ChessRoots
Games
chess opening explorer
SHOW HN2019
295points
38comments
#103of 2,195 in 2019
Top 5%of 2019 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
7 positive, 7 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 6 critical, out of 20 comments about the project. Thread score +0.05.
Idea: 3 for, 2 againstDesign: 1 for, 2 againstExecution: 0 for, 2 againstPricing: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Interesting graph visualization of openings and transpositions
From 3 comments
Oooh, this would be really useful for debugging minmax and other search algorithms if you can increase it to encompass the whole game. Congrats on shipping! What stack are you…
sansnomme on HNHow is this different than a standard opening database? Chessgames.com has had this for probably at least 10 years-- https://www.chessgames.com/perl/explorer as do a bunch of…
perspective1 on HNThere are a few ways I find the graph representation of openings to be interesting: You can naturally view transpositions in a way that can be tricky with other opening…
chessroots on HN
Coloring moves by player rating is useful
From 1 comment
There are a few ways I find the graph representation of openings to be interesting: You can naturally view transpositions in a way that can be tricky with other opening…
chessroots on HN
Objections
Dataset biased toward fast time controls and low Elo
From 3 comments
Think this dataset is heavily favored towards fast time controls, which gives the great lead on e4 over d4, as opposed to 365chess https://www.365chess.com/opening.php
__s on HNIf you follow the thickest lines, you get into the fried liver or 5... Na5 lines. Very suspicious. This is DEFINITELY biased towards fast time controls and low ELO.
pickdenis on HNYou're very likely correct. The Lichess dataset that we have used contains almost all live games played on the site. As fast time controls seem to be more popular on Lichess…
chessroots on HN
Far less capable than professional opening software like ChessBase
From 3 comments
It's a toy compared to serious chess database software. It looks like it only goes about 6 moves deep and often only considers the most popular moves. For example, after 1.e4 c5…
dmurray on HNWhen I first looked at the website, I thought that it looked like a nice student assignment or a weekend project. But seeing that you are already attempting to monetize this…
charmides on HNI can't speak to Chess Assistant, but as a longtime Chessbase owner/user, it lets you: * Search any database (proprietary or freely downloaded) for games matching positions…
cepth on HN
UI is unclear; hidden double-click expansion and subscription paywall not obvious
From 3 comments
The UI is not very clear. It's not obvious that you must doubleclick a node to expand it. Also, the options in the first move is to wide and it doesn't enter in the screen.…
gus_massa on HNIf you need a popup to tell you how to use the most basic feature of your UI, that is a sign you need to rethink your UI.
DagAgren on HNIt is not at all apparent that you have to purchase a subscription in order to see additional branches or go deeper. Instead of a "+ 21 Supporter Links" button that can not be…
nzealand on HN
Shows only shallow depth and popular moves
From 1 comment
It's a toy compared to serious chess database software. It looks like it only goes about 6 moves deep and often only considers the most popular moves. For example, after 1.e4 c5…
dmurray on HN
Requests
Position evaluation scores at each node
From 2 comments
This looks very interesting on first try, I'll take more of a look when I'm on a decent screen. Can you at the moment, or would it be possible to show a position score…
mellosouls on HNThanks for the feedback. I like the idea of adding position evaluations. Perhaps we could do this with a precomputed pass over the dataset, or possibly do a shallow analysis in…
chessroots on HN
Permalink to a node
From 1 comment
The UI is not very clear. It's not obvious that you must doubleclick a node to expand it. Also, the options in the first move is to wide and it doesn't enter in the screen.…
gus_massa on HN
Show whole game for debugging search algorithms
From 1 comment
Oooh, this would be really useful for debugging minmax and other search algorithms if you can increase it to encompass the whole game. Congrats on shipping! What stack are you…
sansnomme on HN
Questions
Is the source code available?
From 1 comment
cool tool. is the source code available?
p5a0u9l on HN
What stack or tools were used to build it?
From 2 comments
Oooh, this would be really useful for debugging minmax and other search algorithms if you can increase it to encompass the whole game. Congrats on shipping! What stack are you…
sansnomme on HNCool interface! What did you use to build it? Does anyone know of any JavaScript based tools that let you explore graphs in a similar way?
seanwilson on HN
Alternatives named
Lichess opening explorer
From 2 comments
Awesome work! Is there a reason the isn't integrated into the Lichess opening explorer?
ummonk on HNLichess already has it inbuilt and in realtime. Just head into the analytics and then click on opening explorer.
ganeshkrishnan on HN
Chessgames.com opening explorer
From 1 comment
How is this different than a standard opening database? Chessgames.com has had this for probably at least 10 years-- https://www.chessgames.com/perl/explorer as do a bunch of…
perspective1 on HN
ChessBase and Chess Assistant
From 2 comments
When I first looked at the website, I thought that it looked like a nice student assignment or a weekend project. But seeing that you are already attempting to monetize this…
charmides on HNI can't speak to Chess Assistant, but as a longtime Chessbase owner/user, it lets you: * Search any database (proprietary or freely downloaded) for games matching positions…
cepth on HN
Chess.com
From 1 comment
I can't speak to Chess Assistant, but as a longtime Chessbase owner/user, it lets you: * Search any database (proprietary or freely downloaded) for games matching positions…
cepth on HN