[HN Gopher] Rebuilding memchess.com from its archive
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Rebuilding memchess.com from its archive
Author : grondilu
Score : 179 points
Date : 2024-03-10 18:48 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (grondilu.github.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (grondilu.github.io)
| grondilu wrote:
| memchess.com was a neat website to learn chess openings with the
| spaced repetition method.
|
| It was closed around 2020 for some reason.
|
| I used code gathered from archive.org[1] and built a version that
| seems to work. It does not require a subscription/login, instead
| it stores progress through the HTML5 web storage API[2].
|
| 1. https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/memchess.com
|
| 2. https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_webstorage.asp
| TylerLives wrote:
| Have you tried https://listudy.org ?
| najdf wrote:
| https://listudy.org is a brilliant open source opening spaced
| repetition trainer. Another one is https://chessdriller.org,
| though you need to provide the moves yourself for that one.
| There's also https://chessmadra.com, but I believe their
| backend is closed-source.
| krick wrote:
| I haven't really used any of this stuff. I don't even know
| why. So I wouldn't really know how people actually use it
| to make most of it, but I tried just now listudy (a couple
| of studies) and that memchess clone. Seems pretty much the
| same thing, but listudy is a bit more structured, with
| notes and stuff.
|
| So I guess my question (to the OP, probably) would be, why
| memchess (clone)? Is there a reason why I would want to use
| it instead of/in addition to listudy, or is it just
| "because why not"?
| grondilu wrote:
| The short answer is I tried listudy and I didn't like it.
|
| I liked memchess because of how simple it was, and I
| liked not having to enter my own lines (though I
| understand this is important for serious study).
|
| Memchess is what helped me defeat the strongest player in
| my local club, so I was quite frustrated when it shut
| down.
| Vincenius wrote:
| I can add https://openingtrainer.com/ to the list. Also a
| great tool to practice openings
| ta8645 wrote:
| It seems like the variation displayed at the bottom left of the
| board is trailing the move played, rather than being displayed
| beforehand as a challenge. This means that when the board is
| first displayed, there is no indication at all as to which
| opening you're expected to be recalling.
|
| Or am I misunderstanding the expected interaction?
| amsully wrote:
| It allows you to flow through lines and play best book moves
| naturally. You can tell it that you want to focus on
| particular lines or line and it will let you know when you've
| made an incorrect move.
| shiroiushi wrote:
| >It does not require a subscription/login, instead it stores
| progress through the HTML5 web storage API
|
| I wish more websites did this.
| codingdave wrote:
| It is awesome for short-term usage, but has a 5 MB limit,
| doesn't transfer across browsers or devices, and can simply
| go away if you clear it, reinstall browsers, etc.
|
| So it is not reliable in the long run.
| grondilu wrote:
| It's not always going to remain limited to 5MB, which is
| probably much enough for an opening repertoire anyway.
|
| Also it shouldn't be too hard to create an export/import
| button.
|
| I'd argue it's more reliable than having your progress
| stored on a server that can close anytime, as memchess did.
| lxgr wrote:
| On Safari, it's also cleared after 7 consecutive days of
| not visiting a website, I believe.
| laurentlb wrote:
| I've tried quickly on my phone, but it's too hard to use:
|
| - I normally prefer to click on the piece and then on the target
| square. It doesn't work here, I think only drag & drop is
| supported.
|
| - But drag & drop is broken, as it's scrolling the page at the
| same time as the piece.
|
| I like the concept, I'll try again later on laptop.
| bbx wrote:
| I second that on desktops/laptops as well: being able to click
| on a piece and then on the target.
| bean-weevil wrote:
| It works for me on Firefox android (but maybe that's because
| there's nothing to scroll)
| regularfry wrote:
| It means you can't expand the board. I want to zoom in, but
| if I do that I can't move the pieces without panning the
| viewport.
| grondilu wrote:
| I think it's due to the library used : chessboard.js[1] I used
| the version used in the archive, 0.3.0. It might be old.
|
| 1. https://chessboardjs.com/
| amsully wrote:
| Great to see this on HN and great work grondilu! Many users of
| memchess yearned for it to return and it really did disappear
| suddenly. It fills a great gap between a strategy book/guide and
| pure tactic trainers. Next step is for it to be refined as it was
| always a little clunky.
| FiReaNG3L wrote:
| Oh god, I'm so thankful for this, I was extremely sad when this
| disappeared, it was by far the best!
| QuadrupleA wrote:
| I find chess goes from tedious and overwhelming in the opening
| game, to interesting in the midgame, and fascinating towards the
| endgame. Sad you have to memorize thousands of opening lines to
| get good at it.
| najdf wrote:
| If you don't enjoy studying openings, you can get far by just
| being aware of opening ideas and common traps, and spending the
| rest of your time on midgame and endgame. Memorizing thousands
| of opening lines is really only for 2200+ Elo players (global
| top 20,000), even though Chessable and other marketing teams
| are doing their best to convince amateurs otherwise.
