How do I use the Live Analysis Board?
Live Analysis Boards provide an interactive & graphical tool for analyzing chess positions and games in real time - one on one, with a whole group, or with anyone who cares to tune in. Now you can go through games after you finish them and show your ideas, or get online lessons, or follow major tournaments online!
Although all users can observe an analysis board, please note that creating & controlling Analysis Boards is a premium feature reserved for Platinum and Diamond members.
After you have created an analysis board, you may invite whomever you wish. You may also give control of the board to another attendee or take it back, as you like.
The board itself is great for doing demos and analysis. To get things rolling, you can populate the board with data from a FEN string or insert a move list with PGN. You can also set up the board manually. Once you're set up, you can use right-click and right-drag to instantly create highlighted squares and graphical arrows to illustrate your points.
See more about how to draw on the board and highlight squares here
Create a live analysis board
Hover over 'Play' in the left menu, then click on 'Live Chess'. From Live Chess, select 'Custom Game' from the bottom. (You may have to scroll down to see it)
From within the Custom Challenge menu, click on the game type (default is 'standard') and select 'Live Analysis Board' Again, this is on the bottom, and you may have to scroll down to see it:
After you select the "Analysis Board" option, you'll be presented with a number of options for setting up your board, including adding a PGN or FEN.
Title - Name your board
White Player/Black Player- Display the names of the players
Access - Determine who you want to access your board. This can be set to "Public" or "Private."
FEN/PGN -
allows you to load your own (done by copy/paste - it cannot be uploaded) - Also, FEN works regardless of whether its from a live chess game, online (correspondence) game or chess960 game.
Invite students - Put the usernames of the students you want to invite to the board, separated by a comma and a space, like this: name1, name2, name3
When you are ready, click 'Start' and the live board will be created, and the invites sent!
If you forgot a student, or want to add someone else later, you can click on the '+' under the "Analysis Board" tab to invite more people:
Once the invites are accepted, the students' usernames appear in the "Analysis board" tab.
To change a student's role, you can click on the down arrow next to 'Student' in the image above.
User Roles
Owner - the creator (initiator) of an analysis board session.
There is only one owner per board. The owner can invite members to observe by clicking on their username, then on Invite to Analysis Board. Once they are viewing the game, the creator can click on their username and use the option box to 'Make Student'.
Student - a person who is invited to the Analysis board by the owner. There can be one student, or many at any one time. The students can move pieces and talk in game chat, but the owner can disable/enable piece moving and chatting.
Observer - a person who just observes analysis. There are many observers.
The owner can invite a specific user to observe the board, or any user can start observing if the board is present in the public Analysis list. (Top tab marked Analysis)
Members can also observe an analysis by using the member list or Friends list. The observers can observe, but not talk. The owner can also grant an observer permission to talk and invite an observer to become a student.
Board Types
Private - By invite-only; this means its not listed in any of the live chess tabs (basically means as it says, it is private and by invite only. Any level of membership can be invited, whether basic or premium).
Public - Not listed, but members can find the Analysis Board link in Members/Friends lists, no required membership level, also the owner can invite members to join.
Getting to know the board
Board Setup
If you want to change the position on the Analysis board at any time, you can click on the "Set Position" icon at the bottom right of the moves list.
From here, you'll have a number of options for changing the board. You can copy and paste a new FEN or PGN or manually move pieces on and off the board by clicking and dragging.
You can clear the board completely at any time by clicking on the "X" icon to clear the board.
Notation
If for example 12 moves have been made, and the owner wants to show student(s) something on move 3, the owner only has to click on the 3rd notation and the student(s) will have their board updated to show that move highlighted in their notation automatically.
Arrows
The members (owner and students) can draw an arrow from one square to another right-clicking, holding the mouse button down and dragging the mouse to the square they want to land on. These highlight in green. To remove one line, click on the Start position of the arrow and follow it to the end point, (like erasing). To show a move back and forth, (arrow pointer either end) simply hold down the right click, drag from position A to B, then again, hold down the right click, and drag from position B to A. To remove all arrows, left click once on the board.
Squares
The members (owner and students) can mark any square on the board with a red color by right-clicking on it. Ctrl+Right click will produce a green square, while Alt+click will produce a blue square.
keywords: live analysis board boards review analyze analyse game arrows squares fen