist arguing (trolling?) with some of the GMs who posted.
This is a free Forum, of course, and was originally setup to allow subscribers to discuss chess and chat with each other. Limiting this forum to subscribers turned out to be a bad idea, though, as there wasn't much traffic.
I could pay some of the writers to post here, I suppose, if I thought it would bring much more traffic, but I think the main problems are that there are so many other ways to discuss chess now (Facebook, for instance), and that it is so much easier to use a strong engine to analyze a position than to ask for other players' opinions on a forum.

Even so, more ChessPublishing titled contributors posting here would be a boon for the forums and a welcome addition, and not to mention, would encourage more subs to the paid site if handled properly.

I'm new here, but I remember these forums being more vibrant in the past.

If I may make an interesting suggestion, a way to reinvigorate the discussions would be to have some of the titled contributors start new topics from time to time on time-saving (new or old) pet lines they recommend in various openings. After all this is a paid site, so it wouldn't be asking too much, I hope.

This could have the effect of sparking useful debates on the pros and cons of various lines, uncover holes in analysis, point out transpo tricks, etc, and make the forums a lot more enjoyable to both read and participate in for just about everyone.

What do you think? All we need is a few sparks, imho.

JEH wrote on 05/29/17 at 15:09:50:


Yes, me too, it doesn't really matter if you like the 'sub-fora' or not, it's always easy to keep a check on what's going on all over the Forum.