Life In 19x19

Hey folks,

Goproblems.com used to be one of my favorite resources, I'd hop on, do a few problems in my spare time, it was really the perfect tool.

At some point in the last couple years, it switched from a system that allowed you to just jump in and start doing problems at whatever level you were interested in that day, to calculating a rank for you, and then giving you problems at that level, while not allowing one to just search out problems randomly.

Most of the time, I'd just like to do a string of problems not based on rank at all, or do problems by some more general metric like "hard" or "intermediate"

I've looked at getting a pro account, but the description for those accounts doesn't seem to include any of the old features that disappeared.

Does anyone here have a pro account? Is it better?

I was disappointed by this change as well, because I liked being able to select problems of a particular theme, like fuseki or tesuji. You can still do it by going to problems and then search, but it's less accessible. I haven't looked at the site much in the past year or so, though.

I pretty much stopped using the site soon after they switched over to this new system. It's just really bad. Though maybe it wouldn't be that hard to write a third-party tool that restored at least some of the old functionality... That actually seems like something that might be worth looking into.

I have a Pro-account but even without it (if I remember correctly) I could just go to Problems and search for the ones I want to solve. (I always did this.)

These days I choose 5k-4d (without those dumb Joseki-"problems") and do 20 in a row. Works perfectly fine.

(But I understand why the ranking is bad. I'm 9d since a long time with only solving 5k-4d problems.)

Same as everyone. I stopped using the site almost immediately after the change.

You can search them, but you can't just go from one to the other like you used to, not in the same way. And it really is a pain.

There are dozens of chess problem sites. You'd think there would be more Goproblems.com out there...

Why not post your dissatisfaction on GP instead of here? Is there no one that listens there?

ez4u wrote:Why not post your dissatisfaction on GP instead of here? Is there no one that listens there?

you know, I was looking for "forums" and just completely overlooked the "Discuss" panel. Surrounded by an SEP field of some kind or other.

I think I will go post there.

That being said, I was also just curious about the pro experience and I figured that there had to be at least a couple pro users on here.

Phoenix wrote:There are dozens of chess problem sites. You'd think there would be more Goproblems.com out there...

GoChild is great: http://gochild2009.appspot.com/. Are there others?

jlaire wrote:GoChild is great: http://gochild2009.appspot.com/. Are there others?

GoChild used to be great when it was free.
A tsumego program with 3700 problems for beginners up to 12-15k is available at 321go.org.

i've resisted adding this feature back in because i always felt it added clutter to the page without providing much value. who really wants to see both 9dan problems and 30kyu problems one after another? but enough people have requested it that i added it back as an option.

now, at the bottom of a problem page, click the link that says "Toggle next/previous buttons" and you'll get the feature back.

Is it really reasonable to rank problems so specifically?

The problems aren't going to play against each other, so I don't see the need to assign them kyu or dan ranks.

A coarse breakdown feels better. Like
Beginner
Lower Intermediate
Upper Intermediate
Advanced
Master

shapenaji wrote:Most of the time, I'd just like to do a string of problems not based on rank at all, or do problems by some more general metric like "hard" or "intermediate"

Click on the Problems menu item, then click the Search tab and select the difficulty interval that you want as well as the problem types. (You can also go to the Groups tab that contains a large amount of problem categories, although you can't pick difficulty there)

Just remember to use the "Next in set" button instead of the "Next" button when navigating between problems.

badukJr wrote:The problems aren't going to play against each other, so I don't see the need to assign them kyu or dan ranks.

I've ever thought about a program where the problems get a rank based on the solvers' strength, just as if they were players. This was a suggestion that I made for kaya.gs, and the suggestion was accepted. I wonder how this will be implemented. Probably then I would do many more problems if the progress was measured that way.

A coarse breakdown feels better. Like
Beginner
Lower Intermediate
Upper Intermediate
Advanced
Master

as Wildclaw says, you can search for a range of problem levels on the search page. if you want, say, 1kyu to 15kyu, you can do that.

I've ever thought about a program where the problems get a rank based on the solvers' strength, just as if they were players. This was a suggestion that I made for kaya.gs, and the suggestion was accepted. I wonder how this will be implemented. Probably then I would do many more problems if the progress was measured that way.

this is exactly how goproblems calculates problem ranks. it uses an Elo rating system for both the players and the problems.

adum wrote:this is exactly how goproblems calculates problem ranks. it uses an Elo rating system for both the players and the problems.

Interesting. I wonder however whether all problem solvers contribute to the problems' rank or only the premium members. In case of the latter the number of solvers is probably too small to give a valid rank to the problems. In case of the former the ranks of the problems' rank will probably drift to one side (very weak or very strong) since the solvers often have to start at 30k.

I suppose in a working problem ranking system the solver could get a feeling of his personal strengthes and weaknesses when solving problems around his strength.