Games Explorer

Originally posted by Deathyx
Pretty much the most amazing thing ever...

I will have to agree. This looks like it took a lot of coding work. Very nice feature I thought we'd never see.

One minor flaw that I have noticed. It doesn't handle transpositions very well. If you go down a certain line and it reaches a position which is not there, it just tells the user that it isn't in the database and you can't go any further down that line. It is possible to get it to transpose into a position that is in the database but would require going down another line to get there.

Not easy to explain without an example, will have to find one. 🙂

Testing, testing. Go to...

http://www.redhotpawn.com/gamesexplorer/index.php?movelist=e2e4e7e5d2d4e5d4c2c3&flip=0&co=-&u=-1&c=1400

and then try the d5 or d6 links. Can anyone else confirm that they don't respond? The other links respond in seconds; these hung for minutes.

Originally posted by John of Reading
Testing, testing. Go to...

http://www.redhotpawn.com/gamesexplorer/index.php?movelist=e2e4e7e5d2d4e5d4c2c3&flip=0&co=-&u=-1&c=1400

and then try the d5 or d6 links. Can anyone else confirm that they don't respond? The other links respond in seconds; these hung for minutes.

Yep, same here. Strange.

Originally posted by lausey
One minor flaw that I have noticed. It doesn't handle transpositions very well. If you go down a certain line and it reaches a position which is not there, it just tells the user that it isn't in the database and you can't go any further down that line. It is possible to get it to transpose into a position that is in the database but would require going down ...[text shortened]... ther line to get there.

Not easy to explain without an example, will have to find one. 🙂

Hi Lausey,

Yes - if you can find an example I will take a look - there shouldn't be any problem with transpositions as the move list is translated into a FEN behind the scenes before accessing the database, so there may be a subtle problem that I am unaware of.

-Chris

Originally posted by John of Reading
Testing, testing. Go to...

http://www.redhotpawn.com/gamesexplorer/index.php?movelist=e2e4e7e5d2d4e5d4c2c3&flip=0&co=-&u=-1&c=1400

and then try the d5 or d6 links. Can anyone else confirm that they don't respond? The other links respond in seconds; these hung for minutes.

Thanks for pointing this out - not sure what is happening there but I will take a look and will fix it.

Originally posted by Chris
Behind the scenes it's all based on FENs, so two positions reached via a different order of moves will both be considered the same, but it was felt easier to allow people to enter a position by entering a series of moves.

Can you make search by FEN available as an option? I'd like to be able to take the position from the 'Get FEN/PGN' page and paste it into the database search.

This is very nice. I would recommend that the search master games have more than just the players and year, maybe the opening too, also having a search for 1400+ and 1900+ would be really nice too.

Originally posted by John of Reading
Testing, testing. Go to...

http://www.redhotpawn.com/gamesexplorer/index.php?movelist=e2e4e7e5d2d4e5d4c2c3&flip=0&co=-&u=-1&c=1400

and then try the d5 or d6 links. Can anyone else confirm that they don't respond? The other links respond in seconds; these hung for minutes.

This is fixed now.

Very nice tool :-)

A strange thing happens when I input the moves 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 c5 4. exd5 cxd4 Here the pawns on d4 and d5 flip flop colours!

Originally posted by Fnugbatter
Very nice tool :-)

A strange thing happens when I input the moves 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 c5 4. exd5 cxd4 Here the pawns on d4 and d5 flip flop colours!

That's what I was trying to check. The index by FEN must be case-sensitive!!!

The database behind www.gensunasumus.com suffers from the same flaw.

Originally posted by Chris
Hi Lausey,

Yes - if you can find an example I will take a look - there shouldn't be any problem with transpositions as the move list is translated into a FEN behind the scenes before accessing the database, so there may be a subtle problem that I am unaware of.

-Chris

Ok, found an example. These two lines transpose to exactly the same position:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. Nf3 g6 5. e4 Nb6 6. h3 Bg7 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Be2 e6 9. O-O Nc6 10. Be3

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. Nf3 g6 5. e4 Nb6 6. h3 Bg7 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Be2 Nc6 9. Be3 e6 10. O-O

The first line is from one of my recent games, the second line I managed to get to through the games explorer. The problem is that in the first line, I cannot get past move 8. If I try to play 8. ..e6 I get the message "Sorry, this line is not available.".

EDIT: What I think should happen is that you can still click through the line even though that FEN isn't in the database, so when it transposes back to a position it exists, then you can see those games listed again.

Originally posted by lausey
Ok, found an example. These two lines transpose to exactly the same position:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. Nf3 g6 5. e4 Nb6 6. h3 Bg7 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Be2 e6 9. O-O Nc6 10. Be3

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Nf6 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. Nf3 g6 5. e4 Nb6 6. h3 Bg7 7. Nc3 O-O 8. Be2 Nc6 9. Be3 e6 10. O-O

The first line is from one of my recent games, the second line I manag o when it transposes back to a position it exists, then you can see those games listed again.

Ah - ok, I see what you mean.

This is possible although it would require a bit of extra thought, particularly so that the Javascript board recognised legal moves.

Hi Chris,

I have a question as to which games are included?

I have a colleague at work who I play a lot with - but he's not a subscriber (I keep trying ... but he won't listen 😞 ) - I can follow through my games and see the tree ending with a game against him, but when I switch user to start with him and his openings, it says that no games progressed past this point (the starting position).

He has 78 games between April '05 and today.

His games are there (as I find them when searching my own games) - but I can't search them direct

Is this intentional?

Otherwise this feature is phenomenal!
Brilliant work.

Originally posted by Fnugbatter
Very nice tool :-)

A strange thing happens when I input the moves 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 c5 4. exd5 cxd4 Here the pawns on d4 and d5 flip flop colours!

Yes I ran into that ( I left a comment within the tool itself to that affect) but it was in a (bad) line of the kings gambit.. I believe it was e4 e5 f4 exf4 d4