| ewitt22 wrote:
| very true
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| > ...Chessable and other marketing teams are doing their best
| to convince amateurs otherwise
|
| The study of openings is a very easy thing to 'productise' in
| comparison to other elements of chess. One's progress with
| learning openings is particularly tangible and easy to
| measure, but the law of diminishing returns sets in pretty
| quickly. There is also the more practical element that
| openings have names; it's quite difficult as a beginner to
| talk about more philosophical or abstract parts of the game,
| such as identifying and referring to the situations when a
| certain bishop is strong or not.
|
| In many ways, the focus on openings is not a new phenomenon -
| chess opening books always seem to have dominated the genre
| of chess books. They're also excellent ways for publishers to
| sell updated editions... New openings are discovered like
| clockwork; the genre exists alongside sport almanacs and
| travel timetables as a perfect way to keep the printing
| presses going!
| url00 wrote:
| You could try Chess 960 (a.k.a. Fischer random) which was
| designed to avoid opening theory. It's very fun.
| seabass-labrax wrote:
| It doesn't avoid it fully though; some basic knowledge about
| opening theory is still essential. It is quite possible for
| certain permutations to open up wide gaping holes in each
| side's defences, which the more experienced player can use to
| checkmate almost immediately. It's like the Scholar's Mate
| but manifold.
| bongodongobob wrote:
| Not true, in fact, this is backwards. Memorizing openings is
| the last thing you do to squeeze every bit of advantage out of
| the game. Opening theory and practicing tactics will get you to
| almost ~2000.
| isolli wrote:
| Endgames with few pieces remaining require memorization as
| well. You don't want to draw when you had a sure win.
| thethimble wrote:
| If you're interested in spaced repetition for chess openings I'd
| strongly recommend chessbook. Not open source but extremely
| helpful in discovering interesting variations and remembering
| them in the long term.
|
| https://chessbook.com/
| ewitt22 wrote:
| @grondilu - this is awesome!
|
| I have been working on something similar for the past few months.
| Would be cool to connect if you're interested.
|
| My email is emorywitt@gmail.com
| pajtai wrote:
| This is awesome. If you want help from other contributors, you'll
| probably find it easier to collaborate if you move memchess into
| its own repo (vs storing it in the grondilu.github.io repo). Each
| repo can have a dedicated GH Pages.
|
| Really cool!
| grondilu wrote:
| How do you add a GH page to a repo?
| kevinbowman wrote:
| There's a guide at https://docs.github.com/en/pages/getting-
| started-with-github..., but the critical bit is "In the "Code
| and automation" section of the sidebar, click Pages."
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| For Go: https://www.josekipedia.com/
| p0w3n3d wrote:
| I always am fond of projects to rebuild things from the past, as
| I can already see that systems that I had used for a long time,
| are already gone. We're losing much more information nowadays, as
| in 1900-2000 main vessel of knowledge were books and those are
| available more or less in libraries, but since 2000 knowledge was
| been published more often in forums and web apps/blogs and those
| are not storable due to copyright law and privacy issues. This
| knowledge is or will be lost in a few years.
|
| Not speaking of old movies/series etc. Thankfully music is still
| available on CDs
| danmaz74 wrote:
| Spaced repetitions for openings make a lot of sense, but in my
| experience they work better for tactics. I improved a lot with a
| hacked up solution combining puzzles and spaced repetitions, and
| then created a website to make it easier for anybody to adopt
| that approach: https://chess.braimax.com
|
| Lately I've been very busy with my day job, but I'm almost ready
| to get back to developing that website. Suggestions are welcome.
| najdf wrote:
| I'm curious how spaced repetition is applicable to tactics? I
| don't dispute it, it's been popular since The Woodpecker Method
| [1], but I never quite got the point. Intuitively, spaced
| repetition helps memorization, but tactics is about learning
| patterns and maybe generalizing ideas. What's your take on what
| it brings to tactics?
|
| [1]
| https://qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/327/the_woodpecker_met...
| wavemode wrote:
| It's a common phenomenon - you look at a puzzle, fail to
| solve it, then look at the solution and move on. Then come
| back to that same puzzle some days later and still can't
| solve it/remember the solution.
|
| So it's questionable whether you really learned anything the
| first time. If the exact same position showed up in your
| game, you'd probably have missed the correct move.
|
| That's ultimately the purpose of repetitive training systems
| like spaced repetition and the woodpecker method (which is
| somewhat different from spaced repetition, actually).
| danmaz74 wrote:
| Our brains are great at generalizing. Seeing (and recognizing
| )the same pattern several times makes it much easier to spot
| it later. And I found out that this works even better if you
| focus on a specific pattern for some time, working your way
| from easier to more difficult examples. I definitely improved
| a lot with this.
| jovial_cavalier wrote:
| It doesn't seem to actually tell me which opening I'm supposed to
| be doing?
|
| I just played "1. d4" and it said it was the wrong. Then after
| playing "1. e4" it said I'm playing the spanish mainline.
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