Hi, everyone. I’ve been learning chess with Duolingo for about a month now. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the pros and cons about it. Let me start by saying that I’ve never had any formal training or teaching in chess. I’ve always wanted to be able to play well, but have never had a good teacher. My dad and I used to play during Hockey Night in Canada, and my sister and I played a bit. She was who taught me how to castle, which I thought was an impregnable defence until I played at my school chess club in Grade 8 - my ass was handed to me on a plate a number of times. I was not heart-broken when there arose a conflict between chess club and choir practice.
Pros
- Each unit is based on a specific aspect, such as forks, pins, battery, and it lays out the concept quite well. There are also several ‘best move’ puzzles, which are quite good. All in all, I’ve gained a much better understanding of those concepts which it has explained, and I’m hoping there will be more in depth exploration of the details of opening, midgame, and endgame in future units.
Cons -
- You get the fewest points for reviewing material, which causes students to get ensnared in learning new concepts without having fully grasped the old concepts. This is a common problem across all of Duolingo.
- Some of the problems are just there to teach you a specific concept and are not teaching you good forward thinking. (Well, yes, I’ve done what you suggested, but my queen is now in danger of being captured by a pawn for no advantage that I can see.)
- I can’t tell if it’s because it’s ai based, or whether the game has been set up to take it easy on beginners, but I find the matches against ‘Oscar’ are not terribly satisfying. I think it’s letting me win, frankly.
- And one of the things that drives me crazy is that ‘Oscar’ does not stick to openings at all. Which leads me to a question below…
I will freely confess that I hate ai in all its forms, and for that reason, I’ll be leaving Duolingo once my current subscription expires. (If Duolingo were to abandon ai altogether, I would be delighted and would likely stick around. I doubt that’s going to happen, though.) Meantime, I might as well use what I’ve paid for, is my attitude.
And a question for the experienced chess players on the SDMB - I’m currently sticking to an opening that gets the two central pawns, both knights, and both bishops into the centre of the board as soon as possible, leaving open the possibility of a kingside castle, and being only one move of the queen away from a queenside castle. Keeping that in mind, what’s the best response when your opponent does something really unusual in the second or third move? Stick to your planned opening and the logic behind it? Change your plan, even though they’ve just taken the game somewhere unexpected? Please pass on your advice, when you get a chance.
